Trick or Treat is the second gif I´ve presented at PsC.With the first "No Pain-No Gain" I had No problem.Two layers,the accepted parameters and under 125 KB.Well in this second one, after I did all this work on the PSD file,go to Image Ready, prepare the gif and optimize it with the given parameters,( 550 x 450 ) I realize it needed 4 layers for the "trick" to work properly and it came out HUGE.So I reduce it down in size so its below 125 KB go to upload it and its refused because it can´t be less than 550 W and 350 H.(Which I can understand or people would be posting 10 x 10 animated cartoon avatars for entries).Here arises a problem.When the file gets to 125 KB or less it reduces to less than the allowed parameters ie.) > 550 W x 350 H.What to do - NOT POST the GIF.
I didn´t want to waste all that time effort so I posted a jpeg of 2 of the 3 parts of the "trick".I don´t know if anybody actually knew what I was getting at,but I got a couple of votes,although no comments or ???
The file posted here is 550 x 461 and 554 KB. Any comments or help with ultra optimzation methods for gif size.) reduce the KB´s without reducing too much the W x H parameters, or any HELF (refer to my Beach Boat entry for details) would be highly appreciated very kindly.
For the boy swimming - "Wink"I tried a gif again.I managed to post it at a size of 550 x 361 and 122.5 KB.However I had to exclude 2 entire layers of "action" for it to meet the requirements.It´s simplified but it´s posted.
Also,could anyone tell me if the advantage account would
allow for a gif of this size or just jpeg up to 1280 x 960 and 512
KB.
Thank you kindly. Luis

Nope... even with advantage, it still would have to be 512kb or less. Yer gif is bigger than that (553kb). But ya could optimize it a little bit more only to make it 512kb. As for the dimension, it's the same for gifs or jpgs, as long as you keep it under 512kb...

Yep, it's odd, because it's only a 4 frame ani. I've got one up ATM that's 17 frames or so...but not much change happening between each frame though. Gifs are getting a little tricky of late, because there is only a narrow canvas size range you can use. 500x350 minimum and 550x450 maximum. Previously there was no minimum canvas size.
I was able to get yours down to about 200kb at 500x400ish, but the quality wasn't too great. Colours seem to chew up kb so you could desaturate your frames. For this one, I would consider getting rid of the red background and try it on a white background. Occasionally, I get one that I just can't get down to a postable size either....
HTH.
Cheers,
Brad.

Superb work on the closed hands !


I got it to 145K and it looks alright.

I have Ulead's Gif Animator.

ahhh.. you asked about optimising tips.
I'll load it into ImageReady and see if I can replicate my Ulead skillz in there.

Ok..I just got it down to approximately 140K again and it looked the same.
I reckon you need to fiddle with the settings.

I just used...

Adaptive
20 Colours
Diffusion 100%
Lossy = 20



cheers

Thanks for your reply Brad.I used the red background to give it a staged look,but that could be changed to a less saturated tone ( I don´t know if white would give the desired effect) to reduce it maybe just enough,at least to enter in under 512 KB.And 17 frames for 512 KB that´s good (even with reduced activity) There´s room to manouvre there.I´m trying to see what potential there is with gifs in the advantage account size,to get an idea of what degree of complexity of ideas I can try to apply to the chops (as gifs).Thanks again.You produce some of the best gifs I´ve seen here at PsC. Luis

Gran did you reduced this in image ready,or in ULead? Great tweak.Slight pixelation but viable and not too shabby at all.Almost a 75 % size reduction.Could you be a little more explicit with the settings you used? Where do I access these parameters? Hey with this type of tweak you could theoretically take a 2 MB gif and bring it down to advantage regulations (512 KB).And you got down another 5KB.You should be working in the Formula 1 fine tunning Renault engines . Alonso and Renault will need it in the home stretch.
By the way the hands are my wife´s.I took the photo just for this chop.The initial lighting wasn´t that good so I had to work it to get the light right.That may have increased the size of the file too no? Here are the external sources if your interested.
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/6140/trickortreattr6.jpg

Great stuff Gran,thanks for your time and effort.Later Luis

I can´t type to fast Gran .One finger on each hand and each eye on different keys.
I´m going for lunch. We eat late here on the Med.coast

Nice chop Lux..
NICE optimization Granulated...
MAKE A GIF OPTIMIZATION TUT GRANNY ....Please.

It was in ImageReady. You need to bring up the OPTIMISE palette.
Then you can fiddle with it and see real time result preview.

I am the King of Audio/Video compression !
(Seriously, I am. I have a certificate to prove it !)

Really ?

yeah..I been here a long time and noone has ever
really shared a good set of trix for decent optimizin' on gifs.
I would DEARLY DEARLY like a lil' help w/ it m'self.
There's alotta chops I don't do cause I hate what happens when I try to optimize.

ScionShade I can do that...Ready...here we go...

is he optimized enough for you - (284 x 383 and 30 KB)

I second the motion... lots of potential with gifs (without overdoing them ) .In my Mack Truck entry "Doggie Dodge"
I wanted to actually have the egg wizzz by the dog´s head and ssshplattt on the truck.I resorted to comic book trail action, like in my worn rock wall entry "Egg Launcher".I would´ve love to watch them eggs flying, hatching in mid air and the chicks gliding out a site.

By the way Shaman did a superb gif in the "swimming boy" entry.Pirate with lightning " I ARRRR Home" Excellent.I see he did b/w and desaturation of colours to reduce size.Did you check it out? Maybe he could share some trix.

Gran you got compression credentials.I dable about a bit with video,just filming and a little editing.I did some fractal animation with a program called Chaos pro.You put it to music and it´s real psychedelic.
Maybe if you got a wee second sometime you give us a short 101 of basic tricks for gif optimization.I have no academic or technical background in computer or digital anything.
Thanx Luis