Can't make an animated GIF with the layers grouped to apply fx

[Khalaris]

I was so excited to use layer group fx to make nice looking animated gifs, but when I try to export, the dialogue tells me it can't animate because there's only one layer

Is there a way to apply the fx of the layer group to all layers? Then I could remove the group and export normally.
Or maybe make the export function resolve the grouped layers with their fx?

[rich2005]

(04-29-2025, 07:30 PM)Khalaris Wrote: I was so excited to use layer group fx to make nice looking animated gifs, but when I try to export, the dialogue tells me it can't animate because there's only one layer

Is there a way to apply the fx of the layer group to all layers? Then I could remove the group and export normally.
Or maybe make the export function resolve the grouped layers with their fx?

I can not find any easy way, Gimp 3 being very new is lacking all the old useful plugins.

The only way I can see is use new-from-visible with the layer group and a single layer visible to get a new layer with the fx applied. Then select and drag outside the group.

   

[Khalaris]

(04-29-2025, 08:35 PM)rich2005 Wrote: The only way I can see is use new-from-visible with the layer group and a single layer visible to get a new layer with the fx applied. Then select and drag outside the group.

Thank you. I solved my problem by duplicating the whole group, deleting all the layers from the new group, then duplicating the empty one with just the text and fx 60 times and painstakingly moving each layer into its own dedicated group. Amazing workflow for gifmaking XD (But at least it works haha)

If it's possible I will definitely make myself a little script or something to automate all the clicking and dragging.

[Ofnuts]

(04-29-2025, 08:49 PM)Khalaris Wrote:

(04-29-2025, 08:35 PM)rich2005 Wrote: The only way I can see is use new-from-visible with the layer group and a single layer visible to get a new layer with the fx applied. Then select and drag outside the group.

Thank you. I solved my problem by duplicating the whole group, deleting all the layers from the new group, then duplicating the empty one with just the text and fx 60 times and painstakingly moving each layer into its own dedicated group. Amazing workflow for gifmaking XD (But at least it works haha)

If it's possible I will definitely make myself a little script or something to automate all the clicking and dragging.

I have scripts to

• splice a stack of layers into a single layer (on which you can apply effects), and a single layer back to a stack of small layers (ofn3-layer-tiles)
  
• overlay something on a bunch of layers (ofn3-interleave-layers)
  

Script are here.

For any questions see here:

• ofn3-layer-tiles
  
• ofn3-interleave-layers
  

[Khalaris]

(04-30-2025, 08:29 AM)Ofnuts Wrote: I have scripts to

• splice a stack of layers into a single layer (on which you can apply effects), and a single layer back to a stack of small layers (ofn3-layer-tiles)
  
• overlay something on a bunch of layers (ofn3-interleave-layers)
  

Script are here.

For any questions see here:

• ofn3-layer-tiles
  
• ofn3-interleave-layers
  

Thanks for those scripts! They don't work for my particular use case, but I can definitely use the interleave one if I have a text layer I want to put on all the frames of my animation.

I spent the last couple of days writing a script to automate what I did manually before. Unfortunately I couldn't find a way to copy the filters that are attached to the group onto the individual layers. And when I tried it in GIMP I found that using a filter on a 'normal' layer doesn't actually add an editable filter, the way it does with a group layer, so that was a no-go. (not like I spent several hours trying to get it to work in my script. oh well.)

[rich2005]

Yes, me too. Finally got a couple of very-very simple script-fu .scm's to work after hours of searching for examples. Back a couple of posts and the only thing I found was to apply a new-from-visible to the layer group + a layer.

This doing it manually. I have no idea how to iterate though a layer group

all of 20 seconds https://i.imgur.com/8eyQSpv.mp4

[Khalaris]

(05-03-2025, 05:53 PM)rich2005 Wrote: Yes, me too.  Finally got a couple of very-very simple script-fu .scm's to work after hours of searching for examples.  Back a couple of posts and the only thing I found was to apply a new-from-visible to the layer group + a layer.

This doing it manually. I have no idea how to iterate though a layer group

all of 20 seconds https://i.imgur.com/8eyQSpv.mp4

I've never used New from visible before, but yeah, that would also work.

I have no clue about script-fu or scm though. Python was enough of a trick to (sort of) learn. It took me a while to find out how to iterate through a group, in the end I used a for loop with Gimp.Item.get_children( <groupLayer> )

EDIT: I've now made a really nice looking gif (way better than any I've done before) and to my unending disappointment I didn't even need my script hahaha