One of the coolest new effects in GIF-X 2.0 is the animated fireworks effect. As with all GIF-X effects, the animated fireworks use key frames to define how the animation will appear. For more on key frames and how they work, see Part I of this series.

The fireworks effect has two main sets of controls: Basic and Advanced. The Basic controls are used to create the animation, and the advanced controls are used for fine tuning effects such as the length of the fireworks' tail.

You should always start by clicking and dragging in the preview window to move the effect to the area where you want it to appear in the background image. Next, adjust the settings in the Basic and Advanced dialog boxes, using the settings shown above).

NOTE: If you'd like to save these settings for future use, click the Add button near the bottom of the screen. You can reopen saved settings by clicking the Gallery button. If you're using the lighting effects built in to PhotoImpact 5, you can reopen saved settings by locating them in the Easy Palette. Right click the thumbnail representing the saved settings and then click "modify properties and apply."

Next, use the Key Frame Control to set the animation at 10 frames and add a key frame to frame 2 and frame 10. If the auto-reverse button is turned on be sure to turn it off.

Auto Reverse: = ON    = OFF

Although it may be hard to believe, we're almost done.

All that's needed now is to adjust the key frames so that the image will change as it moves from key frame to key frame. We'll make the following changes:

Frame 1: Brightness = 0

This will allow the first frame of the animation to contain no visible effects. So, when the animation loops, there will be a pause between the end of one loop and the beginning of the next loop.

Frame 2: No Changes

If this frame is blank in the preview window, confirm that Brightness is set to its original value (228). Also, note that the Completeness is set to 0. This will cause the first visible frame of the animation to appear as a group of fireworks that are getting ready to explode.

Frame 10: Completeness = 90

This will create the final frame of the animation, in which the fireworks are falling to the ground. In theory, setting this at 100 will create a blank frame. However, realistically, it doesn't always work. That's why I always use the Brightness control, set at 0, to create a blank frame in the animation.

That's It! Click Save to create the animation and save it to your hard drive. I used the following save settings:

You can use the file as is, or open the file in an animation program such as Ulead GIF Animator 4 to make changes to the animation's speed and to optimize its compression.

Here's a look at the final animation:

Anthony L. Celeste