Helpful Posts: For many of us it is cold at this time of the year so I started thinking about how I could spread some warmth.
I am trying to get a realistic fire going but that's not possible in a static image so I thought I'd try again to create a fire based animated GIF.
I'm not entirely happy with the results so if someone knows how to improve on the process, please let me know!
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Thread: Light My Fire
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29th December 2013, 02:20 AM #1
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Light My Fire
Last edited by FrankMi; 10th January 2014 at 12:19 AM. Reason: spelling
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29th December 2013, 02:23 AM #2
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Re: Light My Fire
Thanks Frank, It's already working.
Or maybe that's the real one behind me.
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29th December 2013, 02:39 AM #3
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Re: Light My Fire
That's pretty cool Frank. I have nothing to add on the technical 'how to' side of this as I have no idea how it's done. Have you tried to slow down the movement a bit? It seems a bit fast to me and would likely be a bit more relaxing if it was slowed down a tad.
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29th December 2013, 03:20 AM #4
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Re: Light My Fire
Looks good to me. Just add sounds of wood crackling.
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29th December 2013, 06:39 AM #5
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Re: Light My Fire
Thanks Frank, it is the middle of summer here so I will need to turn on the air-conditioner and cool the room down again...
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29th December 2013, 08:58 AM #6
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Re: Light My Fire
How many shots did it take you for this effect, Frank? It is very nice...
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29th December 2013, 09:06 AM #7
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Re: Light My Fire
Projected High for today........ -4F, it helps!!!!
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29th December 2013, 01:33 PM #8
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Re: Light My Fire
<chuckle!>
Originally Posted by mknittle
Thanks Frank, It's already working. Or maybe that's the real one behind me.
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29th December 2013, 01:38 PM #9
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Re: Light My Fire
Thanks Shane! I did try various speeds but slower looked less realistic. Perhaps it could work better as slower using more images but an example I saw on the web with more images was actually running faster? More images also translates into a much larger file size very quickly which forces the use of fewer pixels and a smaller frame. Originally Posted by ShaneS
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29th December 2013, 01:40 PM #10
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Re: Light My Fire
I think you can add audio to a GIF John but I'm not sure how much it would affect file size and it might become annoying for some folks. Originally Posted by Shadowman
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29th December 2013, 01:42 PM #11
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Re: Light My Fire
Hmmmm... Don't look now! Save the file for July then recheck! Originally Posted by pnodrog
Thanks Frank, it is the middle of summer here so I will need to turn on the air-conditioner and cool the room down again...
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29th December 2013, 01:45 PM #12
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Re: Light My Fire
Thank you. I used 8 shots for this one Isabel. I just sat in front of the fire and snapped them. Now I wish I had taken more for variety but it is a learning process. Originally Posted by IzzieK
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29th December 2013, 01:50 PM #13
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Re: Light My Fire
Great Randy! I was thinking I could leave this running on my monitor when I wasn't using the PC just for the ambiance. Originally Posted by rtbaum
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29th December 2013, 03:33 PM #14
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Re: Light My Fire
8 shots! That was pretty good for 8 shots! Maybe you should had the intervalometer set on your camera. Ooopppsss I just googled D3100 intervalometer -- it did not have one. I use ProShow Producer to put together my time lapse...what did you use to put this one together? Once you start on time lapse, it can become very addictive. You have to have a cable to put your camera plug to the wall ... or lots of high powered batteries...
Originally Posted by FrankMi
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30th December 2013, 02:37 AM #15
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Re: Light My Fire
Hi Isabel! Thank you for the encouragement! Originally Posted by IzzieK
These frames were not really a time-lapse as much as it was a set of random images. Being as it is a fire, the flames have no set pattern so the frames could have been assembled in almost any order and the resulting GIF would have looked much the same as it does now.
Also, if I assemble much more than 8 shots, the size of the resulting GIF could easily shoot through the roof. As I was, I had to cut the number of colors down to 64 and the final GIF size to 500x313 pixels just to keep the resulting file size just barely over 750KB. Fortunately, this fire didn't need more than 64 colors to still look real enough.
Putting together the GIF is supported in Photoshop CS5 under the Windows menu, Animation. Once the frames have been created from the 8 layers (one image per layer), the resultant GIF is created using the File menu, Save for Web and Devices.
You can "Tween" frames to morph between the images but for the fire, it didn't look as good as just showing each image for about 0.2 seconds, then move to the next image. For this GIF I rippled through the image forward, then backward so the image sequence would be 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1... and so on.
I was hoping to find someone that had "played with fire" in a GIF to get some pointers. I was tempted to title this thread "Playing With Fire"!
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30th December 2013, 11:33 AM #16
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Re: Light My Fire
I used to do animation in Photoshop 7...I forgot what the extra program is called now...but since the PS people took that away, I have to look for another program that can do it. It took awhile for me to find one then my eldest son got married and had a video/photos of his wedding put together via a software. It is called Camtasia. Researching, I found ProShow Producer and haven't looked back since. Setting your camera in front of the window while snow outside is falling is also a good one to take sequential photos of as well as the coming of the storm (clouds and such)....and kids opening gifts on Christmas morning..
Photoshop, 8 bits, put them together even (in raw format) or another software after editing and cropping to desired size then put them together to form the animation frames (time lapse) that is what I do with mine. Pretty much how you did it, though time lapse is not randomly selected. Then after putting it together that is when you can input the chosen music that will accompany your show.
My step son is planning a bonfire at the back of our property soon...I will take some shots...and put them together...Last edited by IzzieK; 30th December 2013 at 11:39 AM.
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2nd January 2014, 12:21 AM #17
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Re: Light My Fire
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Isabel. I'm looking forward to seeing the results of your efforts! Originally Posted by IzzieK
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2nd January 2014, 08:29 AM #18
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Re: Light My Fire
With the snow outside from last night, it will take sometime before that purported bonfire...more snow coming this weekend...wonder if I even go to school tomorrow night...winter came back to St. Louis all right...
Originally Posted by FrankMi
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Isabel. I'm looking forward to seeing the results of your efforts!
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