Here is what we are going to make

This lesson is fairly easy, it is actually easier in PI2000 & 2001 because of the text tool in those programs. But I did this lesson in DIP. I had to make a few adjustments, but finally got it to work. So here we go.
First you want to open a blinkie space, go to the top and click

Then go to FORMAT/RESIZE IMAGE. Here you need to change the measurement to PIXELS by clicking the dropdown menu above the word UNITS. Then delete the first number type in 25. Now unclick the box that says MAINTAIN PROPORTIONS and delete the 2nd number and type in 100. Now click done. Remember that I used this size because I have a small name, but if you have a long name, you may need to make your space longer, so you can resize it to fit by changing the 100 to a bigger number.
Because your blinkie is so small, at any time you can't see something you have added like text or a shape, you will need to zoom out to find it. You do this by going to the bottom right of your screen and moving the zoom slider to the minus (left)

Once you find your missing part, move it on top of the work area and then zoom back in. Having said that, you will now need to add your blocks. To do this go to the top, click on INSERT/SHAPE and choose the square with the slanted corners (that is what I used you can choose any of them).

I added one

then to get rid of the black border around the shape, you will go to the top and click

Then you need to click the first option here

I chose to duplicate it 3 more times by clicking CTRL+d. And you will not see your shape, because it is somewhere else, so zoom out to find it and move it to your work area, resize it to fit. You need to make it shorter than your space, so you have room to make it move up or down, so squash it down a little bit. You also have to try and line them up even, you can always use the auto line by clicking on all of your blocks by holding down CTRL and clicking each of them to the right of your work area in the stack. Dont lock them, but go to FORMAT/ALIGH MULTIPLE OBJECTS. Here you first choose SPACE HORIZONTALLY then repeat and use Vertically.

If you can do this by just looking that it OK also, since it is a very small project and most people wont see that you are out of line a tiny bit.
Now you need to add your text. This was one of the hardest parts since with the text tool it only lets you make your text only so small, and that isn't small enough in this lesson. So I found a way around this. I added the first letter, again you wont see it, so zoom out and find it, pull it up to your work area and change the font to what you like and make it the smallest it will go "8".

Now duplicate this as many times as there are letters in your name. zoom out to find the duplicates, and change each one to the correct letter. Drag them up to your blinkie. At this point the only way I could get them smaller was to go and click EFFECTS/PLUGIN FILTERS

and use a filter on the letter, you can choose a filter that you want to use, or one that doesn't change your letter hardly at all then just fill it with a solid color once you have applied it, just to apply the filter so you can then resize it down to the small size you need. I used EyeCandy's Chrome

I applied the filter to each of my letters, then I resized them down to fit on my blocks.

If your verison of PI does not have plug ins or you don't have one you want to use, you can just make your letter, then duplicate it and locke them together, once locked together, you can then resize them down to a tiny size.
Once I have added the filter I can now use the gold balls at the corners of my letter to resize it very small, I line it up in my block. I find that my blocks are not the right color for my filter, so I fill them with black to show off my letters. I use the Tint tool under Touchup at the top to add a gold tint to my silver letters,

and then to make the color pop a little I go to Touchup and add a little Contrast. Now you will need to lock each letter to their block, so when you move them, you wont mess up the letter placement. To lock them, click on the first block in the stack at the right, check to see which letter is on it and then hold down ctrl button and click that button on the stack. Then lock them together.

Do this with each letter, and your stack should look like this when you are done

Now to make your animation frames, you will more the first letter up (or down)and then save it as a png format.

Then put the letter back down, and move the 2nd letter, and save and repeat until you have when through all the letters in your blinkie. Naming them in order like a1, a2, a3 ect. I have discovered that if you save your frames as png, you looks WAY less detail and color when you reopen them to animate! I learned something new :-)!

Now you have your frames, so close your blinkie and then click

and open all your frames. Just single click on each one and then click OPEN, and they should open in order. Now go to TOOLS/FLIPBOOK click through the animation area. When you get to the size, you will see it is VERY tiny, so you will need to choose CUSTOM

and type in your size 25x100.

And when you get to speed, you need a fairly fast speed. I chose this

Now click to see your blinkie in action! If you like it save it! Here are some others I did

PICTURE IT 2000 In PI2000 open a new project, go to size and position, resize to 25x100 or the size you need. Go to CUTOUTS & PICTURES/ADD A COLORED SHAPE. Choose your shape. Duplicate your shape to the amount of letters you need, and line them up beside each other. Add a letter to the first block by going to TEXT/ADD TEXT, line it up in your first box. Now click CTRL+d and duplicate your letter for as many letters as you need. Then click each of them and change it to the letter you need. I do the text this way, because if you duplicate it, you will not have to size it or change the font or anything, just double click each duplicate and type the right letter in and click OK, much faster (for me anyways). Line up each letter in it's block. Now lock each letter to it's own block. You can make sure they are lined up by going to SIZE AND POSITION/ALIGN & DISTRIBUTE. You should have your letters ready to make your animation frames now. Move the first letter up (or down) and save it in mix format. Repeat this step until you have moved each letter and saved it. Now close your blinkie, and go to PROJECTS/WEB/FLIPBOOK ANIMATION and open your saved frames. Make sure they open in order, and then follow the steps in animation. Make sure you make it the biggest size in the drop down menu, and make the speed around 0.8 depending on how you like it. You should now have your blinkie! Have fun!!