ok now heres the deal .. i do knw a tediously long and tiring way to fix this but i was hoping there would be an easier way

i have a background image around with i want to add an animated flaming text and a video which i converted to frames already. I have about 70 frames that i want to add, so i made a animated text that lasts 70 frames too... i just thought it was the logical thing to do ...

now the way i know around it is to actually manually copy and paste each layer of the xcf i got from saving the animated text onto the each layer in a new xcf with the main background.. but for 70 odd frames that gonna be a pain. and i was thinking it would probably work with the frames i got from the video as well...

so is there an easier way out .. im sure there is ... coz i opened the text xcf using open as layers... but dont knw how to merge the whole thing.

thanks in advance

One way perhaps but not Gimp.

You can combine pairs of images with Imagemagick. (does not have to be .png but does need to be a format that supports transparency) For automating the process it makes sense to rename the sets of images.
http://www.imagemagick.org

Imagmagick is command line so in a console this command works

convert 10001.png 20001.png -compose dissolve -composite new01.png

note The image in second place (20001.png) overlays the first image so second has to contain transparency. I can't see anyway around this, you can use a different command to 'blend' but this alters colours. In your case maybe if the 'flames' have a central transparent area allowing the underlying 'text' to show.

If using windows, then you can automate with a batch file along the lines of:

FOR /L %%G IN (1,1,n) DO convert "1000"%%G.gif "2000"%%G.gif -compose dissolve -composite new%%G.gif

where n is the no of frames. Do yourself a favour here and make a project folder containing all the images and the .bat. Change to that folder and run the batch file from there. Same applies using a single command.

That gets you a set of combined frames, open "As Layers" in Gimp and save as a new animated .gif.

This might get you started, plenty of 'ifs-and-buts' though.

Taking a GIF file that is in one mode and switching it to another mode (i.e. combine to replace, and vice versa), may cause the GIF not to animate correctly.  Combine style GIF's build up an image piece by piece, and not all layers are the same size.  With Replace style GIF's, each layer is the same size and replaces the previous one in the animation.

However...I think you could probably change the mode simply by loading it into GIMP, then saving it out in the mode you want.

--- On Wed, 12/29/10, rainman400 wrote:

From: rainman400 Subject: [Gimp-user] Merging n everything To: gimp-user@lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU Cc: team@gimpusers.com
Date: Wednesday, December 29, 2010, 4:23 PM

ok now heres the deal .. i do knw a tediously long and tiring way to fix this but i was hoping there would be an easier way

i have a background image around with i want to add an animated flaming text and a video which i converted to frames already. I have about 70 frames that i want to add, so i made a animated text that lasts 70 frames too... i just thought it was the logical thing to do ...

now the way i know around it is to actually manually copy and paste each layer of the xcf i got from saving the animated text onto the each layer in a new xcf with the main background.. but for 70 odd frames that gonna be a pain. and i was thinking it would probably work with the frames i got from the video as well...

so is there an easier way out .. im sure there is ... coz i opened the text xcf using open as layers... but dont knw how to merge the whole thing.

thanks in advance

One way perhaps but not Gimp.

You can combine pairs of images with Imagemagick. (does not have to be .png but does need to be a format that supports transparency) For automating the process it makes sense to rename the sets of images.

http://www.imagemagick.org

Imagmagick is command line so in a console this command works

convert 10001.png 20001.png -compose dissolve -composite new01.png

note
The image in second place (20001.png) overlays the first image so second has to contain transparency. I can't see anyway around this, you can use a different command to 'blend' but this alters colours. In your case maybe if the 'flames' have a central transparent area allowing the underlying 'text' to show.

If using windows, then you can automate with a batch file along the lines of:

FOR /L %%G IN (1,1,n) DO convert "1000"%%G.gif "2000"%%G.gif -compose dissolve -composite new%%G.gif

where n is the no of frames.
Do yourself a favour here and make a project folder containing all the images and the .bat. Change to that folder and run the batch file from there. Same applies using a single command.

That gets you a set of combined frames, open "As Layers" in Gimp and save as a new animated .gif.

This might get you started, plenty of 'ifs-and-buts' though.

hey cool... thanks for that ... ill try that out soon enough ... anyways i just had one more doubt... may seem a lil off topic from this one though

so i have this other .gif file that i am kinda trying to model my present pic on. so i just tried opening .gif file using "open with layers"... in the layers toolbox its something in this format

xxx.gif- Frame 123 (combine)

but when i open any other gif file like that .... it reads

xxx.gif -Frame 123 (replace)

now i knw that if i can get it to open as "combine"instead of replace then i will be able to complete this particular assignment... coz although this other gif might have been created on some other software... it still wud be neat to knw how i cud do this on GIMP....

hope im making sense.... and thanks again !!!! xD

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Hmm. If I were doing what it sounds like you are doing, I'd do the whole thing in replace mode and just put the background behind each layer and merge down (easiest to do this with GAP). In other words you'd have this: animation layer, background layer, animation layer, background layer...and so on. Then you would merge each animation layer down onto the background layer underneath, and save the animation out in replace mode.

Semi-flatten might work, but I haven't used it much and not in a long time, and I'm not sure if it would work on a multi-layer GIF.

If you are using an alpha channel on each layer and each bit of animation has a transparent background, you should be able to save the thing out in such a way as to preserve the transparency. GIF's are an "all or nothing" proposition with regard to transparency, not like PNG's where you can have stuff with "semi-transparency". You will get jaggies around things this way, since there will be an abrupt transition from a colored area to a transparent area. Semi-flatten sort of gets around this by surrounding the transparent areas with a chosen background color, and then going transparent. However, if you display the GIF against a different colored background you will have to go back and change this "semi-flattened background color", or your animation will have a sort of halo around it in the color of the background you first chose. I don't think you can do semi-flatten with a textured background.

Best thing to do is to save your original file in .xcf format and when you save your GIF's you do "Save a Copy", that way you can go back and make any changes in the original .xcf if things don't quite work as you intend. Do this before the semi-flatten.

For stuff like this, to avoid mistakes, I would do the animation, save as .xcf, then do Image>Duplicate, which will create a new Gimp canvas with your image. Either minimize or close the original, and then you can play around with the duplicate without fear of trashing your original animation.

--- On Sat, 1/1/11, rainman400 wrote:

From: rainman400
Subject: [Gimp-user] Merging n everything To: gimp-user@lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU Cc: team@gimpusers.com
Date: Saturday, January 1, 2011, 4:54 AM

Taking a GIF file that is in one

mode and switching it to another mode (i.e. combine to replace, and vice versa), may cause the GIF not to animate correctly.  Combine style GIF's build up an image piece by piece, and not all layers are the same size.  With Replace style GIF's, each layer is the same size and replaces the previous one in the animation.

However...I think you could probably change the mode

simply by loading it into GIMP, then saving it out in the mode you want.

===============================

hey thanks a ton for that !!! finally gave up on the idea of making it soo fancy for my first real pic... anyway i did have one last question

i want to now blend my animation with a common background. The gif is almost done xcept for the blending in part... coz now my animation plays in a rectangular box with the background around it. Is there any way to sort of blend the animation layers into the background layer... just kind of lighten the edges of the layer so that a lil of the background is seen through...

again.. i hope i made sense ... i tried using the blend tool.. but none of the background comes through .. the box just becomes white around the edges...

-- rainman400 (via gimpusers.com)
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