One of the things that Hyperstudio does very nicely is animate objects on the screen. Whether they are static objects or animations themselves, you can draw a path and move your object wherever you want.

That's, of course, based on the premise that you have the perfect object.

What if you want to create your own? Well, Adobe Photoshop Elements comes to the rescue. Using the layers concept, you can create your own animated GIF files.

Here's how!

Create a new document and set the size. In this case, I'll use a standard 300 x 200 graphic.

Now, in that window draw or place your text.

This will be the first frame of our animation. To create the second frame, open your Layers tab and add a new layer.

On this new layer, create your second frame.

Repeat the process, adding a new layer for each frame that you wish in your final production. In this case, it's starting to look kind of cluttered. If you look carefully in the layers window, you'll see two little eyes. This indicates that both layers are visible. If the clutter bothers you, click on the eye to make a particular layer invisible so that you can see just the layer that you want.

So, you can add as many frames by creating new layers as you wish. When you're done, from the File Menu, you'll select "Save for Web". As noted below, there are lots of options. Make sure that you're saving as a GIF, check the animate button, loop your animations and adjust the frame delay to get the appropriate speed. Then save it!

You now have a perfectly crafted animated GIF file. Into Hyperstudio you go, and add a button. Under places to go, things to do, select "Play an Animation", choose your masterpiece and play it!

Or, stick it in a webpage like below!

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