help with animated .gif and/or rotating image

[STV123]

I am a volunteer with a non-profit. I created a donate button with paint.net, you can see it on the website at http://www.manoamano.org, the red ball in the top right corner. I would like to change this to an animated .gif and have a one-time little thing happen to catch the viewers eye, something that would look like a sparkle or like sunlight glinting off the surface of the ball, or maybe the light reflection that is on the ball could rotate slightly and then rotate back? I am not very familiar with paint.net but I have been trying and I have not been able to do this. I tried rotating the image but I could not figure out how do get that to work. Can someone please help me with this, either by making an animated .gif that would do something like I describe, or by giving me some guidance in how to do it myself.

Thank you in advance.

[csm725]

Download Simon Brown's plugin pack here: http://paintdotnet.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=30524

Place it under C:// > Program Files > Paint.Net > Effects (I believe that is the correct filepath). Restart Paint.Net. You should now have an option to save as a .agif in the Save dialog.

Open the file of the 'Donate' button. On a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N), go to the gradient tool ( ) and put it in linear gradient mode ( :LinearGradient: ). Set your primary color to white and your secondary to any color with an Alpha value of 0. Then switch to Transparency Gradient mode ( :AlphaChannel: ). Fade out the gradient on the edges to your liking. Save it as a .agif file when you're done.

Another alternative: Duplicate the layer of the button, go to Adjustments > Brightness and Contrast (Ctrl+Shift+C) and set it to make it darker. Then use a transparency gradient to fade it out on one side. Merge layer down. Now duplicate the layer. Go to Rotate/Zoom (Ctrl+Shift+Z) and rotate it 10-30 degrees. Repeat the process of duplicating and rotating until you rotated the layer to 360 degrees (If rotating by 10 degree intervals, you should have 35 layers. If by intervals of 20, you should have 17 layers plus one layer that has been rotated by 10 degrees. If rotating by 30 degree intervals, you should have 11 layers.) Save as a .agif and thats it.

Both of these should look fine.

-CSM725

[STV123]

I am new to paint.net sorry for the dumb questions. first, how do I duplicate the layer?

and, after I rotate/Zoom (Ctrl+Shift+Z) and rotate it 10-30 degrees -- how do I save that new rotated layer?

Thanks

[csm725]

Okay, duplicate layer is Ctrl-Shift-D

You don't need to save the layer, you can just save the whole thing (Ctrl-S) as a .agif file and it saves each layer as a frame of the animation. You should also see http://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/en/index.html (The help file) and http://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/en/KeyboardMouseCommands.html (Keyboard shortcuts).

[Frontcannon]

You seem to be new at web design, too.

Never ever use gifs.

[csm725]

Yes, use .png's. But if it's animated, .agif is the way to go, because not everyone uses Firefox or Opera.

[yellowman]

If you mean something like this, then feel free to use any one as long is non-profit organization.

EDIT: check your PM

[STV123]

I want to thank everybody for their help and tutorials and images, I really appreciate you sharing your expertise. I am learning paint.net little by little but I am just starting and I have a lot to learn. If I manage to create something, I will let you know.

A big thanks to yellowman for the images!

here's a link to my first crude attempt, like I said, I am still learning. The text is supposed to stay level while the light reflection moves a little and then the animation stops, just the one little, subtle thing to catch the viewers eye.

http://mnforensicnurses.org/manoDonate/donate-image.html