ok it's my turn

ok I will ask, how do you do that neat thing with the hugs around the names. ???

I am computer litearte, but nto that savvy..
Can you throuw an old girl a bone ?????

Sorry Jenn but I had to ask..
{{{{{{{{{ hugs to jennifer always in my heart and on my mind.. even more so.. }}}}}}}}}}}}

<font color=purple>The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.
- G.K. Chesterton
<font color=purple>

{{{{{{Dexter}}}}}

Those gifs are awesome....that was very nice of you. Hope your day is going good and that you are eating and taking care of yourself.


Heather

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life - it goes on."
~~Robert Frost

Lady Dragus they are actually images that I posted. They are animated gifs, like the images of Santa and "hugs" that SeptMorn and Heathern have in the signatures to their posts.

I made them up in Adobe Illustrator and animated them with Adobe ImageReady, then I uploaded them to my webspace and referenced the images in the forum posts.

There are simpler tools for making animated gifs available (the Adobe products are expensive, I use them for work) I think there is something called GifCreator or something available free or as shareware. You also need some software to create the art itself, something like the "paint" program included with Windows may work if you don't have anything fancier. PaintShopPro is a great program, I used to use it before getting Adobe Photoshop, it has most of the features of Photoshop at far less price. PaintShopPro may also be able to animate the images itself by now.

Finally you need a place to "host" the finished images. I have a web host I use for my website at <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.idexter.com>http://www.idexter.com</A> but many internet providers give you some space as a part of your regular membership fee, you may have to "activate" it with them.

---

Also should mention that I made the background color for the gifs match the background of the posts on the website, I got the color values by peeking at the source code for these pages. I prefer that to giving the gif a "transparent" background because it gives a cleaner look around the edges of the letters. The disadvantage is that the image won't work as well if used on a different color background.

I'm trying to work on various things here since I am home from work (on disability because of the depression) and I am trying to get back into a productive state again. It is slow going. Working a bit on these images and actually having the patience and concentration to finish them and follow through is a small but good sign.

So, like most things in life, the act of "giving" has as much if not more benefit for the giver as for the givee. Especially in this case.

I also want to reiterate that I am new here and have a long way to go before I know everyone and their personalities and needs. So these images I did as an excersize for myself and the recipients are just a few of the people I noticed in my time here as deserving, but that doesn't mean that others aren't deserving. Like going to a party and meeting some great people as soon as you get there... doesn't mean that there aren't other great people at the party whom are destined to become your friends as well, these are just a few people who happened to be in the buffet line with you so you met them first.

I'm kind of sensitive about this myself (amplified about a million times because of the depression) and I don't want anyone to feel slighted. I will try to make more of these as I go along if I can.

I wanted to thank all of you personally for the show of caring and support. These are tough times.
Chris, thank you the most. I'm really struggling .

You need a hug you got it
((((((((HUGS, HUGS and more HUGS))))))))
Hope you are feeling bettter real soon.
Hugs are such good things for me too!
A small thing can make a person feel so much better.

>>These are tough times. I'm really struggling.

I hope you can hold on for as long as it takes to get through this. Hopefully it will help a lot to be here with people who not only care about you, love you, and want you to feel better; but who also can understand better than anyone else how difficult it can be to cope with depression and how difficult it makes dealing with all other aspects of life.

Hang on to your inner strength and make use of all of the support, help and understanding that you can get from the people around you.

Here's another from me.

((((((((Serenity))))))))

I know how it feels to be struggling and "needing a hug" so here is a {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Hug}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} for you. I hope things get better!

And to crappy days, however many of them there are !!!!!

Fuzzy xx

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{{{{{{{(((Huggie one)))}}}}}}}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$(((Huggie two)))$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
*****************************(((Huggie three)))**********************************
That one is for you and me ...

Though I have fallen, I will rise.
though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light
...He will bring me out into the light; I will see his
righteousness........... Micah 7:8-9

((((((((((((Serenity)))))))))))

I have adobe photoshop. so I may play around with it..
Thank you.
I have webspace too, so I will jsut upload it there. but thank you

<font color=purple>The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.
- G.K. Chesterton
<font color=purple>

>>I have adobe photoshop. so I may play around with it.

If you have one of the more recent versions (approx the last 2 or 3 years?) then Photoshop comes with the companion program ImageReady which is what you will use to create the animation. For some reason Adobe has chosen to keep the two apps separate instead of just putting all of the features into Photoshop, even though almost all of the other features overlap.

If you don't have ImageReady then you can still make the GIFs for each "frame" of the animation in Photoshop, and then look for something cheap or free on the web to combine the frames into one animated GIF. It is easy in Photoshop if you use layers for all the changes. (ImageReady lets you turn the layers into frames one by one for a more integrated solution.)

If you know your way around the basics of Photoshop you should have no problem doing this. If you want help on one of the features needed to do this feel free to drop me an email or a private message!

<hr>

Since this is Serenity's thread, she gets another hug in compensation of my "off topic" post.



The world is what we make of it

I love the animated hug dexter...thank you...seems every thread goes into new topics and thats natural and ok no worries...but thank you for the hugs