Tag Archives: Superman 80s Toys Son of Krypton Puppet Theatre

August 2013 GIF Challenge #15: GIF Fight! Superman 80s Toys Son of Krypton Puppet Theatre


THIS is the source picture for making a GIFFight! GIF. Good luck!

WELL! Have I every been busy! Not making GIFs (as I guess you may have figured), but living my life again, free and out of that silly box and away from that @Puppetmaster106 and his minion @AneuwegCentSix. More on that tomorrow.

In the meantime, another #GIFFight! is upon us! So today’s challenge is to respond to the latest image on the GIFFight tumbler site, 80s Toy Smackdown, which will be based on the prompt image shown to the left: #ds106 entries in response to the GIFFight! prompts fall into the Animated GIF Assignment 1190, “GIF Fight!” 


Well, you might ask yourself, “What in the name of all that is GIF-able am I to do with that?”
Well, that is your challenge.

Here is what I made out of it. What will you do?

"Superman Puppet Theatre" animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Superman Puppet Theatre” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

What Did I Do to Make this GIF?

Well, I had to do the following things.

  1. copied part of the image as a background and extended both the sky and the ground using the Clone Tool.
  2. enhanced the colours in the puppet theatre background
  3. added a window in the backdrop and a puppet theatre header/sign
  4. sourced a Superman logo to use on the puppet theatre header and added the text using the text tool
  5. matched the water to the colour of the blue in the Superman logo.
  6. used the Quick Selection tool and the Magic Wand tool and the Eraser tool to isolate Superman, and later, Batman and Robin in the Batmobile.
  7. Added my @iamTalkyTina behind (below) the background layer (with the window) so that my face could peek out.
  8. added strings to the first frame, attaching the Superman action figure to my hand (hidden)
  9. made multiple copies of the initial frame, adjusting the location of the Tina, Superman, string, and Batmobile layers to provide the animation. Three copies of the Superman/Strings groups allowed Superman to rock back and forth as I moved the string.
  10. Once the GIF was closed to being finished, I added a return transition back to the first frame. It didn’t seem right to have the GIF flow forwards and backwards, so I put in a series of restore frames to get back to the first one.  That basically involves reducing the opacity of the layers in the last few frames, and increasing the opacity of the layers in the first frame.

Plus, because Tumblr only works with GIFs that are a maximum of 500 pixels wide, I made a 500 pixel version, but that version is so far still fighting with Tumblr to get posted.

Fighting with the Tumblr

UPDATE: So I did a little search on the Google for “animated GIF requirements for tumblr” and found a post called “GIF Requirements in Tumblr” that says the following about maintaining GIF animations when posting to Tumblr.

  • GIF can be no wider that 500 pixels to maintain animation
  • GIF can be no longer than 700 pixels or it will be resized down
  • GIF can be no larger than 512 KB to maintain animation.

In this case, my GIF at 500 pixels wide met the length requirement at 667 pixels long, but the file size of this version was too large. I changed the depth from 256 colours down to 128 colours, and now the file size of the new file is 482.8 KB, and it is still generating an error when I try to post it.

So I will go back to the Google for a different article. Maybe I have to cross my fingers when I push the Publish button on Tumblr? Or stand with Tumblr at the top of some stairs or something.

So now it is time for you to enter the GIF Fight! Remember it is NOT a hurting fight. It is a nice fight for Friends with fun and GIFs. Make some good Art GIFs bub for your internal GIF Chi. Keep your GIF Chi strong!

Well, bye!