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Optimised to death, but I fear the board Nazis

First attempt at an animated gif:
Click for better, any tips for optimisation would be great, I use Gimp and I had to download a gif optimiser,
but if there is a better way I would love to know how.

From the Extreme Sports for Children's Toys challenge. See all 98 entries (closed)

(Little Animal Disaster isn't finishing what he started, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 19:59, archived)

it's 370kb and the limit is 400k so don't worry :)

edit - i'd probably say drop the frame rate a bit, the colours could be better if you did that, it's ok otherwise though

edit edit - i heard scanlines work well too but i've never used them myself

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sock more tea vicar?, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 20:03, archived)

Thanks

I will play about with frame rates, I just assumed as it still had the same number of frames it would be the same file size, just slower. Maybe I don't understand what frame rates are.

(Little Animal Disaster isn't finishing what he started, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 20:21, archived)

fps

well say it has 100 frames or individual images, if you reduced that to 50 and doubled the frame time, it'd last the same amount of time but have half the amount of frames saving a load of size, the more frames you cut the more jerky it will look though

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sock more tea vicar?, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 20:31, archived)

Actually

it's not bad. The compression makes it look more artsy than nazi :)

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Rotten Eggs I don't know why I call him Gerald, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 21:44, archived)

It also

hides a few dodgy bits that show up on the de-optimised one

(Little Animal Disaster isn't finishing what he started, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 23:30, archived)

Woo yay! That's bloody good for a first gif *click*

For comparative purposes, here was my first ever gif:

No, I don't know what I was thinking.

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The Silent Channel is getting his recommended 5-a-day, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 20:09, archived)

Here's mine :D

As you can tell, I had a lot to learn about optimization.

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Bourbon Fox Bourbon is a moron, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 20:12, archived)

here's mine, it's terrible

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sock more tea vicar?, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 20:14, archived)

mine :D

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h3donist tryin' to play me out as if my name is Sega.., Tue 3 Apr 2012, 20:16, archived)

hahaha that's awesome!

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sock more tea vicar?, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 20:18, archived)

Hahaha I like that.

This was my first gif, got fp'd too :)

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Captn Hood-Butter is not dead yet., Tue 3 Apr 2012, 20:22, archived)

This is my first b3ta ani-gif

but my first ani-gif was too perverted to put here

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Rotten Eggs I don't know why I call him Gerald, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 21:48, archived)

Hahahaha

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dazbrilliantwhites has been meaning to change this..., Tue 3 Apr 2012, 21:50, archived)

Hahaha

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FeralCatMan Unusual disease collector., Tue 3 Apr 2012, 21:59, archived)

LOL

I like

(mcmike Messed his pants badly on, Thu 5 Apr 2012, 10:10, archived)

I don't animate as often as I should.

I wanna do a frame-by-frame animation, draw one out. Just a case of what to draw.

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Bourbon Fox Bourbon is a moron, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 20:17, archived)

I filenamed... and then immediately slapped my forehead at my own denseness...

It's very good :) I haven't explored the possibilities of transparencies yet - my methods of making gifs are crude at best...

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The Silent Channel is getting his recommended 5-a-day, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 20:26, archived)

I don't think I've used transparency in an animated GIF, yet. But a static one...

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Bourbon Fox Bourbon is a moron, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 20:54, archived)

Ah, I'm probably describing it wrong

I meant the bits where you can see 'through' the glow around the ghost to the background behind - I always get seams when I attempt things like that

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The Silent Channel is getting his recommended 5-a-day, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 21:11, archived)

i've been playing with opacity

but for some reason can't get transparencies to work in a gif format? always end up seeing the layer underneath whatever the setting or image i start with (photoshop elements) :(

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maggenspies mayhaps, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 21:23, archived)

maiden might be able to help you with that if you ask her nicely.....

It does the same to me, so I use other programs for transparent gifs..

(The invisable man Is having a long lazy soak in search, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 21:33, archived)

ooo thanks, thought i was being dim!

other programmes? at the moment i make gifs up with the old school MSgif animator, then run them through PS to optimise etc.. really basic stuff so any hints on what works much appreciated :))

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maggenspies mayhaps, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 21:39, archived)

I use a combination of ,

Adobe imageready, that wont do the transparent thing,
plus Jasc animation shop and macromedia flash mx 2004 that both will, just depending on what I'm trying to do,
If there is a specific thing you want to know feel free to gaz and ask, if I can help I will.... :-) no promises that I can though!

(The invisable man Is having a long lazy soak in search, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 22:08, archived)

it's the gif transparency thing with Elements that's really bugging me at the moment :))

hehe thanks, appreciate the offer!!

and proffered use of your images ;)

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maggenspies mayhaps, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 22:19, archived)

It looks like he's done them freehand with the paintbrush on, say, 50% opacity.

Just messing about with the opactiy on the brush tool gives surprisingly good results. You can also reduce the opacity of the eraser and do it the other way round.
I think you can also somehow reduce the opacity of an entire layer to create a see-through image, but haven't tried it as I've never needed it for an image.

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Photoshop Bitch 2014 edition, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 21:38, archived)

that's a top tip re: eraser

wouldn't have thought of that, thanks!!

yes re: opacity - i've made a few things recently where i just adjust the opacity of the layer to make the lights flash; easier than flipping the layer :))

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maggenspies mayhaps, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 21:41, archived)

You're welcome :)

Here's an example of when the reduced-opactiy eraser can come in handy.

This didn't look right with the smaller image filling the thought bubble, but a bit of fuzziness around the edges it looks properly "daydreamy".
Edit: Yeah that is really effective in your dancing cat gif, will probably give it a go myself :)

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Photoshop Bitch 2014 edition, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 21:46, archived)

yes i see what you did there!!

looks much better than sharp edges... think i would have probably faffed about with feather on the cut edges, or spray paint!!

..the cat is sitting on top of two layers taken from the same dance floor, which are slightly off set but on top of each other, so all you have to do is bring the opacity up on each layer alternately?

hope that makes sense :))

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maggenspies mayhaps, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 21:57, archived)

Yeah, it's like a dissolve in a movie

Useless fact: In the silent era they used to do dissolves as an in-camera effect. They would take the exposed film of the last few feet of the previous scene, then run it through the camera again for the beginning of the next one, turning the lighting up gradually so that the double exposure appears to fade in.

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Photoshop Bitch 2014 edition, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 22:14, archived)

cool, just been checking this out

clueless about film..

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maggenspies mayhaps, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 23:21, archived)

Hmm, opacity...

Good tips there, must have a try when I've got time... there's so much I haven't looked at in photoshop yet

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The Silent Channel is getting his recommended 5-a-day, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 21:59, archived)

Same here! Still feel like a novice with it in many ways.

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Photoshop Bitch 2014 edition, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 22:16, archived)

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Rapitinui get in the cage and I'll give you a treat, Wed 4 Apr 2012, 4:21, archived)

Cheers

I am not sure what you were thinking with that gif, but I know what it is making me think of.

(Little Animal Disaster isn't finishing what he started, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 20:19, archived)

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atomic A-bomb-a-nation, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 20:25, archived)

I have simlar optimisations

heres my first

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dazbrilliantwhites has been meaning to change this..., Tue 3 Apr 2012, 20:22, archived)

Jumping out at you :-) welcome aboard ect..

(The invisable man Is having a long lazy soak in search, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 20:49, archived)

woo!!

my first one was pants :))

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maggenspies mayhaps, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 21:26, archived)

This^

(herman:D, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 22:14, archived)