Step 6 : Taking Photos

1. Use a digital camera.
2. Use a tripod.
3. Set the image resolution to the preferred size of the final GIF file. I recommend 640 x 480 or smaller.
4. Single-step your animation using your computer if possible to allow individual steps to be photographed.
5. Take photos in complete darkness. Still photos look best if they are taken just before complete darkness but for animated GIF files you need to use full darkness to eliminate as much redundant detail as possible.
6. Turn off other parts of the display if they illuminate the background etc.
7. Take all photos from the same position and using the exact same camera settings.

Step 7 : Splitting Files

If you have several separate moving displays it is best to save them as separate animated gif’s. The end result will be much smaller than if you pan from one to the next and try to save them all in the one file. The elves video referred to in step 1 above is a good example. Stored as two (16-colour) files the left and middle scenes come to a total of 26Kb. Stored as one file they come to 69Kb. Here is why:

Let’s say you have a waving Santa with two arm positions and a train with four puffs of smoke. If you do the Santa on its own you only have to store 2 frames. The first is the master slide with the arm in the up position say. The second is just the arm in the down position. The auto-repeat function of the gif file then makes Santa wave forever. Likewise for the train. You will have four frames, the master slide and three small puffs of smoke and it will repeat forever.

If you combine them into one file, say 5 seconds on Santa and 5 seconds on the train, you now need to store about 30 frames. To make Santa wave 5 times you have to store 10 frames, then to make the 4 puffs of smoke repeat say 5 times you have to store 20 frames. The whole thing then repeats but the file is now much bigger than the two separate files. It is also less convenient for the user because he might want to study the Santa for longer but it keeps changing to the train. If you make them separate files people can watch each one forever.

Step 8 : Photo compression


The master slide is the only one that you have to compress and tidy up thoroughly. With the other photos you only need to tidy up around the parts that you will be cutting and pasting. The most important thing is to eliminate all unnecessary background detail and then convert all very dark areas to completely black. Use the “Fill” tool to do it. If your program has a variable slider on the fill tool, increase it quite a bit so it converts more pixels to black.

Use a black pen tool or cut and fill with black on any other areas that are not black or are not relevant to the animation. eg. light reflections on the ground, nearby buildings, glows around the lights, parts of the display behind the animation etc. Leave a little bit of glow around the lights so it still looks natural.

After doing the most obvious parts, convert the image to a negative. It is then much easier to see remaining areas that are not completely black. (See photo above. Could you tell that only the bottom left corner was truly black?) Paint over the areas with white or cut and fill with white. When finished, convert the negative back again.

Save each photo as a GIF file.

Step 9 : Cheating

Don’t insist on producing an exact replica of the display if it isn’t necessary. Cheat a bit if it results in a smaller file. In my GIF animation of the elves video referred to in step 1 above, I simplified the scene of the hammering elf to remove most of the action on the presents machine on the right because it was not relevant to that scene. I was then able to reduce the animation to just two frames instead of six or eight frames.

You can also touch up parts of the animation that aren't quite right. eg. fill in missing bulbs etc. If your drawing program has a “Clone” tool it is ideal for that task.

Step 10 : Colour reduction

When you save a photo as a GIF file the number of colours is reduced to 256. For animated Christmas lights that is more than necessary. 64 is indistinguishable from 256. 32 is very good. 16 is often all you need. It can more than halve the file size and still look just as good.

I use Ulead GIF Animator to do the colour reduction (it's under the Optimize tab) because it can do all images in one go. It also lets you see the old and new images side-by-side. You may also be able to do it in your photo editing software.