Hi there! So recently after years of development GIMP 3.0 has been released! That's good news. The bad news is that Animstack doesn't currently work with GIMP 3.0 (and neither do my other GIMP scripts from what I've seen). I'll see what I can do to get them up to date but can't promise anything since I haven't touched that code in years.
Note that installing GIMP 3.0 does not overwrite your GIMP 2.10 installation and you can still use GIMP 2.10 after installing GIMP 3.0. So for now please use GIMP 2.10 if you need to use Animstack for some reason.
Rolling playlist gif for GIMP: a tutorial ▬ by Joy from @creativexspirit
Credit where credit is due, I fell in love with this gif tutorial but EH I don't use Photoshop anymore so I made it my mission to recreate the effect in GIMP.
This tutorial uses AnimStack, a Script-Fu script for GIMP to give you tools for the creation of animated GIFs. As it's super useful, even if you don't follow this tutorial I highly recommend to download. How to install AnimStack to GIMP in tumblr's FAQ: https://animstack.tumblr.com/faq
IT ONLY WORKS IN GIMP 2.10.
This tutorial uses my playlist template.
Tutorial with screenshots is under the cut.
Like or reblog if you download. Please don’t request as your own, respect my work. Don’t hesitate to tag me if you follow the tutorial! I would love to see your edits.
STEP 01.
Change the titles, the colors, the icons. Tip if you want to change the song title that are not visible: move the layers group "Song list", so you can see the text you modify.
Add songs by copy/pasting the "Song 5" layers group. Keep this layers group inside the "Song list" group.
Try to move the layers group so that it is aligned with above songs.
To place back correctly the "Song list", here's a tip: use the align tool and click on the "Song list" group. In the tool's options, in the "relative to" drop down menu, choose "Selection". Back to the layers window: in the "Background" group, right click on the "Color nuance" layer and choose "Alpha to selection". Now you are free to align your "Song list" layer group to the top and center of that selection, and it should be alright!
STEP 02.
Now the tutorial actually begins. Flatten all layer groups using Image > Flatten Layer Groups. (Don't mind my GIMP language, it is in French but the AnimStacks tools are in English, you should have the same menu.)
And now your layers window should look like mine, minus the links on the layers.
Now, see the linked layers? Merge them all together. You should end up with only 4 layers: "Song list", "Background", "GUIDE MASK SONG LIST FOR GIF", "Arrière-plan".
Note: you don't really need the "Arrière-plan" layer, so if you want to, you can delete it or you can merge it with the background layer. In my case, I will delete it.
STEP 03.
Reorder your layers. This is very important as AnimStacks will process the layers from top to bottom, so the layers order counts.
Put your "Background" layer on top, your "Song list" layer under it. As for the guide mask, we don't really care as we will delete it later.
STEP 04.
We are now going to add AnimStacks tags to our layer names. Here you'll have to do a bit of maths because you can choose the number of frames your gif will ultimately contain and adjust the tags parameters accordingly. This might seem complicated but it really isn't. I'll start by showing the tags to add, and explain how this will be processed. I will then give you the maths to choose your parameters accordingly.
Below, the tags I have added to my layers. You will have to write the same things as I do but what you might change is:
the number of "30" in Background.
the y parameter of the offset tag "-12".
YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO REMOVE THE [copy:0] and change it.
OK but what does each tag do? Remember, AnimStacks process is from top layer to bottom. Here the first layer is our Background layer: [*30] means it will duplicate the "Background" layer 30 times.
Now, onto "Song list" layer: [copy:0] will check all layers above the "Song list" layer that has no tag (at this point, all of our 30 "Background" layers have no tag), create a group for each found layer and place the "Song list" layer at position 0. Ok this explanation is wacky, for better explanation, please check the documentation.
The offset tag is necessary for the rolling effect: at each addition of the "Song list" layer, it won't just be a simple duplicate of the "Song list" layer, but the layer will have moved a little by (x,y) = (0,-12), allowing us to get that "rolling" effect in our gif. (And now you get why I said "y parameter".)
OK now, but how did I choose my parameters? So for reference, I only have 5 songs - I didn't add any song to the song list. For my maths, you need the height of the "Song list" layer. Check it with the scaling tool.
The height of my layer is 353 pixels (awful number meh). I choose to have 30 frames. So the move of the layers will have to be of 353/30 = 11.77 pixels. I choose 12 pixels because you can't have floats for the number of pixels, can you?
DO NOT FORGET the minus in front of the y parameter. My y parameter is "-12". Otherwise, the playlist will roll towards the bottom.
STEP 05.
We are now going to add a mask to the "Song list" layer to avoid seeing the title songs where we shouldn't see them. See that obnoxious orange layer "GUIDE MASK SONG LIST FOR GIF"? Yes, it is its time to shine.
Right click on the "GUIDE MASK SONG LIST FOR GIF" layer and choose "Alpha to Selection". (Well in French it's Alpha vers Sélection.)
Now, we are going to use that selection to create a layer mask on the "Song list" layer.
Right click on "Song list" and choose "Add a layer mask". /!\ Your selection must still be active. (Well in French it's "Ajouter un masque de calque" but you can see the icon right? By the way, you can also add a layer mask by clicking on the icon in the layer window, see circled icon in red.)
Now, choose Selection for the creation of the layer mask.
If you don't have the above results for the mask, it might be that you foreground and background colors are not the same as mine, meaning black and white respectively.
If you don't have the same colors as me above, click on the small pair of squares the blue arrow I draw is pointing to. It will default your foreground and background colors to black and white. Keyboard shortcut is D. (I don't think I changed it.)
And now, we don't need the orange guide mask layer anymore, so you can delete it.
STEP 06.
Last check before process: make sure you have no area selected (or you will get a weird result). Cancel all selection with Selection > None.
STEP 07.
We now begin the AnimStacks tags process.
In Filters > Animation, find "Process Animation Tags" and click on it.
The process might take a while depending on the number of frames you have.
If everything is correct, you should have something similar to that. Now, we can check if the gif is correct and if we liked the number of frames and y parameter by previewing the animation in Filters > Animation > Playback...
STEP 07.
This step is optional but you might want to change the time of our first frame to be longer so people have time to read the beginning. Do so by changing the layer group name by adding (800ms) to it. This means the frame corresponding to that layer group will be 800ms.
You can check if it's long enough by doing the playback again.
STEP 08.
Now, we have to flatten all layer groups if we want to export to a GIF. In order to do so, we will just use the same trick as the beginning: Image > Flatten Layer Groups.
STEP 09.
Optional, but good to do: to make our gif lighter, we are also going to optimize the gif. In order to do so, do Filters > Animation > Optimize (for GIF) I don't know personally the difference with the other optimization method. Choose either you'll have similar results it's a difference in the implied algorithm I guess.
This step might take a while, but it's ok. When it's done processing you should have a new image created with the same results as me above. You can playback to check if everything is correct but here our job is done! We will now export the GIF.
STEP 10.
You can now export to GIF! Go to File > Export as..., choose the name of your file and end it with the .gif extension.
If you get an error message because some layers are not cropped, no worries: just choose the "crop" option (but you should not with the optimization).
Now, don't forget to check "as animation" when saving the GIF, if you haven't done the optimization, choose the delay between frames (the first frame will still be of 800ms), and choose "replace".
WITHOUT OPTIMIZATION:
(With the optimization process, all layers already have delay and animation replacement type thingy specified.)
AND VOILA, YOU HAVE YOUR GIF! If you mess around more with AnimStacks, you can do cool stuffs with it!
Now, how do you pronounce the G in gif? Also shh, don't say you saw the mistake I made when changing the title's songs in the tutorial, I wanted to write Everybody Talks by Neon Trees.
Here’s how to get the popular stained glass text effect (I don’t know what’s really called) using GIMP.
Things you need:
GIMP
Animstack
How to make gifs
1. Import your frames (File > Open as Layers). Then resize, crop, and edit them how you want the gif to be as usual.
Here’s mine:
2. So over here, I have my texts. One layer is just going to be a normal white colored font. And the other layer will have the glass effect. I suggest you use a color for the font instead of white or black.
3. Duplicate the text layer. Now, I’m going to change the layer mode of both “when we talk” text layer as such:
Put an [fg] to the name.
4. Run Animstack (Filters > Animation > Process Animstack Tags). You will get them to be in layer groups like this. Sometimes depending on the color you have picked, you can stop here when the stained glass look is achieved.
5. If don’t like how the colors look, you can continue. Pick your two colors of the gradient that you want to be used in the gradient map in your color swatches. Here, I’ve picked these two colors.
Select the first “Hardlight” layer and go to Colors > Map > Gradient Map. This will add the gradient map to that layer.
6. Now, do the same for the rest of the Hardlight layers. Once you’re done, you can playback and export your gif!
Here’s a very late tutorial request. 😆 Read more to find out how to make this torn paper gif edit using GIMP.
Things you need:
GIMP
Torn paper PNGs
Animstack
Layer Effects plugin (Save this to user>.gimp-2.8>plugins)
How to make gifs
1. Import your gif frames and resize, crop and color them as usual. This will be the gif I’m using:
2. Next, drag in your paper png image and position it where you want it. My png already has a drop shadow to it but if you need to add it, you can use Layer Effects and add it to yours.
3. Add in the text you want to be appearing from the ‘torn’ section.
To clip the layer, select the paper layer and pick “Alpha To Selection”. Then, select your text layer, right click on it and pick “Add Layer Mask > Selection”.
Now, the text should only appear inside of the torn paper layer and nothing outside.
But you have to look at your paper layer and see how it looks like. Sometimes, there’s the part of the text that goes over a ‘folded’ or ‘curled’ part of the paper and it won’t make sense. So just use a black brush and select the mask of the text layer and paint over that part you want to erase.
4. After this is done, you can merge down the text layer onto the torn paper layer so it becomes one layer. Rename it to [fg].
5. Run Animstack (Filters > Animation > Process Animstack Tags). And you’re pretty much done. You can add in more texts outside of the torn layer like you normally would for a normal text on a gif, if you’d like!
Here’s a requested honeycomb edit for GIMP. This tutorial is a bit advanced so beware! But feel free to ask me anything if you don’t understand.
Things you need:
GIMP
Animstack
Gifs of the same number of frames
How to make gifs
1. Import your gif frames for your main gif (File > Open as Layers) and edit as per usual.
2. Hold down Shift and click over here to link all the layers.
Then go to Layer > Group Linked Layers. This will make them all be in a layer group.
I will rename it “Maingif”.
3. Open one frame from your second gif (File > Open [not Open as Layers]). This will then open the frame in another tab. In that new tab, you can then use Open as Layers and import the rest of the frames for that second gif.
Edit the gif as usual but don’t resize it. We can resize it later. Put the layers in a layer group using the same method above and rename it to whatever you like.
4. Create a pentagon shape over the part where you want to have the gif be in. You can refer to this video to see how to do it.
Name this layer [bg][;opacity:0]. After that, make a new layer on top of it and name is [*X] where X is the number of frames you have in one gif. Lastly, name the layer group [;mask:1][roll].
Run Animstack (Filters > Animation > Process Animstack Tags).
7. Flatten the layer groups (Image > Flatten Layer Groups).
8. Now, link all the layers again like we did in Step 2 and put them in a layer group. Then save this as an .xcf.
9. Then, save this project into an .xcf file and name it “gif 1″.
10. Repeat these steps for all your other gifs that you want to put in your honeycomb effect.
11. Go back to your main gif tab and draw in a pentagon. You can refer to this video to see how to do it.
I’m just gonna copy and paste a bunch of this.
12. Then, I will make some of that be on “Grain Merge” layer mode.
In this case, since I will have 3 small gifs to input later one, I will leave some of them plain.
I’ll also delete the ones that are on on Grain Merge in this next step. I’m only putting it there so I can visualize where the 3 gifs are gonna be placed, to make sure they will all be positioned properly.
13. Now, import in your small gifs. Open the .xcf files (File > Open as Layers).
14. Then, right click on the layer group of that gif 1 and scale it down to be the same size of the honeycomb. This part is a little tedious cuz you might have to try a few times to find the correct size to scale down. So you might have to undo quite a few times.
15. We’re almost done!! Now, just add a [roll] tag to each of the layers and add a transparent layer at the top called [*X] where X is the number of frames in your gif. For me, I have 26 frames.
Then run Animstack (Filters > Animation > Process Animstack Tags).
Finally, you can flatten the layer groups (Image > Flatten Layer Groups).
Here’s a tutorial for an anon ask I got the other day! How to add a color overlay without changing the color of the skin.
Things you need:
GIMP
Animstack
How to make gifs
1. Drag in your frames and edit them as per usual, i.e cropping, adding color. This will be my base gif.
2. Create a new layer and paint in with a soft brush the color that you want. You want to avoid painting the area person’s face.
3. Change the layer mode to “Color”. Sometimes “Overlay” will work too.
4. Add an [fg] tag to the back of the name for that color layer and run Animstack tags (Filters > Animation > Process Animstack Tags). After that, you can flatten it by going to Image > Flatten Layer Groups.
5. Lastly, you can index your gif and export it as usual! There you have it.
Here is a tutorial on how to make a shattered glass gif effect on GIMP. I would say this effect is quite tedious to do on GIMP so beware if you’re new to using Animstack! Now, let’s get into it!
Things you need:
GIMP
Animstack
Shattered Glass texture image
The number of frames in your gif
How to make gifs
1. Open as layer your glass texture. Scale it to a size that you want.
2. Go to File > Open, and pick the first frame of your gif. This will open it on a new working tab. In that new working tab, open as layers the rest of your gif frames. Edit and color the gif to your liking and scale it the same size as the glass texture image you opened just now.
This will be the base gif.
3. Hold down Shift and click over here. This will chain up all the layers.
Then go to Layer > Group > Pack Linked Layers.
Now that I have all the layers in a layer group, I will save this .xcf file.
4. Go back to your glass texture working tab and open as layer the .xcf file you saved.
5. We’re going to make a new layer. But then, you’ll notice that the layer is made inside the gif layer group. Don’t worry, you can jsut drag it out of the group. Then, name it [*X], where X is your number of frames for the gif. Mine was 25. So I will type [*25].
6. Now, we’re going to create a mask selection. What you select is going to show up. Make your gif layer group invisible for now so you can see the glass layer. Make a new layer and use the magic wand tool or the lasso tool to select a glass shard.
Then fill it with any color.
7. Next, I’m going to arrange the layers and name them as follow:
Transparent Layer: [*X] where X is the no. of frames of each gif
Mask Layer: [bg][;opacity:0]
Gif layer group: [;mask:1][roll]
Glass texture layer: [roll]
8. Use the move tool to position the gif layer group a bit off so it’s not in the center. (Make sure your move tool is on “Move active layer” so that it picks the whole layer group and not just one layer in it.)
You can also scale down the layer group a bit by right clicking on the layer group in the layers tab and picking “Scale Layer”.
9. Now, go to Filters > Animation > Process Animstack Tags. Flatten the layers (Image > Flatten Layer Groups). You have your first piece of shard done.
10. Link all the layers again and pack them into a new layer group. Now, this will be like your glass texture layer just now.
11. So we’ll repeat the same steps again by opening your original gif .xcf file as a layer (move it around a bit), make a new layer with the selected glass shard and create the [*X] transparent layer. Do this for the all the shards.
