How to make a flying butterfly:

Open your saved butterfly with your animation program. Choose one with a transparent background.

Or you can just use mine:



Add 3 more frames for a total of 4. The butterfly should be in frame 1.



Highlight the butterfly, at the right.



Go to edit, and copy. Go to each frame and paste. You will now have 4 frames of exactly the same butterfly.

Leave frame 1 alone.

Go to frame 2, and highlight the butterfly in that frame, and right click on it. Go to object properties, position and size. Make sure "keep aspect ratio" is unchecked. We want to squeeze our butterfly from the sides, but not the top.



My butterfly has width 106, and height 71, to start. I changed frame 2's butterfly to a width of 91. You can go a little more or less than that, whatever you prefer. You will notice your butterfly has moved over to the left a bit. We will take care of that by going to the top of the page, with your butterfly still highlighted. Under Alignment, choose the last box. If you hold your mouse over it, it will say "center both."



Go to frame 3, and make your butterfly even skinnier. I chose width of 60. Center it just like you did the other one.

Go to frame 4, do the same thing again, but try to keep the width close to what you had for frame 2. Center again.

In order to avoid duplicates:
Hold down the control key and highlight all frames. Right click any frame. Click frame properties, and choose removal method, smart. To adjust timing, choose delay 10 for all frames. Click frame 1 to highlight only that frame. Right click frame 1, choose frame properties, delay 20.



Go to file, save as GIF. And now you have a flying butterfly!





To create an angel or fairy using your flying butterfly:

If you want to use these wings to create an angel or fairy, simply add a doll in front of your butterfly. Add a new frame to the beginning of your animation. This new frame will now be frame 1. Go to file, add image and find your doll wherever you have it saved on your computer. Click on your doll to highlight it. Make sure insert in the current frame is checked. Click open.



Your doll should now be added to the first frame of your butterfly animation. You may need to resize her, and you may need to adjust canvas size as well.



Sometimes when adjusting the size, an image becomes distorted. If this is the case, then you may need to find a different doll of a more suitable size.

Once you have your doll in your first frame and are sure she is the proper size, you need to add her into all the frames of your butterfly. Go to each frame that has a butterfly in it, and center the butterfly in the frame. Then go to the frame with your doll. Copy and paste her into the first butterfly frame. Click on the pick tool.



Click and drag the doll to the proper position in front of your wings. You may need to resize the canvas again at this point. It’s okay if the canvas is too big, because we can crop it later. If your butterfly overlaps your doll, highlight the doll. Go to Order and click the third arrow, as shown. This will bring her to the front.



Next, simply copy and paste your doll into each of the remaining frames. Delete the first frame. Now you should have four frames total.

In order to get your canvas to the proper size, go to the first frame. Highlight both the doll and the butterfly. (Ctrl + click on each of the objects in frame 1). Do not highlight any other objects except the doll and butterfly in frame 1. Go to edit and click crop canvas.



Click Preview. You may want to adjust the timing again, or leave it as is. Go to file and save as GIF. Now you have an angel with moving wings.

Very nicely written OliveOyl

Thank you!