Everyone here loves using powerpoint for their presentations, which means that I need to create animated gifs for these. One thing to note right away is that Powerpoint will not play an animated gif that isn't looped. So if you don't want to loop your animated gif, you can use the maximum allowed delay time on the final frame 240 seconds (you still have to loop it though). If this still isn't enough time you should:

1. Place the final image of your animation in your powerpoint
2. Place your animated gif over that image (layered)
3. Add a dissappear animation to your animated gif on click
4. Now when your animation is completed you can click and talk as long as you need, without worrying if your animation is going to play again

Animating Video

I was presented with a need to create a animated gif of a book opening. At first I tried to take a picture as I opened a book, but this presented many problems and made it very choppy. I figured the best way to do this is by using video. So I took a video of the book opening, then I converted the video to a .swf using Adobe Flash.

1. Click File --> import --> Import Video
2. Select your video and click next
3. select 'embed video in SWF and play in timeline'
4. Click next all the way through to the finish unless you feel a need to change any of these settings.

Once this is completed your video will be broken up into individual frames. Mine was 30, yours may be longer or shorter depending on the video. To create a gif you need to click each individual frame and performt he following action:

1. Click file --> export --> image (name this something that makes sense, I numbered mine)
2. Click the next frame
3. Repeat until all frames are saved

Once you are done converting the entire video into jpg images go to Adobe Photoshop and open the first frame. Next past the second frame on top of this. Then the next, and the next. Until the entire video is pasted and layered into a photoshop file. Once this is complete:

1. Click --> File --> 'edit in image ready'
2. Once in Image Ready hide every layer except for the first one (first frame of your movie) by clicking the eyeball next to each layer
3. Now you need to have the animation window open. click Window --> Animation
4. Once this is open you should see your first frame
5. Select the amount of time you want your frame to show (this should be .5 seconds if you want a smooth animation, although you may want it to be longer on the first and last frames) Also you want to select 'forever' or 'once' for how many times you want to play your gif. You want to select forever for powerpoint, because powerpoints Will NOT play the gif otherwise. See my first numbered bullets for making this flow well.
6. Once your settings are correct click the paper looking icon to the left of the trash can. This will create a new frame in the animation pane. Right now this frame looks the same.
7. Unhide your next layer in the Layers pane, thereby revealing your next frame. This will now change to the next frame in the animation window
8. Repeat 6-8 until you have revealed your entire video.
9. Once your animation is perfected click file --> save optimized as (this will give you the oportunity to save your gif)
10. Your done, check out your new animated gif!

My animation I created was an opening book. I used photoshop to add the text to the book, the pages were blank and the cover as well. This took a lot of editing to get it to work. See my animation below (hit refresh to get it to play again):