Creating animated medical images (Part 2)

There is a lot of software, both free as well as commercial, to create animated GIFs. The majority of software available is shareware, where a user may download a trial version for free prior to purchasing [2]. According to Download.com, the two most popular software for creating GIF animation are Ulead® GIF Animator TM (Ulead Systems Inc., Torrance, CA, USA) and CoffeeCup GIF Animator (CoffeeCup Software Inc., Corpus Christi, TX, USA) [3]. Both have received high rating from reviewers and users.

In addition to these software, this tutorial will also describe a freeware, Microsoft® GIF Animator (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA). All software used in this tutorial is available for download at: http://www.biij.org/2006/3/e46/software.zip (13.5 MB). ULEAD® GIF ANIMATOR TM

This software is a part of a multimedia suite of products developed by Ulead Systems Inc. (Torrance, CA, USA). For this tutorial, users may either download the software from the above link or download the current version from: http://www.ulead.com/. Users may try the software free of cost for 15 days. The current version, Ulead® GIF Animator TM 5, is priced at USD 49.95.

Step 1 – Open Ulead® GIF Animator TM, and click on File > Animation Wizard…
Step 2 – Set the canvas size or dimensions of the image to be used. For this tutorial, set both the width and height at 512 pixels. Click Next > when finished.
Step 3 – Click Add Image… to add the images for use in the animation. Select all images (by clicking Ctrl+A) from the selected folder, and click Open. The list of images will now appear (Figure 1), and the user has the option of re-arranging the order of the images. Click Next > when finished.
Step 4 – The user now has to set the duration of each frame to be displayed, by setting either the delay time or the frame rate. A ‘Demo’ field displays an example of the animation speed at the specified delay time or frame rate (Figure 2). The default value of four frames per second is sufficient to produce a smooth animation. Click Next > when finished.

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