GiftedMotion
GiftedMotion is a free and easy to use open source GIF animator. Want to animate an avatar for a forum, but find Photoshop too expensive or too complicated to use? Then Giftedmotion is exactly the right tool for you! No installation required, no learning curve to put up with, promised! Just select the still images for your GIF, bring them in the right order, adjust the timing to your liking and record record the final animation. It is that simple.

Features
  • Platform independent, runs on every OS.
  • Multi language support (english deutsch italliano brasil polnish dutch(new!))
  • GPL software, no licensing costs.
  • KISS approach. No steep learning curve.
  • No installation required. Just put the jar file on your Desktop (or any place else) and start it. GiftedMotion will not bury itself into your operation system. Since GiftedMotion is small in size, you can even bookmark this page and come back and start it from here, whenever needed.
  • Supports the following input formats: PNG, JPG / JPEG, BMP and GIF.
  • Easy to adjust position of images within frames and size of the resulting image.
  • Preview function.
  • Able to edit existing images

System requirements
  • Minimum JRE version is 1.6
  • Preferably 1024 x 768 resolution.
  • Depending on the size of the pictures enough memory.


GiftedMotion on an eComStation machine with Open JDK Animated gif on an eComStation machine with Open JDK


Installing GiftedMotion
Download the file GiftedMotion-ecs.zip. This package includes the latest update with Dutch translation. Make a directory/map with the name "GiftedMotion" or something similar which fits your needs. Open the zipfile and copy everything to this directory/map. That's all!
There is more information available in the handbook.

The used gm.cmd file
GiftedMotion works with Open JDK in OS/2-eCS. Only help doesn't work in our version of Java. I have made a "gm.cmd" file with the following contents; 
@echo off
set CLASSPATH=
set BEGINLIBPATH=[drive: java]\JAVA160ga5\bin
set path=[drive: java]\JAVA160ga5\bin
[drive: giftedmotion]
cd [drive: giftedmotion]\GiftedMotion
java -Duser.home=[drive: giftedmotion]\GiftedMotion -jar giftedmotion-1.23.jar 2>giftedmotion-bugs.txt
I use 2 separate folders (directories), one for Java and one for GiftedMotion with the files created by this program. The references used in the cmd file;

  • [drive: java] = drive with Java
  • [drive: giftedmotion] = drive with GiftedMotion

should be replaced by real drive letters. You can also use "javaw" instead of "java". Adjust the file from the distribution below, ie. different drive and directories (maps). Save "gm.cmd", if you did download the file "GiftedMotion-ecs.zip", then the file "gm.cmd" is already in the right directory(map).

Create a new program object. Specify the path and file name: "[drive: giftedmotion]\GiftedMotion\gm.cmd". In the tabpage Session check the boxes "OS/2 window", "Running as an icon" and "Close Window to end program". In the tabpage General you can enter the name "GiftedMotion". The download also has a nice OS/2 icon.

Parameters / options explained
  • The specification "-Duser.home=[drive: giftedmotion]\GiftedMotion" will ensure that GiftedMotion will save all necessary files in own directory instead of saving them in the home directory. In the test it didn't produce files, so see it as a safeguard.
  • The addition "2>giftedmotion-bugs.txt" ensures that errors are saved in the file "giftedmotion-bugs.txt". The 2 in "2>" is not a typo! The file stays empty, good sign!

Download
In the file you can find the adapted program with the new Dutch translation, above command file (all drive letters are on set to C:) and an OS/2 GiftedMotion icon: GiftedMotion-ecs.zip.

revision March 15, 2020