Flash instructions for converting an animated gif to a movie

Why do this?
Well, for one, Flash loads much faster than an animated GIF, especially if the GIF consists of larger frames. Second, it will be of better quality (not jumpy). Finally, you can add sound to the graphic. Sound is cool! (sometimes…)

Suggestions
When doing these activities, I suggest you create a folder to put it all in so you don't get too awfully confused. Just a suggestion.

Step for Success

Step 1
Create your animated GIF in PSP or take an existing animated GIF from the internet. Save it.

Step 2
Find any relevant sounds on the internet that you want to use in the movie. These must be WAV files. You could also record your own using the Sound Recorder under Accessories. Try to avoid sound files that are too big. Save them.

Step 3
Open Flash and Paint Shop Pro (or other graphics program).

Step 4
In PSP, check the image size of your frames (since they should all be the same size, just open one of them and go to View, Image Information). Write down the size of the graphics in pixels.

Step 5
In Flash, change your canvas size to match the size of the PSP frame (Modify, Movie--Dimensions; keep in px--pixels).

Step 6
Import the animated GIF into Flash. (File, Import, locate your animated GIF file) It will import all of your frames into the timeline with the same time settings as the GIF. You can press enter after it imports to test it. Add any additional keyframes as needed to change your speed.

Step 7
If you want to add sound, add another Layer to work with (Insert, Layer). Notice the picture frames are on one layer and you will have a blank layer.

Step 8
Import the sound file (File, Import, locate WAV file). Nothing spectacular will happen. You'll add the sound to the timeline in a minute.

Step 9
Insert a keyframe on the new layer where you want the sound to begin playing (probably layer 2) by right clicking and going to Insert, Keyframe. A dot will appear in the box. Then, double click the box.

Step 10
In the dialogue box that appears, click the Sound tab at the top. For Sound, click the drop-down arrow and select your imported WAV file from the list. Then, click OK.

Step 11
Press enter to test the file. If it works as you want it to, you are ready to save. If not, make any necessary adjustments.

Step 12
Now, to publish the file so you can use it on a webpage--Save the file. Then, go to File, Publish Settings.

Step 13
Make sure that Flash and HTML are selected as file types. Then, click Publish. It will publish three files to your folder where the image was saved. If you called it Movie, for example, it would create Movie.fla (that is the Flash file so you can open it again if you need to make changes), Movie.swf (this is the file you will upload to your website to run the file), and Movie.html (this is the HTML file with the code that you will need to copy and paste to your website to make it work).

Step 14
Open Movie.html and copy everything between the <OBJECT> and </OBJECT> tags. Paste these into your document where you want the Flash movie to appear.

Step 15
Be sure you upload the Flash movie file (SWF) to the same folder as the HTML file you are creating to display the Flash movie.

Step 16
Open your HTML file in Internet Explorer and give it a test run! Congrats! You did it! You can put center tags before the object if you want it centered or you can put it in a table to help line it up appropriately.