How do we create a rotating picture file?

 

What program to use: The rotating pictures that you see on the profile listing and with people's personal profile pages are (most of the time) animated .gif files.  Many photo editing programs can do this.  I personally use Fireworks. I do know that there are some free animated gif creators online, but I'm not sure if they will create a slow (3 to 4 second) rotation without putting a watermark on the finished product. Two possibilities to investigate are www.glickr.com and www.gifninja.com.  Glickr.com has you either directly upload your photos or they pull photos from your album on www.flickr.com, an online photo sharing site, and then their free software helps you create the animated gif.  I must admit that I have not personally used glickr.com or gifninja.com. Another resource to investigate is about.com's article on creating animated gif. This ariticle has a link to a list of downloadable programs that can create animated gifs. I don't think any of them are free, but I do think there are some very cheap programs that can get the job done. Here is the link:  http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/findsoftware/a/gifanimation.htm

 

Before you download something your best bet is to check your own photo editing software and see if it is able to create a file with frames.  Each frame holds one picture, and you can tell the program how long to show each frame.  Then you save the file as an animated gif. 

 

Begin with smallest file sizes: The only thing that I need to caution you about is making sure your images have the smallest file size possible before making your animated gif.  When you make an animated gif using 3 pics that are 10kb each the resulting file is 30kb. 

Introductory Statement Images: LDSFS has issued a new policy (as of March 2008) in regards to the pictures posted in your introductory statement, and they have restricted the use of rotating images. The letter called them "roll-over images," and I personally called headquarters for clarification and was informed that the letter was referring to animated gifs or any other rotating image format.

Personal Profile Page Images: For your personal profile pages you also need to use caution about making sure the images have a small file size because the larger they are the more chance there is that the photo will not be able to consistently load (i.e. will show a red "X" instead).  Those pics can be 300px x 300px, but make sure to set the resolution again to 72dpi.

 The process in a nutshell:

1. Format all of your pictures by resizing them and setting the resolution appropriately. Important: Make sure that all of your pictures are the same dimensions or the final product will have distortions. If you want to use both landscape and portrait oriented images simply add to the canvas (or background of the image) to make all images a square.

   Example: These images are used on our profile, and I extended the white canvas (or background) so that both finished images are the same size. The dotted line is the actual edge of each image.

2. Place each image in a separate frame (see your photo editing program for instructions).
3. Set the length of time that you want each frame to show. Often times it is written in 1/100th of a second. I think the ideal is 3 to 4 seconds (or 300/100 or 400/100.)
4. Save the set of image as an animated gif.
5. Insert this photo into your profile. If you are using it for your introductory statement see my tutorial for placing a picture in your intro statement. If you are using it on one of your personal profile pages then simply upload it to the ldsfamilyservices.org site.

As always, if you have any questions feel free to contact me at sharon@robertandsharon.com.