This tutorial illustrates how to make an overlay to create burning fire using the lake effect.
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This first illustration shows the original image before any effects are added.

This is a simple image with a torch that would look great burning in the screensaver, so we are going to want to use the lake effect to animate the fire. Now this could be done animating it as a gif, but why bother trying to make a gif when AnimateIt has the power to do this built right into the program with a simple overlay! So open your original image and let's get started.

The easiest way to make sure your overlay lines up perfectly is to start at one of the corners and copy the portion of the image that contains the fire. In the case of this image I am going to start in the top left corner and copy from 0 pixels by 0 pixels to a bit past your fire. Now paste the copied area as a new image.

Now we need to make a second copy of the fire to use for the overlay so paste as a new image again. You will now have 2 identical images in this case like the one above. Leave the second copy for now and go back to the first copy. Save the first one as a jpg and name it fire.

When using the lake effect the animation will reflect anything that is close to the fire, so to avoid peices of the torch itself from showing in the animation we need to extend the fire on the first image which will be the background for the animated fire.
One thing to remember is that when the screensaver is running, you NEVER see the first image. This is simply what is gooing to show through the overlay.

Copy a peice of your fire and paste it on the areas surrounding the fire. The areas below for this image will be most important, as well as covering the base of the torch so it does not reflect in the fire. Because the fire is going to burn "up", for the most part what is below is what will show in the overlay. If this doesn't make sense, that's ok... just follow along and you will see in the final result. After I add the extra fire to the original it will look like this.

Save your changes and move that one out of the way and go to the second copy. This is the image we are going to use to make the overlay. Basically the way an overlay works is that you color a solid color over the area you want to animate. When added as an overlay in the screensaver this area will show as transparent and the fire on the original will show through. For fire we are going to want a rather jagged overlay to give a more realistic effect. so use the cut tool in your graphics program and cut out the entire area where the fire is. Select a color for your transparency. This is the color that will be inside the area you cut out. For this image I am going to use yellow. I prefer to use plain old Microsoft "Paint" for this. I find I get a nice smooth, clean overlay, but you can use any graphics program you are comfortable with.

One important note It is very important to choose a color for your transparency that is nowhere in the original image. When you set the color as transparent, anything that is that color in the image is going to be transparent and we do not want other bits showing through. You can either save this image as a transparent gif in your graphics program or you can set the transparent color in AnimateIt. Either way you decide to do it, save this as fire overlay.gif. See below for an example of what I mean.

While these both look odd alone, what we are after is the final effect. When they are put together the will look good!
Now that your images are ready it is time to start putting the screensaver together.
The first thing we need to do is add a background image because we are only using a partial overlay.
Click on the Options tab in AnimateIt and under the background section put a check in the use image box and then make sure the full screen option is checked. Now click on the select image button and find your original image which in this case is my image with the torch, plants and palm tree.

Now click on the sprites tab. Choose your first copy (fire.jpg) and add it to the sprites list. Click on the "Basic" button. Make sure that the image is highlighted by clicking on it. You will want to choose the path as stationary.
For THIS image I am going to set the position as top left corner.
If you copied from the top right corner, then you will select the position as top right corner.
If you copied from the bottom left corner, then you will select the position as bottom left corner.
If you copied from the bottom right corner, then you will select the position as bottom right corner.
If you copied the entire top of the image from one corner to the other then you will select the position as top.
Again, if you copied the entire bottom of the image from one corner to the other then you will set the position to bottom and so on. It is not necessary to change the initial direction.

Now make sure the image is highlighted by clicking on it and click on the effects tab. Choose Lake "Extended" and none for the preset from the drop down menus. Put a check in the vertical box and the "up" dot. Click on the overlay image button and choose your overlay. Now you will need to set your overlay color. Choose the color that you used as the transparent color. For more detailed instructions on this, see the AnimateIt help files. I suggest leaving your settings at the default first and then if needed you can adjust them to suit your image.

Click on the preview button and see how it looks.

If the fire only animates part way into the overlay, you can adjust the lake size. The default is 49 which for a partial overlay like this should be more than enough, but if your overlay is larger than half of the image in height, you may need to increase it by 10 at a time and preview again to see how it looks. If you see some of the original image showing through when your fire is burning, go back to your image editor and add more fire around or under the image to cover the parts that are showing through.

For this screensaver I added a little frog, a few firefly's and the sounds of crickets and frogs chirping at night. Here is a screenshot of my screensaver with the burning fire. Now obviously since this is a still shot you cannot see the animation, but notice that you see ONLY fire in the torch and I can assure you that in the running screensaver it flows up very nicely.

If you have any specific questions as far as using either AnimateIt or your gragpics program, please see the help files included with the program or visit the AnimateIt site by going to http://www.allersoft.com