Do you need an avatar?

[Earthshine]

I see what you mean there. It's still a good attempt. Is there any way to make it a touch more smooth or is that as good as it gets?

I'd just love to have a Bem gif avatar. If there is another image maybe of him that would work better I'm open for any suggestions...

But still it's great for you to do this, thank you for anything you're willing to do. I'm grateful.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Maybe if I stack the frames, THEN crop and scale them it would guarantee that they stay in alignment. I could also try slowing down the speed of the display which was 10 FPS by default. Can't do anything about the sparkles though, too few pixels left after shrinking to avatar size.

BTW t did this with the Gimp.

[Earthshine]

I've heard good things about Gimp.

If you think that might work and it does, that's fabulous. But if it doesn't that's fine. The first one is great too even with its wobble.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

I got a chance to try again. I stacked the captured images first, then cropped them, then scaled them. I also slowed the animation to 150ms from 100ms per frame. I think it looks a bit better!

[Earthshine]

It's wonderful, much clearer and the sparkles are much more noticeable.

Thank you very much for your help!

Awe Bem! You're so cute!

Really this makes me smile a lot.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

You're welcome. Anyway, I got a chance to figure out how to use a few more things in the Gimp properly!

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

BTW, for those curious some instructions for making GIF's are here:
http://www.astroboy-online.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3009

If you are using the latest GIMP here's a quick rundown of the process.

First collect the series of .jpg frames (they can be captured as ANY image format, but most programs default to making .jpg frame grabs). The max number of frames that will fit in a 100x100 GIF sized at 50K (this sites limit) is probably 8 or less.

Open the first frame with the gimp, and then use LAYER->NEW to create a new layer to paste the next frame on top of. Click OK in the pop up window to do it.
Open the next frame with the gimp and goto the new window with the frame. Use Select->all and Edit->Copy to get the image into the clipboard. Now paste it onto the first window (base frame) with Edit->Paste. Finally use Layer->Anchor_Layer to finish the paste. Open the third frame in a new window and repeat the operation to create the next layer on the original image opened. Once all of the images have been pasted you can close the second to last images you opened.

Now use Tools->Transform_Tools->Crop to cut out a square portion of the image you wish to convert into the Avatar (well the avatar doesn't HAVE to be square, but it will be limited to 100x100. No side may exceed 100 pixels in the end.) Right now we don't care about the size, only the shape. Click the mouse pointer over one corner of the square, drag it to the far corner, and look at the dimensions to see you have a square. After letting go of the mouse button you'll have an outlined area that will be cut. Finish with the enter key.

Now go to Image->Scale_image. Make sure the link is locked so both dimensions scale together. Reduce to 100x100 pixels and click Scale button.
Now use Image->Fit Canvas_to_Layers to remove the unwanted part of the image.

You now have a stacked image with all of your frames. Save it as a GIF using File->Export_As. Give a file name, select image type as GIF from the drop down box and hit export button. In the popup, click on the animation box, and click export. You might want to experiment with different animation speeds, 100 to 200ms usually works.

Finally, cross your fingers and hope your new GIF is under 50k in size. If not, you might have to stack fewer frames, or use a smaller size than 100x100. The Avatar I just did here came in at 48-49K (Phew!). YMMV!

[jeffbert]

The color in that episode is rather washed-out. You might try increasing the contrast, decreasing the brightness, & if you have a gamma control, decrease that also.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

The color in that episode is rather washed-out. You might try increasing the contrast, decreasing the brightness, & if you have a gamma control, decrease that also.

I had downloaded that episode from YouTube and then captured the frames using Avidemux. I think the Gimp has controls to adjust contrast and such (probably calls them something else) but I was struggling to just figure out how to create the animated GIF at the time. When I get a chance I'll see if I can do anything with the JPG images.

Actually wasn't that the ONLY episode done in color from the 60's (other than mission to Mars)? Wasn't there another episode done in single tone color as well?

[Earthshine]

There was one full-color episode done that takes place on the moon. I can't remember the title... maybe Lunar Mission? I do know that it was only available in Japanese but the Right Stuf boxed sets had the episode available as an extra.

To my knowledge I'm not sure if they made another dual colored episode other than the one with Bem in it.