Blinking Tutorial


1. This tutorial is written specifically for the Mina base becuase I have already made the faces eyes required! Start with a completed doll with open eyes, but ensure that the base is on a layer all of it's own.	2. Go to the Mina Face page & download the other 2 eye positions for the face of your doll - there will be a half-closed & closed eye face. Open these up in Paint Shop Pro.	3. Click on the face with the eyes half-closed. Press CTRL+C to copy the image. Ensure that you are on the base layer & press CTRL+L to paste the image as a new layer. Name this layer 02.

4. Click on the Move tool . Click on the face you have pasted onto the doll & drag it into position.	5. Click on the Magic Wand tool . Click a pixel to the left of the top of the face - the surrounding white area should be selected. Press Delete on your keyboard to delete this.	6. Repeat this on the top-right, bottom-left & bottom-right corners of the face. When complete, press CTRL+D to drop the selection.

7. Click on the image of the closed eyes & repeat steps 3 to 6. This time, name the layer 03.	8. If your doll has a background layer, hide it now to make the doll transparent. Hide layers 02 & 03 so that only the open eyes remain.	9. Go to File/Export/GIF Optimizer... - On the first tab (Transparency), ensure that Existing image or layer transparency is selected. - On the third tab (Colours), ensure that 256 colours are set & that Optimised Octree is selected.

10. Click on OK & save the image as 01.gif in a temporary place - I usually save it to the desktop.	11. Now, un-hide layer 02 & export the image, this time saving as 02.gif. Then un-hide layer 03 & export the image as 03.gif.	12. Within Paint Shop Pro, go to File/Jasc Software Products/Launch Animation Shop. Within Animation Shop, click on the Animation Wizard button.

13. Click on Next on the first screen. Select Transparent on the second screen. Click on Next on the third & fourth screens.	14. On the fifth screen, click on Add Image.... Navigate to where your 3 images have been exported. Hold down CTRL & click on image 03, 02 & 01, in that order. Click on Open. Your images will be displayed in the white box. Click on Add Image... again & add another copy of 02.gif. The files should now be listed as 01 02 03 02	15. Click on Next then Finish.

16. The 4 frames of your animation will now be displayed. You can click on the View Animation button to see what it looks like so far - much too fast, huh?	17. Highlight the first image in the series. Right-click & choose Frame Properties. Change the Display Time to 250.	18. Edit the Frame Properties for the remaining 3 images, changing the display time for each of them to 5.

19. When you are satisified with the animation (remember you can preview it!), go to File/Save As & give your animation a name. When you click on Save, the Optimisation Wizard will open up.	20. For dolls, you usually want the best quality images, even if the size is a little bigger, so just Next through all the screens. On the final screen, you will get a break-down of file size & load times. If any of these are too big, you can always go back & drop the quality of the image.	21. If you are happy, click on Finish & you animation will be saved.

All finished!
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