I found this video,i hope it is ok to post youtube
the beginning of it shows an animation bubbles,and i was wondering if it can be done with Gimp
the rest of the video is wonderful to watch too (except the Abomb)
I did not know sea animals could do those rings,amazing !

I went ahead and embedded your video to view here.

Well I enjoyed that but not sure how that dude blew the oscillating toroids at the end. Had no idea dolphins and beluga whales could blow rings either; cool stuff.

Amazing Pirate, Looks like a good life they have down there... yes those bubbles at the beginning would be a challenge allright.

Glad You all like it I stumbled on it by accident

Rod,thank you

You are welcome.
The only thing i can think of is a cross between Wave Tank and Reflex.
Wave Tank for the animation - http://registry.gimp.org/node/24330
Reflex for the design and color - attached in zip (place it in your scripts folder)
And of course a ring photo or image (many smoke ring images available online).

Then maybe create a few ring layers - run them by Reflex, and then re size them to 2-3 different sizes and animate them with wave tank.That might work.

Thanks again Rod
i d/ld both scripts
the reflex is showing under alpha to logo,but it is grey ,i can't open it.
i have 3 layres of rings i can run wave,but i can't open reflex

It has to have a selection on a layer with an alpha channel first.

This is kind of what i was thinking about.Except you want a couple rings together.

I don't see the pic Rod. Upload problem or my computer?

Rod
I added alpha channel but all it did is turn the attached pic to a black background


and reflex did this no matter what gradient i chose :

Draconian - It is a png-apng image (animated png).Your browser may not support them.Try FireFox.
Pirate - You need to first
1) Create a new document with white background.
2) Open your smoke ring image in Gimp (File>Open as layers )
3) Now render the smoke rings out of the image.Place one each on a separate new transparent layer.
Try color to alpha, choose black. Or use a different layer mode to hide the background.I think it is multiply but not sure.
4) Delete the original smoke ring image you rendered the rings from.

You should have (however many ring layers you want) and one white bg layer.
5) Make them all invisible except the one you are working on.
6) Alpha to select one ring on a layer and run reflex (be sure to select 1 layer in the reflex dialog)This way Reflex runs and places all the layers together or merges them into one layer.
7) Make that layer invisible and do the same with the other ring layers.
8) When all the layers are ran through Reflex, make all invisible except one layer.
9) Arrange the rings (layers) how you want them to show in the animation.
10) Do an alpha to selection on the ring in the layer you have visible.Run Filters>Animation>Wave (about 6 layers the rest of the values leave at default).
11) Make all those layers invisible and make the next size ring layer visible and run Wave again.Do this with all the rings you want to animate.
12) Now make sure your WHITE background layer is on the bottom.
13) Now make all layers visible.
14) Run Filters>Animation>Combine Background (you need this script from Saulgoode).
15) OPTIONAL - Now delete the WHITE background layer unless you want to keep it.
16) Go to Filters>Animation>Play Back - select the play button and watch the animation.Move the layers according to your needs.

That is about it for a basic animation for rings.

Hope that helps.

Thank You Rod
I will work on it

Here is another example and i attached the XCF with both rings rendered and on separate layers for you.
They are already reflexed also.

Animated PNG

It's not going to look very good a s a animated GIF image.The gradients will look horrible i believe.
you can try it though.

ok,i posted something but it doesn't show lol,I'll try again
I want to try to create layers in which the small ring is moving through the large one
then animate after using tank on it.

What you will want to do is have the larger ring sit in one spot and wave then.
Then you will have to manually move each smaller ring in the layers through the bigger one.
Try Layer>Autocrop layer to make the layer boundry just around the ring.Easier to manipulate that way.
Ofnuts created a script for me named Autocrop Linked Layers.py
PM him and ask for the link to the filter.It is very handy for animations.
If you do not have the png-apng plug-in installed there will not be any layers in your png image.
Save it as a GIF animation in that case.

I can't wait to see your results.

peeks my head from behind the couch..
Rod,i have been trying for 2 weeks to follow your idea,i can't get it to work
i don't know what i am doing wrong but all i get every time is just a blue round wave

@Rod



that is too cool .. very nice effect



well post the xcf we may try to see what went wrong