Introduction
the GIF89A standard does allow multiple images to be stored within
a single GIF file. However, most image processing software
hasn't taken advantage of this feature.
Netscape have introduced an application header block that allows an
animated GIF to be looped a number of times when loaded into a browser.
Unlike the now defunct dynamic documents this does not cause any
further network traffic once the image has been loaded once.
How do they do that?
To produce your own animated gif you need to
- draw the images using the same colourmap if possible.
this will prevent colourmap flickering you might
get to see otherwise.
- join the images together using a program made for the job.
for MSwindows there is a program called the
Gif construction set by alchemy mindworks Its
a primitive tool but does the job. There are alternatives.
- Add the netscape application header using a suitable utility.
- If you cant manage the last bit, you can
always reuse an existing animated gif, using it to provide the header
and replacing the images within it.
- thats it... err its easy if you understood the above messages
- the picture at the top of this document is a simple animated gif