Jim Groom ransom gif

Jim Groom is an [edu] PUNK!!
Jim Groom is an [edu] PUNK!!

Talky Tina has Jim Groom held hostage for RANSOM! And the ransom is that we need to make animated gifs of Mr. Jim Groom. We had until midnight. Well, it is 11:34 my time and so I think that counts, right?

Super true friend, please let him go? I see that he is still in his hut overnight, but hopefully he will be released in the morning.


Process!

I made this gif in GIMP.

1. I copied the original image, which had “edupunk” on his hands, a few times on different layers and labeled them “edupunk” for ease of reference later.

2. Then I took one of those layers and, using the “clone” tool, got rid of the “punk” so I just had “edu.” I saved that layer as “edu.”

3. Then I got rid of the “u” in “edu” using the clone tool, and saved that layer as “ed.” Same for eliminating the “d” and ended up with just an “E” layer. Then I erased the “E” and ended up with a “blank” layer.

4. I then had to order the layers and specify the time delay between them. I started with the blank layer, then used the “E” layer, then the “Ed” layer, then the “Edu” layer, then “edupunk.” I alternated the “Edu” and “edupunk” layers to get the “blinking” effect, ending with an “edupunk” layer. The part I spent the longest on was specifying the delay between layers to get the effect I wanted. You can see what I chose in the screenshot below (it is just missing the very last “edupunk” layer, which was 600ms).

Screen Shot 2015-03-14 at 11.46.23 PM

6. Then I had a heck of a time because though the delay was right when I used “filter,” “animation,” “playback” in the GIMP menu, when I exported the file to a gif file it just gave the same delay to all the frames (looked like about 100 ms). After some web searching, and having been fooled by a tutorial on time delays that told me otherwise, I found that what I had done wrong was put a space between the number and the “ms”, like: (600 ms). Wrong. Need to take out the space and then it works!