Here is the basics of animating a cartoon doll (and this tutorial could easily be used for other types of graphics as well). I am going to assume you already know how to edit avs/dolls, and that you have on your computer, Paint Shop Pro version 6 or higher. I will be using Animation Shop version 2, an animating program that is packaged with PSP. You can download a free trial of PSP at www.jasc.com.
   If you use The Palace Chat, this might be a little easier for you, because as you know you can make make your avs animated in Palace. But with this animation shop, you can control how fast or how slow you want the animation to go, along with many more things. The doll I will be using is one of my own creations. Please note that the dolls on this page are of my own creation and so is this tutorial. Please do not post either of them to other pages, but I would love a hyperlink :)

   First, open up Animation Shop, by your start menu or by going to File Run Animation Shop in your PSP. Once it is open, go to File Open, and open up any doll you wish to animate. I will show you how to simply make a doll eyes move from side to side.
   Your doll is now open, and you will see that it is in one frame. Currently there is no animation on your doll. If you make the background on your dolls transparent, you will see grey and white checkered boxes behind your doll. This simply means that part is transparent.

   You should zoom in a couple of times, so that you can see everything clearly. Go to View Zoom in by and choose which option you want. Now, right click on the doll and click on duplicate. This will make an exact copy of the doll and place it to the first cell's right hand side.
Now click on the second frame so that it is highlighted. Your animation should now look like this:

   Now, zoom in if you already haven't. Have both faces on your screen so you can refer to the other one if you make a mistake.

   Click on the brush tool . Then, hold down your alt key on your keyboard to get the color dropper, and click on the color of the eyes. That is now the color you will be working with. Also, be sure that your pixel width is set to 1 pixel.

      *Note: If you aren't seeing the tools I am talking about, right click on one of the toolbars you        DO see and click all of your toolbars on.

   Now in the second frame, move the pupil of the eye to make it look like its looking the opposite way. Your doll's eyes will look filled with the color, so then click on the color palette on white or near white, and fill in the other side with the white of the eyes. Our dolls should now look similar to this:

   We can take it even further now, and add one eye winking or both blinking at the same time. Duplicate the second doll as before, and then click on the third cell that popped up. Pick up the dolls eyelash color using the alt key, and then edit the eye or both eyes to look closed. You can also now put on eyeshadown onto your dolls eyes if you want to.

   After you are done with that you may zoom out now to the dolls original size. To view the current animation, click on .

   Now, you've just animated your doll! :D But, you may not like how fast or how slow the animation is going. No Problem! Click on the arrow tool on your tool bar. Then, click on the first cell (doll) to highlight it. Right click on her, and then click on Properties. A dialog box will pop up and will want you to enter a number. Enter in 100. Right click and do the same thing on the second and third cell, except make the blinking cell(s) a lower number, lets say 25.
   Now look at your animation and see if you like it better. If you don't, play around with adding more cells and editing the eyes, and also changing the time of how long each cell shows.

   When you are done with your animation, its time to save. BEFORE YOU SAVE: Go to Window Duplicate Animation. This is just for insurence :)
   To save: Go to File Save As... Now, name it and save it to a file you can get back to and remember. Keep clicking next until you get to finish. Now, you should have your animation...Here is mine :D

   Now, you may notice your animation only runs through one time when you set it up on your web page. You can set how many times you would like your animations to run through, or you can make it 'loop' indefinately.
   Go to Animation in the toolbar and click on Animation Properties. Click on the looping tab in the dialog box that pops up. You now have a choice, you can choose repeat the animation indefinitely, or you can choose how many times you would like it to play. Choose whatever you want, then click ok. Now click on Save to save it. And your animation is ready for your web page!

   Are you having any problems? Check this Troubleshooting page of mine.

   Here is a listing of keyboard shortcuts to use in Animation Shop.