Drawing A Transparent Eye With Onion Skin

Software: Ulead Gif Animator 4

Skill Level:  Beginner

Featured Tools:
Onion Skin, Pencil Tool

Additional Tools:
None

Note:  Draw a transparent eye using the onion skin feature in Gif Animator 4.

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This tutorial is covering a bit of undiscovered in Gif Animator 4. The image above is transparent on a colored background.

Open up the Gif Animator and click on Blank Animation or open up a new image.

Underneath Logical Screen uncheck automatic and enter 150 x 150.

Under Global Palette, click on the square of the background color.  Down below where you have your color boxes, choose the color white.            

Go to Layer, Add Blank Image.  Make sure the canvas dimensions are the same as you set in Logical Screen (150 x 150).

Go to File, Preferences to check your transparency settings.   Click on the Advanced Tab and set the number of onion skin layers to 3, transparency of onion skin to 60.

Click on the Edit tab.  Click the Transparency Index box and enter 15.

We'll use the color black for this image.  Click on the pencil tool.  Below the toolbox two color boxes are located.  Click on the right lower box.  Go to the color box located to the bottom left and click on black. 

Now you will start drawing your first image which should be the "base" for everything to follow thereafter.   Draw a closed lid and eyebrow.  The screenshots below are what you should be seeing while working in the onion skin mode.

After you finish your first image (frame), go to Layer, Add Blank Image for your 2nd frame.  To keep things aligned, underneath the pencil tool to the bottom right, click on Onion Skin.  This will let you see your first image and allows you to draw within the areas you need to change.

Draw a line across the center of the eye as a half lid with part of the eye drawn in underneath the lid.  While in onion skin mode you can see which areas to draw in as shown below.  The darker area is what you will be drawing.  The faded area is the first image showing underneath.

Go to Layer, Add Blank Image for your 3rd frame.  In this frame draw in the rest of the entire eye.

Once all three frames are finished, click on the Compose tab.  In Global Information, set Image One at Do Not Remove in "How to Remove".  This is your base image which will appear in all frames or your animation.  Images 2 and 3, set at To Previous State.

Click on Image 2 (the image of the half lid) and copy.  Paste this in as your last frame.  Set this also at To Previous State.  Then set image one to 50 time delay, image two and four at 5 time delay, and image three (which is the open eye) at 100 time delay.

Click on the Preview Tab to see your animation.  If you're satisfied with it, go to File, Optimization Wizard, leaving all settings at default except the second.  Set the number of colors to 16.  When the Optimization Result box comes up, you can preview your image and save.

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial.

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