by "X"

(Originally published at Snowflake Maker's Group as:
SMOOOOOTH animations~ (mssg#1953)

Dearest Flakers;

OK, so here's an answer to another of those "how'd you do that" questions.

I often do what I have  called "Animated Flakes".  They include flakes that show a lot of movement, such as a line that moves from "here" to "there", bubble flakes (made of small white circles, squares, or triangles that "travel" across the flake), super nova flakes/ zooming star flakes (a small circle or star that "grows" larger during the life of the flake), etc.

The secret to doing these "animations" is quite simple, really.  They can be done with positive OR negative flakes, but naturally, I prefer the negative ones!  The key is to make your neXt "move" appear very similar to the previous one. I find the best way to look at it is to think of each "move" as different frames in a film.  Think of a filmstrip of a man walking and looking at each frame individually.  If you look at the 1st frame, and then the second, there will be little difference noted between the two, "x"cept for perhaps a slight difference in the positioning of the man's one leg as it moves forward.  Add enough of these pictures together in the right order and speed and you'll get the "effect" of walking.

It works the same with the snowflakes.  Each cut is a move, or frame, from a filmstrip.  If the moves are subtle enough and similar in appearance to each other, and then the neXt move follows suit and so on, the result is an "animation" as the computer shows each cut individually and in order.  The closer in appearance each cut, or "move" is "x"ecuted, the smoother the animation will appear.

This works with every kind of snowflake.  Even if you are not working towards making a specific object move from "here" to "there".  Make your design start from the middle and work its way out, or from the outside working towards the center, as long as you continue to add your cuts beside each other and working towards "somewhere", the result will be an animated effect.

"bestest" wishes to you all~
"X"