Animated GIF

[Arthur Morris]

If anyone can either teach me to make an animated GIF from two 800 wide JPEGs or do it for me :) please contact me via e-mail. Thanks a ton.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Artie - tutorial here
http://creativetechs.com/tipsblog/build-animated-gifs-in-photoshop/

Id gladly do it for you - but I am at work at the moment ;)

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Lance. That tutorial is much to complex for me; I cannot understand it. All that I want to do is have a single image that flips from one 800 wide JPEG to another say every three seconds.... Perhaps the info that I need is in the tutorial but it is hidden to well in a ton of other stuff :)

[Lance Peters]

Hi Artie - email me the files and Ill email you back the Gif.
:)

[Arthur Morris]

You are too kind. Will do.

I will shoot you a hello e-mail and when you respond, I will attach the two images.

[Chris Ober]

Here's a free and easier alternative if you need it again - http://www.whitsoftdev.com/unfreez/ It's a single file with no install needed.

You drag the GIFs you want to the interface, set the time between each frame and if you want it to loop or not, and click a button to create it.

[Arthur Morris]

Here's a free and easier alternative if you need it again - http://www.whitsoftdev.com/unfreez/ It's a single file with no install needed. You drag the GIFs you want to the interface, set the time between each frame and if you want it to loop or not, and click a button to create it.

Thanks Chris. I followed the directions, saved the GIF, and it did not work. Are you supposed to highlight one or both of the files once you have dragged them into the Frames box? (If I try that it freezes the program.) Does cs mean "seconds." I selected 3 assuming 3 seconds.

Have tried it three different times from scratch without success and then brought the GIF into an e-mail.... I will post the thing in the next Pane and see if it animates...

[Arthur Morris]

Never mind on that. When I optimized it <195 it corrupted to a foggy file :)

[Arthur Morris]

I am pulling my hair out here and loving it. I follow Lance's original tutorial, the one that he e-mailed to me. I do everything right. I know that because once I am in save for web and hit preview, it shows the animation. But when I save the file and open it in Windows Live Mail, it does not animate. So I will post it here and see if I am NUTZ!

Now things get crazier. I an in SAVE FOR WEB. I go to Optimize to File Size <195kb. When I hit save the #of colors drops from 256 to 9. If I change it to 256 it goes back to 442kb, too large to post. Help!!!

[Arthur Morris]

Have tried 42 more times. Same result. Help :)

[Mike Tracy]

When you are in save for web are you choosing GIF as oppossed to the default jpeg ? I don't believe you can take your finished product into save for and then reduce the file size to any arbitrary # and it will play ( I could be wrong). I have always resized the individual files first knowing what the I wanted the cumulative files to add up to. I have found it's easier not worrying about any of that though and just linking to them instead of being constrained by what a particular forum file size dictates.

I know it won't help you in the long run but if you send me the files I will knock it out.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Mike. I will figure it out eventually. The problem is that it plays as a preview but not in an e-mail. You gotta love that. If you can e-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net I can attach the two files. TAT.

[Arthur Morris]

And yes, saving as GIFs.

[Roger Clark]

Artie,
Maybe you've done everything right and maybe your email program doesn't animate the gif. Not all programs show gif animation. Or maybe the email security is not allowing the animation to play (I had that problem in a web browser once).

The compressor for gifs is lossless so that means you can't control the output size except by limiting the number of colors or the image size. Gifs have a maximum of 256 colors per image, which for photos is sometimes not enough for a great photo, so reducing colors is not an option. The other option for reducing file size is to reduce the size of the image in pixels so it appears smaller on your screen.

The final option for BPN is to post it on a web site and post a link to the animated gif on BPN.

Hope this helps,
Roger

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Roger, You are one smart dude :) First off, I realized that it might be the e-mail program. Windows Live Mail would not display the animation while I was preparing the e-mail, but once I sent it there was no problem with the animation. My properly prepared animated GIF comes in at 442.2 kb and as you stated above, I cannot optimize it to <195 without it going to **** in a hand basket. Both Robert O'Toole and Denise Ippolito suggested that I post the image somewhere else and link to it. Are there instructions somewhere on BPN on how to do that?

More of the mysterious stuff: I tried reducing the size of the two original JPEGs to <90 kbs but when I prepared the GIF from those it was still larger than 400 kb. Strange. Lastly, the first time that I prepared an animated GIF I was able to optimize it to <195 without a problem. Go figure!

IAC, thanks for your help and for being so knowledgeable.

[Roger Clark]

Artie,

I'm trying an experiment here. If this works, a small animated gif of the visual impression of a galaxy through a telescope should show:

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/%3C/fonthttp://www.clarkvision.com/a-icons/m51-mag-animate-icon.gif

OK, that works.

So to make it show, you need to make it into html code. In the above image, the URL is:

http://www.clarkvision.com/a-icons/m51-mag-animate-icon.gif

The URL needs the following, but enclosed in brackets the "<" and the ">":

IMG SRC="http://www.clarkvision.com/a-icons/m51-mag-animate-icon.gif"

(If I add the brackets, then the line becomes the instructions to display the image as above.)

Roger

[Arthur Morris]

I see the non-animated image. But am a bit confused after that :)

Why are we not seeing the animated version???

I am trying to get Peter Kes to post the AG to my web site. Once I do that I will get back to you with the link :)

IAC, TAT (Thanks a ton!)

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Hi Arthur; In Internet explorer, click Tools~Internet Options~Advanced~under Multimedia, check box"play animations in webpages" regards~Bill

[Chris Ober]

In the program, cs = centisecond = 1/100th second. Enter 300 in the box for your 3sec rotation.

I created 4 files, drag each one into the box, set the time and clicked Make Animated GIF. It does not matter if you have one of the files highlighted or not and I tried both ways.
http://www.oberphoto.com/t/unfreez.jpg

Here's the result of the above.
http://www.oberphoto.com/t/count.gif

Here are the images I used in the example
http://www.oberphoto.com/t/1.gif http://www.oberphoto.com/t/2.gif http://www.oberphoto.com/t/3.gif http://www.oberphoto.com/t/4.gif

[Arthur Morris]

http://www.birdsasart.com/baacom/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/skimmer-anim-gif-maybe-_W3C0642-Nickerson-Beach-Lido-Beach-Long-Island-NY.gif

This is a test :)

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Chris, Thanks again but when I attempted to save the file that I first named "skimmer ober" and then tried "skimmer ober.gif" the following error box popped up: Not a GIF file, or incorrect version number." Not as simple as advertised :)

Not to worry, I have mastered Lance Peter's method :)