I'm trying to make an animated cursor for Windows 11. I drew the individual frames in Kleki, combined them into a GIF with ezgif, and then converted the GIF into an .ani cursor file using the same site. The problem is that two of the three frames lose their transparency during the process and end up with solid black backgrounds.
I read that partial-transparency pixels might be confusing the converter, so I also tried filling the backgrounds with a solid color first, removing that color from the entire GIF, and converting it again. That changed the problem, but two frames now have white backgrounds instead.
I'm new to creating animated cursors and haven't been able to find much guidance. Is there a better file format or workflow that preserves transparent backgrounds throughout the process?
2 Answers
You could also try ScreenToGif. It has an editor that can import and work with GIF frames, and it’s a surprisingly capable free tool for this kind of image editing. It may give you more control over the transparency before creating the cursor file.
Try using APNG instead of GIF as an intermediate format. APNG handles transparency much better, so it can avoid the solid-background problem caused by GIF’s limited transparency support.
That worked! Switching to APNG before the cursor conversion fixed the backgrounds completely. Thanks so much!
I already found a solution with APNG, but I might try this too since it could be an easier workflow.