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Say
Hello to Irfanview
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Start
Irfanview.
Irfanwhat, you ask? If you haven't used Irfanview, welcome to
planet Earth. Get this free image utility at www.irfanview.com - it's a
must-have. No wonder it's been downloaded at download.com or tucows and
many others by dozens of millions of users.
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Select the slideshow option from the File menu
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Find the folder containing your animation's frames which you saved as
image sequence:
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You
can drag-and-drop them all into the active list below, or click 'Load'
or Load all, if those are the only images in that folder.
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Set the speed at which
it will lay back the 'slideshow'. It can be a few seconds per frame, or
in our case 15-20 frames per second. For 20 fps you'll need a delay of
0.05 seconds:
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In the section on
Slideshow options, be sure to check the box "Loop slideshow"
Also, Hide the mouse cursor.
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There are also options for how to play the slideshow: in a window
of particular dimensions, or in full screen mode. If you want it to
become a screensaver you'll want fullscreen mode, and click also the
Full screen options for additional details.
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Here's one fullscreen option you don't want to enable: Resampling.
If you have an image sequence that's smaller than the screen resolution
at playback (or larger), then it will resize the images as it displays
them. A plain resize can be fast enough but if you ask it to also
resample the pixels for smoothing and de-pixelation, it might slow down
the animation. I recommend unchecking that option for that reason.
Hey, it's a screensaver, not a a presentation for a digital art frame.
Forget about having the absolutely highest possible quality or
definition for a moment,... chances are you'll be away from the monitor
anyway ;-)
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Ready to
save as Screensaver
Click this option:
Save slideshow as EXE/SCR
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This is your last dialog :
- select Screensaver as the format (instead of
standalone executable)
- play in fullscreen mode
- remember the destination folder or save it to
the desktop or MyDocuments so you can easily find it. Give it a good
name.
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You can click 'Create', and a few seconds later it's done.
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Installing
the Screensaver
Select the created screensaver file: The screensaver file is a
file ending in .scr
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Be careful though if someone ever sends you an email with a file
attached that's named .scr - it could also be a script, and possibly a
virus or trojan, spyware or worm. Never open an email attachment
without protection.
As for your screensaver file you just created, it's safe of course, you
can double-click it to test it and see the animation play fullscreen.
Click again or hit a key to quit the screensaver when done.
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If you like the way
it looks, it's ready to become the screensaver for your system: copy it
into the folder where Windows holds most screensavers:
C:\WINDOWS\System32
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Then simply right-click on the Windows desktop, and select Properties
to open the display properties:
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Select the Screen
Saver tab in the Display Properties:
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Select your
newly created
screensaver
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Click [Preview] to test it
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coming soon:
going beyond, with additional tricks and special fx
In a following tutorial we'll explore additional effects we could
apply, to make it look more like a nigh scene, with light coming out of
the windows, and some more hazy foggy appearance with light diffusion.
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click
here for larger version
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