Creating Animated Gifs Using Layers in Photoshop 5 and Gif Animator 3 Part 3: Let's Color It!
| ||
Floodfill the Right Way This is the fun part, but let me warn you: there is only one way to do it correctly. Each section of the animation that is the same color in each frame is colored with the floodfill tool (paintbucket) at the same time (unless you want to make a log of the RGB values. I don't.). This prevents annoying color shifts from occurring that detract from the quality of the cartoon. The face and hands are colored in frames 1-23. Then the next section, such as the monitor, is also colored in each frame in sequence. If this regimen is followed, the coloring of the animation is quite simple. However, after each floodfill is done, it is imperative that one look carefully at that section for parts of the cartoon that are missed by the floodfill . That part must be colored by hand. Cleanup Now carefully color the unpainted pixels, making sure to avoid recoloring adjacent colored pixels. As the name implies, the Multiply option on the pencil tool adds color to a pixel each time it is colored. This could cause another kind of color shift that is not desirable. One Last Thing This clean-up is necessary after each small section is colored in each frame. If it isn't done, it must be done in Gif Animator with its Pixel Editor, which has far fewer options than Photoshop, but is excellent for simple corrections that might have escaped notice in this phase of the animation's creation. After following these directions, the results are a completely colored animation that has consistent color from frame to frame. Click on the example at the right to get a fair idea of what this looks like.
|
|