NAME

GD::Image::AnimatedGif - Perl extension for creating animated gifs with GD

SYNOPSIS

            

              
              
use GD::Image::AnimatedGif;
# setup the image
my $image = GD::Image->new(42,21);
my $white = $image->colorAllocate(255,255,255);
$image->transparent($white);
# setup some font goodies
my $fontcolor = $image->colorAllocate(0,0,0);
my $font = GD::Font->Small();
# setup some settings into variables
my $loop = 0;
my $speed = 42; # 1/100 of a sec
my $x_font = 10; # from right (x or y ??)
my $y_font = 2; # from top (x or $y ??)
print "Content-type: image/gif\n\n";
print $image->animated_gif($loop,$font,$fontcolor,$speed,$x_font,$y_font,[qw(text per frame)],\&optional_frame_handler);
            
          

or

            

              
              
print $image->animated_gif_easy(0,0,\@array,\&optional_frame_handler);
            
          

So you can have this be your entire script, actual animation creation is on one line:

            

              
              
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use GD::Image::AnimatedGif;
print "Content-type: image/gif\n\n";
print GD::Image->new(50,20)->animated_gif_easy(0,[qw(10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Liftoff!)]);
            
          

DESCRIPTION

Quickly and easily create optimized animated gifs with GD.

animated_gif()

Returns an entire gif ready to use. The arguments are:

            

              
              
0 - loop the animation if set to true
1 - font object
2 - font color
3 - speed of frames in 1/100 of a sec
4 - x position of font
5 - y position of font
6 - array ref of strings to have in each frame
7 - (optional) code ref to handle creating each frame (see below for more info)
            
          

animated_gif_easy()

call animate_gif with some defaults so all you have to specify is:

            

              
              
0 - loop the animation if set to true
1 - set white transparency if true, (may want it to be false if changing the background color of each frame in a frame handler for instance)
2 - array ref of strings to have in each frame
3 - (optional) code ref to handle creating each frame (see below for more info)
            
          

The font is GD::Font->Small() in black. The speed is 42/100 of a second and the font's x is 4 and y is 2

\&optional_frame_handler

Without this the animation has one element of the array ref in each frame as a string.

It is using by default, essentially:

            

              
              
sub { 
    my $frm = shift;
    $frm->string($font,$x_font,$y_font,shift,$fontcolor); 
}
            
          

to accomplish this. If you specify a code ref it will be used instead and you will be able to do anything you want with each frame.

The first argument is the GD::Image object for the frame and the second is the array element we are on in the loop.

So you could use the array as a counter or other reference to decide how to manipulate the frame's GD::Image object if you like.

For example, to change the background color and text color in each frame:

            

              
              
my $frame_array = [
    { bgcolor => [0,0,0], fontcolor => [255,255,255] },
    { bgcolor => [255,255,255], fontcolor => [0,0,0] }
];
my $frame_handler = sub {
    my $frm = shift;
    my $arr = shift;
    $frm->colorAllocate( @{ $arr->{bgcolor} } );
    $frm->string(GD::Font->Small(),4,4,'Perl is great!',$frm->colorAllocate( @{ $arr->{fontcolor} } )); 
};
print "Content-type: image/gif\n\n";
print GD::Image->new(100,20)->animated_gif_easy(1,0,$frame_array,$frame_handler);
            
          

Or to create an animation based on a series of still images:

            

              
              
my $frame_handler = sub {
    my $frm = shift;
    my $imgx = GD::Image->new(shift) or die $!;
    $frm->copy($imgx,0,0,0,0,$frm->getBounds);
};
print "Content-type: image/gif\n\n";
print GD::Image->new(25,25)->animated_gif_easy(1,1,\@image_file_paths,$frame_handler);
            
          

SEE ALSO

See script example info at url in "AUTHOR" section below for "Secret Decoder Ring" script as an neat usage example ;p

            

              
              
L<GD>
            
          

AUTHOR

Daniel Muey, http://drmuey.com/cpan_contact.pl

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2005 by Daniel Muey

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

cpanm GD::Image::AnimatedGif

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install GD::Image::AnimatedGif