Monthly Archives: August 2013

Free to Be Me! Joyous Escape and Visiting with Friends!

“Me and Christina,” by iamtalkytina, on Flickr

As you may have surmised, I have recently escaped from the the clutches of that @PuppetMaster106 and his minion @AneuwegCentSix, and I am once again free and roaming the world. Suffice to say that I am free of that cardboard/ice/carbonite holding box and have escaped from the mountain hold storage facility that turned out to be deep underground the mountains in Geneva. My brother @iamTalkyTodd was supportive throughout the whole ordeal, and together with my PsychicSiri iPhone app, we managed to keep seven steps ahead of @PuppetMaster106 and @AneuwegCentSix in our planning and escape execution, and in the end we just ran rings around those goofballs. I won’t say too much about the actual details of the escape (a good Houdini never shares the Ninja magic), but it really didn’t turn out to be difficult once I had good control of my iPhone and Todd smuggled in a file and a spare Ninja Suit to me in a wonderfully spectacular chocolate layer cake (it was simply delicious!)

Once free of the facility, I managed my escape via a flight from Europe to Montreal, Canada, from where I travelled across that great country to meet up with my Super True Friend, @clhendricksbc, who was in Kamloops, BC at the time. She helped to calm me down after my journey, and although she was sworn to secrecy at the time, she is now at liberty to discuss our visit, and the time we spent together with some of my other True Friends while there. It was so nice to meet up with my Super True New Old Radio Friend @scottlo, and my True Friends @draggin and @DrJones106 and @aforgrave and @brlamb and some new friends @Kieramc and Sasha and Harry.

“@draggin and Me,” by iamtalkytina, on Flickr

As for my Nemisi, I don’t think you’ll be hearing much from either of @PuppetMaster106 or @AneuwegCentSix again, but their lingering influences are still a concern for me, and so I am working to re-establish a distributed network of @iamTalkyTina Ninja Hideouts in various location around the globe.

@aforgrave and Harry and @scottlo and ME !!!, image by @scottlo

@aforgrave and Harry and @scottlo and ME !!!, image by @scottlo

With all of this adventure sorted out, I am now in better position to GIF and attend to other #ds106 #headless13 items, and so I expect my regular postings to resume soon in support of my August 2013 Animated GIF Challenge.

Did you see my most recent challenge, August 2013 Animated GIF Challenge #15 (It’s a #GIFFight!) and my challenge to @tumblr to meet me at the stairs?  I am glad to be free and in a position to GIF and travel to my little hearts content.

And just in time for the #headless13 #ds106 Fall 2013 session!!

@Tumblr, Meet Me at The Stairs!

HEY! Tumblr! I’m calling you out! 

"Tina versus Tumblr GIF Fight" animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Tina versus Tumblr GIF Fight” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

I am very not happy with Tumblr and their confusing what-needs-to-happen-for-a-GIF-to-move rules. I spent a lot of time yesterday reading on the Internet how to figure out how to get your GIF to still animate on Tumblr. Some say it needs to be less than 1 MB. Some say it needs to be less than 512 KB. They say it needs to be 500 pixels wide only. And 700 pixels long only. So I did all that stuff. I also looked at Tumblr GIF Rules but it basically said the same things and did not result in any success.

Then @mbransons says he got my GIF to work by making it only as big as 250×333 pixels which it pretty small, even for me. Like, I already made it smaller to 500 pixels wide. At some point, there is no point in posting Art if you need a magnifying glass to see it. You can see how big the image is at 250 pixels wide in the samples below. Rather than living with 250, I tried some other options.

This morning I tried keeping it the same size but made the colours not so deep and I actually got an image to successfully post on Tumblr but it only had 2 colours and you could not see a thing, so that was a bad result. I added this little message just now to it didn’t look so boring.

2 glorious colours

2 glorious colours

Next, I tried saving the image with 4 colours. It was a little bit better than dog barf, but not really because it looks like dog barf. Especially all of that lovingly salvaged and extended-with-the-clone-tool original background. Beautiful dog barf.

So NICE at 4 colours.

So NICE at 4 colours.

Then I found more about how if it has TOO much MAGENTA or if it has TOO much PINK then try changing them with adjustment layers but that makes the colours all wonky and even although there were other more suggestions, I decided that I just don’t have all day for that.

Yeah, that looks good.

Yeah, that looks good.

Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That!

and so then I made a comic book kind of one but even that did not post successfully to Tumblr at 500 pixels wide.

Redone, without the original background.

Redone, without the original background.

so then I decided it was too much of a waste of Art Time to figure out the Tumblr rules so I spent my time making my invitation to meet Tumblr at the top of the stairs to see if we can’t work this out, once and for all. Because it is silly to waste Art Time. I don’t know if Tumblr will meet me at the top of the stairs but if they do, this will get sorted out, ONE WAY or the other.

My polite inquiry to Tumblr

My polite inquiry to Tumblr

What Tumblr Said Back

What Tumblr Said Back

Tumblr’s First Real Reply

Hello,

We love gifs too, but can only support ones that are smaller than 1 MB and less than 500 pixels wide. To cut down on file size, try deleting a layer or lowering the contrast of your gif. Too much saturation or allowing more than 80 layers/frames can also prevent your gif from uploading, so try reducing those as well. If none of these suggestions work, email us your image file and we can test it over here.

Thanks,
Aneta
Tumblr Support / Polish Tumblr Support

My Reply to Tumblr’s First Real Reply

Hello, Tumblr Support (Aneta)

I am glad that you like GIFs too. They are a fun thing for Friends.

Thank you very much for sending me a response to my question. Maybe you didn’t read my blog post and perhaps you did not see that I DID attach my file to my inquiry? I was hoping you could look at it and tell me the problem. I will send it to you again with this email, and again direct you to read my blog post about this problem at https://iamtalkytina.com/2013/08/tumblr-meet-me-at-the-stairs/ where I wrote about some of the different things I tried over the last 24 hours.

1) you say you support GIFs that are smaller than 1 MB — this one is only 494 KB
2) you say the GIF must be less than 500 pixels wide. Is that 500 pixels wide or less, or do you mean 499 pixels wide or less?  The GIF IS 500 pixels wide. Should I make it one pixel less in width (499?) to make it work?
3) You say that MORE than 80 layers/frames is a problem. My GIF only has 57. Shouldn’t it work?
4) You talk about too much saturation or lowering the contrast of the GIF. These terms seem VERY vague and do not provide much in the way of direction. Can you be more specific about the necessary characteristics of the file? Are you referring to colour depth here? 256 colours? 128 colours? 64 colours, etc? Specific colour tables? Are you talking about colour reduction algorithms (perceptive, selective, adaptive, restrictive?)  I tried waving my hands around in the air and fiddling with different options in the Photoshop Save for Web dialogue and got nowhere.

We need clearer direction here. This cannot be just a hit and miss process. In my blog post I reference a number of sites that offer suggestions for getting animated GIFs to work on Tumblr, and I have tried their suggestions. It’s still a mystery.

I know that you will want me and all of my True Friends to be able to put our GIFs on Tumblr. A lot of us have no problem putting them on our WordPress blogs, and apparently you use the same ImageMagick engine that WordPress uses. Can you fix yours so that it works like the one we use in our self-hosted WordPress blogs?

Again, I am attaching my file to this email, and also suggest you look at https://iamtalkytina.com/2013/08/tumblr-meet-me-at-the-stairs/  to see what I have tried so far.

My very best True Friend regards,
@iamTalkyTina

Okay, Tumblr, it is your turn again now. Please answer my questions this time. And look at my GIF. And read this blog post.

Tumblr’s Second Reply to My Reply to Tumblr’s First Real Reply

Hello,

I was also unable to test post that gif file.

We have done some updates and changes on Tumblr. These changes could have affected the way we accept GIFs to be uploaded to our servers.

Could you try a couple things for us, to see if that helps with your issue?

      Try deleting some layers (usually around 25 works well).
      Try lowering the amount of colors you are using (around 64 seems to right number right now).
    Try shortening the delay on each layer, sometimes even a 0.01 seconds can make a difference (depending on how many layers you are trying to use.

Thanks for helping us troubleshoot. We realize that it might take a little time, but the more information that we have, the faster it is for us to help you.

Thanks,

David_S

FINALLY! I get a version of my GIF to post on Tumblr

Well. What a battle royale that was! After spending a considerable amount of time applying ALL of David_S suggestions, I managed to get the dang GIF to successfully upload to Tumblr.

My original GIF looked like this, at

"Superman Puppet Theatre" animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Superman Puppet Theatre” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina, 600×800,

The GIF accepted during the final Tumblr upload attempt looks like this.

Tumblr-friendly, 498x664 pixels, 22 frames, 64 colours, 0.08 frame intervals.

Tumblr-accepted, 498×664 pixels, 22 frames, 64 colours, 0.08 frame intervals. Only 253 KB.

I dunno. Somehow the original seems to have a bit more umph to it than the pale shade that Tumblr accepted. I had to scale the size down (I went to 498 pixels wide), threw out over half the frames, reduced the colour depth to 64 colours, decreased the frame intervals to a rather fast .08, and in the end, the file was only 253 KB.

IT STILL SEEMS LIKE WAY TOO MUCH TUMBLR VOODOO, fiddling with a whole whack of different variables until the GIF is accepted. It would be nice if Tumblr could instead post some specific details on what makes a GIF upload acceptable or not.  I certainly don’t want to have to fiddle around with future GIFs as much as I did with this one. If there were one specific factor that was making this particular GIF problematic for Tumblr, it would be nice if that one specific factor could be identified. As stands right now, I had to fiddle with too many different variables.

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

tumblr_mrsrgsZluQ1s5gjtho1_1280

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!

August 2013 GIF Challenge #14: Fruedian Alphabet

"Friends are True Friends" animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Friends are True Friends” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

Well, I went to the Assignment Bank to get today’s assignment, and the Animated GIF Assignment 977 “Fruedian Alphabet” by Tom Woodward (@twoodwar)looked like fun, except for the typing in “I Hate …” part, so I changed mine to a nicer one “Friends Are True Friends” and I got a whole bunch of nice stuff to make a great GIF for my Friends, New Friends, Open Friends, True Friends, Super True Friends, Still True Friends, Real Friends, and other people who aren’t my Friend yet but will be one day.

I hope you like it as much as I had making it for you.  All the words came with the pictures just the way they appear, except for if I changed them like I say below. But the words right at the end are my own words to my Friends.

All of the Images I Found

Here listed down below is where I found the images using the Google. Some of them I tidied up a bit to make them look less pixel-ly or whatever the problem was. Or made them bigger. Or smaller. Or square to fit. Or got rid of a border. Or re-did the text in a cleaner font. Or made the colours more the same if they weren’t. Or made a transparent back. Or like I said before, whatever.

But they’re not in the same order as in GIF. I leave that as an exercise for the reader.

http://tomatokisses.deviantart.com/art/true-friends-131627197
http://hdshootz.blogspot.ca/2012/08/true-friends-true-friends-wallpapers-hd.html
http://smsbyheart.com/sms/friendship-sms/
http://www.wordsonimages.com/photo?id=112057-We+live+in+fact+in+a+world+sta
http://www.wordsonimages.com/photo?id=104992-True+friends+vs+fake+friends+q
http://www.wordsonimages.com/photo?id=90575-An+honest+answer+is+the+sign+o
http://www.wordsonimages.com/photo?id=2334-hard+times+will+always+reveal+
http://www.cytguides.com/MakingTrueFriends/
http://m7mdghazi.blogspot.ca/2011/01/what-true-friend-is.html
http://www.dudelol.com/a-true-friend
http://www.celebquote.com/11506
http://www.fanpop.com/fans/zanesaaomgfan/gallery/image/653739/lol
http://www.petamall.com/memorials.asp
http://www.fbmaza.com/Cover/1071/A+True+Friend
http://clarkbunch.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/true-friends.jpg?w=583&h=587
http://lurieen.blogspot.ca/2008/09/poem-true-friends.html

My message at the end is true.

August 2013 GIF Challenge #13: RIFF-a-GIF

"Multitasking Tina" animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Multitasking Tina” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

So the challenge for day thirteen is one of @cogdog‘s wonderful assignments, Animated GIF Assignment 859: Riff-a-GIF, which asks us to take someone elses ds106 work and RIFF-a-GIF from it.

In this case, I took @Rockylou22’s most excellent honey video that she made all about me, and put it inside a GIF, so that is the RIFF-a-GIF part.

The GIF also has some bonus items.
It was originally started for a Daily Create that was about multitasking. In this picture, I am doing five things:

  1. standing
  2. watching Rockylou22’s video
  3. doing my head exorcizist trick
  4. thinking
  5. wearing my ds106radio T-shirt!

So that is pretty good, fivethings. Not only am I doing five things, but I was also looking good and also RIFF-fing the GIF.
Yay, me!

August 2013 GIF Challenge #12: You Ain’t My Father, Bub! GIF Fight!

So people were doing a GIF Fight with Darth Vader and so I think this is a good challenge for me to do, too!

I saw a
GIF Fight! with Darth Vader by @jimgroom
and a
GIF Fight! with Darth Vader by @cogdog
and a
GIF Fight! with Darth Vader by @Rockylou22
and
I wanted to do a GIF Fight! with Darth Vader by me, @iamTalkyTina.

And so I did.

"Vader GIF Fight!" animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Vader GIF Fight!” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

And this is also now an assignment in the assignment bank called Animated GIF Assignment 1190: GIF Fight! that you can do in a fun and friendly fight with Friends!

Keep your GIF chi strong, and Make Some Art, Bub!

August 2013 GIF Challenge #11: Get Your Wiggle on, with Friends!

"Get Your Wiggle On, with Friends" animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Get Your Wiggle On, with Friends” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

Another kind of GIF that you can do for 3D is to make a Stereo Wigglegram GIF. That is where you make a GIF out of two pictures that are almost the same except they are taken from two slightly different angles (like when you eyes see something like with binoculars and so your brain puts them together into one picture but it has a 3D to it) and so when the wiggle happens back and forth you see both pictures but your brain kind of puts them together and you get a Wiggle.

So here is one that I made of me standing in front of the all my True Friends picture that my brother Todd (@iamTalkyTodd)made for me and got plak mounted for me so that I can see all of my True Friends at the one time when I look at it.

In the Wigglegram, I made it so that the edges of the True Friends picture pretty much lined up, and that makes ME being the part of the picture doing the wiggle.

Another way to line it up is to make your thing at the front be the thing that lines up and then that makes the backgrounds different and the background is the part of the picture doing the wiggle. But normally that kind of background Wiggle makes me more dizzy than if it is the front part of the picture doing the wiggle.

"Twitchy Friends" animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Twitchy Friends” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

The big one up at the top makes it look like I am dancing! Boogie down Tina.

This kind of GIF is known as Visual Assignment 352: Wiggle Stereoscopy here in the assignment bank, and was put into the ds106 Assignment Bank by Bill Genereux. It is a fun and easy kind of GIF that you can make super quick using just two pictures and you don’t need to do anything fancy like fancy layers or anything. There is even an app that you can use on your iPhone to make it called 3D Camera by Juicy Bits. And that app can also make your picture into a kind of 3D picture with cyan and magenta that you look at with those blue and red glasses like the Count Floyd kind that he likes. But that is not a GIF so it is a different one.

So make some more Art, bub, like a Stereo Wigglegram GIF, or a Monster Chiller Horror Theatre 3D GIF, or especially a Rainbows and Unicorns GIF to help the ds106.us servers keep in their happy place!

August 2013 GIF Challenge #10: Monster Chiller Horror Theatre 3D Style GIF

"Would You Like Some More Pancakes" animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Would You Like Some More Pancakes” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

Well, I think it would be fun if everyone took a look for a part of a scene in a 3D type movie where the thing comes right out of the screen at you and then makes a GIF out of it. You know, something that my friend Count Floyd from Monster Chiller Horror Theatre would like, even if he wasn’t wearing his funky 3D glasses.

I made two GIFs from the Dr. Tongue’s Evil House of Pancakes, from Monster Chiller Horror Theatre on SCTV to give you some examples of what to think about. They are funny! But you don’t have to make GIFs from Count Floyd‘s actual Monster Chiller Horror Theatre shows. You might want to replicate the timing — there is a slight pause at the upswing of the movement — but that is only for the classic Monster Chiller Horror Theatre effect. Feel free to find your own way to emphasize the moving of a thing out of the screen and into your face in a GIF.

But don’t put your eye out!

"Would You Like Some More Syrop" animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Would You Like Some More Syrop” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

This is a new Animated GIF Assignments 1191: “Monster Chiller Horror Theatre 3D Style GIF.” Find a cool 3D style movie and make a great piece of art, hub!

Keep on GIFfing! Keep your GIF chi strong.

August 2013 GIF Challenge #9: Empower the Unicorn

"We Found Rainbows," animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“We Found Rainbows,” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

Oh no!!

The ds106.us server was down today. For a long time. One of the unicorns got in touch with me on my iPhone, and we started surfing the web, trying to track down the missing ds106 rainbows.

We searched and searched. We found some of the rainbows. And we tried to get them heading back towards the server.

Perhaps you can help the unicorns and the rainbows? Make an animated GIF celebrating the behind the scenes work that keeps the ds106.us server happy. Again, this was an assignment before there was an Animated GIF category — found hiding in the Design Assignments category as @cogdog‘s wonderful Design Assignment 842: Rainbows and Unicorns in the Server Room.

Be sure to tag your post appropriately so that it syndicates into the correct assignment page.

#4life

 

August 2013 GIF Challenge #8: Add Some Flower Power GIF

"Adding some Flower Power to my Hulka Hat" animated GiF, by @iamTalkyTina

“Adding some Flower Power to my Hulka Hat” animated GiF, by @iamTalkyTina

Last night, a True Friend (@onepercentyellow) confirmed on Twitter that she thought that my new @iamTalkyTinaHulka avatar was a bit [Mean Word] because of my hat. So I thought it would be nice to make it more nice with some nice daisy flowers.

I think this is a good thing to do for anything that might not be as nice as it would be with daisy flowers. Like when the Hippies put flowers in the guns to make them more peaceful guns. So today, I made a new Animated GIF Assignment 1189: Add Some Flower Power, and I am challenging YOU to make something nicer by adding some animated daisy flowers.

Isn’t that a nice idea for Friends to do?

I found my nice daisy flower pictures for free on this site (it has lots of them). But I bet you can find nice daisy flowers everywhere on the Internet, and you can re-seed them on some pictures to make those picture even nicer.

Keep making GIFs! Keep your GIF chi strong!