PD does not utilize animated gifs. Too bad, they can really make a video POP! HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

Thanks, Bare-head.

Not only "make a video pop," but cheap in regards to the amount of real-estate they take up.

Ah, well, back to the old drawing board (draughting bored?) at PhotoShop/ImageReady. Perhaps there's another mechanism that'll export my visual in a format that PowerDir recognizes.

rh

PS: Nice website, dude. Wotcha think of lastdaysoflasvegas.com? Not bad for a guy who doesn't do this for a living?

Hi,
If you import an animated gif into some bitmap editors some can export as AVi video which pd!! supports, I use Photo-paint X3 an bitmap editor which does this.
Jim Intel i7-2600@3.4Gz Geforce 560ti-1GB Graphic accelerator, windows 7 Premium 12GB memory

Visit GranPapa64's channel for your YouTube experience of the day!

Hi rh -

There's no real need to go back to the drawing board. Even the PD cannot display the animation in your GIF file, it can easily be converted to video format using FormatFactory or QuickTime (Pro)... unless your animation software can export in video format, as Jim suggested.

After that, you can use it in PD.

Cheers - Tony
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

I have used a 3D creation software, which can export both gif and video. If using video, I can key-out the background of my animation in PowerDirector.
So, a single animation project could be used in your very nice website, and in a video, just export it in different formats.
Of course, you'd need to buy and learn another program, it never ends... HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

I've looked into a dozen bitmap converters and haven't found a single one that will convert an animated GIF to a video format.

From what I've seen so far, my best bet will be to break out the individual images and import to PD as a folder. Here's how:

1 An animated GIF is created with ImageReady from a PhotoShop series of images that have been set up in a layer. (The images don't all exist as stand-alone PhotoShop pictures, but were tweaked and manipulated only after being brouight into the layer.)

2 I can use the Actions automation in PhotoShop to break out each layer as a separate PhotoShop image, then convert all of the images to GIFs.

3 After placing the now-separate GIFs into a specific folder, I can import the entire folder into my PowerDirector Timeline. And perhaps even save/export this particular Timeline as a *.pds Project, which I can later import into my final 4-minute video.

4 My questions now are these:
4A - Can the each of the GIFs within this folder - now a range of images on the Timeline - be given a specific duration of, say, .1 or .05 of a second each? (.05 would equal 20 FPS, .1 = 10 FPS, yes?)
4B And, if so, can I select the entire batch to appear for the same duration, or must I do them one at a time?

The above sounds a bit complex, but the automated Actions utility within PhotoShop will handle the most tedious part of the chore. Everything following that will simply be a matter of bundling the GIFs into a folder and importing into PD.

Wotcha think?

rh

Like ynotfish said, Format Factory does the job. I have made about 1000 animated gifs to date and use it all the time. I've never had a problem with it. Converting it to WMV always works best for me and the resolution is flawless.

I spoke/wrote too soon, and am now having a difficult time getting my big foot out of my mouth.

I'd been working on this at my Windows XP SP-3 system, which is more convenient than my HP laptop running Windows 7 Profesional. The XP only has PhotoShop 5.5.1, and this only exports animated GIFs, in lieu of movie clips.

Just on a chance, I checked out the capabilities of the PhotoShop CS 2.3 (PhotoShop 9.0.2) on my HP G72 laptop.

Ouch!!!!

Sure enough, I was able to convert the layered PhotoShop set of images directly into a QuickTime MOV format video clip, which I then imported directly into my PowerDirector project. The whole thing worked perfectly, quickly, and seamlessly. Took about 45 seconds for the entire process, from PhotoShop to PowerDirector. Whew!

I think the term I'm looking for is "spit for brains," or something very similar.

Thanks to all of you for your advice. And if any of you have a newer version of PhotoShop - that is, newer than version 5.5.1 - be advised that you can make videos directly from it, via the ImageReady facility.

Sorry to have taken up so much time!

rh

Nice outcome, maybe you'll let us see your final product, many of us find viewing other folk's work is interesting. Post at the end of this thread, if you're up for it. HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

It's only a very modest clip - a one-second spinning fly-in of the German-language copy of The Hungarian Game. I'm going to do something similar with all versions - 2 hardcover plus two paperback English (US and UK) - and all the foreign-language ones. (I may extend the time on this, especially on the hold at the end, showing both Goldmann and Simon & Schuster covers.)

What do you want me to post ... the QuickTime MOV or the PowerDirector PDS? Also, I can't seem to find a mechanism on this "reply" box that will let me attach the animation.

And it may take another day before I post it. I want to slow down the animation by adding duplicate frames.

Again ... if you're using a recent version of PhotoShop, it's a falling-over snap to pop a layered bunch of images into a QuickTime MOV clip.

rh

Quote:
What do you want me to post ... the QuickTime MOV or the PowerDirector PDS? Also, I can't seem to find a mechanism on this "reply" box that will let me attach the animation.

Please post the MOV. Immediately below the text reply box are two blue buttons: OPTIONS and ATTACHMENTS. Then BROWSE.

Another crude approach that's worth a try if the GIF can be Chromakeyed cleanly. Use the great free image utility from http://irfanview.com

Open the GIF in Irfanview, then click OPTIONS|EXTRACT ALL FRAMES

* Load all frames into PD11.
* On the timeline, select all
* Click DURATION, adjust frame rate as desired.
* Produce as a WMV.

In PD, click FILE|NEW WORKSPACE.

* Place your background image/movie on VIDEO 1.
* Place the WMV created from the GIF on VIDEO 2.
* Click MODIFY.
* Turn on Chromakey.
* Position and size as desired.
* SAVE.

Please post the MOV. Immediately below the text reply box are two blue buttons: OPTIONS and ATTACHMENTS. Then BROWSE.

Another crude approach that's worth a try if the GIF can be Chromakeyed cleanly. Use the great free image utility from http://irfanview.com

Open the GIF in Irfanview, then click OPTIONS|EXTRACT ALL FRAMES

* Load all frames into PD11.
* On the timeline, select all
* Click DURATION, adjust frame rate as desired.
* Produce as a WMV.

In PD, click FILE|NEW WORKSPACE.

* Place your background image/movie on VIDEO 1.
* Place the WMV created from the GIF on VIDEO 2.
* Click MODIFY.
* Turn on Chromakey.
* Position and size as desired.
* SAVE.






Huhnh???!!!

rh

This answered my question