To find the program through Paint Shop, open Paint Shop and click File > Jasc Software Products > Animation Shop. When the program opens, it will open a new window so that both Paint Shop and Animation Shop are open at the same time. You do not need to have both open at the same, especially as this may strain some older computers.
Animations consist of frames viewed successively. Frames are individual images. Each frame needs to be slightly different from the one before it, to create the illusion of movement. The more frames you have the smoother, your animation will be.
Images used for creating animations can be PSP, JPEG or GIF files. Once the animation has been made with Animation Shop, it will be saved as a JIF file by default. This can be changed to suit your needs.
The easiest way to create an animation is to use the animation wizard. The menu icon for it looks like a little filmstrip, or you can use the keyboard shortcut. Press "Shift" and "A."
There are several stages to the animation wizard. You will need to work through them all to create an animation. If in doubt as to what to set the setting to, use the defaults, you can always go back and change something when you decide what it is you want.
Once you have created an animation, you can customize it, which involves selecting individual frames and applying or modifying transitions or effects. Transitions control how the animation moves from one frame to the next, such as a fade in or out. Effects manipulate frames in a dramatic way, such as a shaky camera. Applying transitions always results in new frames while applying effects can add or amend frames.
You can also insert or apply text effects.
If you want to begin or end your transition with a color rather than a frame, click "Canvas Color" under Start or End.
Export frames directly to Paint Shop and edit them there by right clicking the frame you want to edit and press "Shift" and "X." Make the changes you want then chose the "Update Back to Animation Shop" option.
If you intend to use your animation on a web page or presentation there is a special wizard to optimize them. Click "Shift" and "Z." Follow the prompts in the wizard.
"Shift" and "S" will allow you to resize your animations. Just be careful because changing the size too much can distort the image.
Click File > Print to print the animation by a single frame or all frames together.
To create an animated banner for a web page:
Click "Shift" and "B." Follow the wizard and set the background, size, timing, text color and transition style.
If you created an image in Paint Shop that you want to use for the banner, choose Files > Animation > Insert > Frames. Click "Add File" and select the one(s) you want. Click "Open." Complete the remainder of the dialogue, then click "OK."
To run your animation click View > Animation. If you like how it turned out, save it. If not, go back and repeat the steps.