I just did an animated deal at work yesterday and as far as doing a still from Photoshop, I had to do 9 stills and then start in putting them in the proper order and animation timing... fortunately I did not have any size or number of frames to worry about. Gifs are photoshop stills, but you have to THINK MORE and DO MORE WORK than just one pic. And when you animate things, you have to deal with "if I move this over, there is nothing under it, so I have to photoshop that in every time I move it this way or that." If there are shadows, those have to be changed. Perhaps the existing light reflection won't work with movement... gotta photoshop that change in, too.

I"m used to filming and editing full screen movies, but this gif stuff is more complicated to figure out because I can't do as many frames to achieve what I'm thinking of. I can't do transitions and effects like I can in movie editing. (plus no sound!) It's much more simplistic in nature, but it's still difficult to achieve the end result, specially with the size restrictions. Sometimes doing one great still can take hours, but imagine having to do two, three, even 6 more in order to make an entry. The PSC Dashboard I entered (old mailbox contest) required hours to create the first still once I figured out what I wanted to make as I kept thinking up more stuff to do... thinking "hey maybe use this symbol instead" then later I thought maybe change each symbol and it evolved into the PSC Dashboard that it became.... I created 8 stills in all.

As you can see by my new avatar, I created a full color Gif for the 3 monkeys. It took me a couple evenings to work on it and it was impossible to get down to the correct upload size--- after all that work! I then decided to recreate it as a b/w silent movie style with the graininess, flashing brightness and lint floating around... still too big. So you can see it is A LOT OF WORK invoved to create a gif. I could have done a still, but then it would just be another set of 3 monkeys and not the blinking, eyes moving around and tongue sticking out one that I had created. I just posted it elsewhere where people could download it for a look.

I thought maybe having an all Gif contest might be something to do once in a great while -- think more likely it would just be too much to look at.

This'd be an awesome flame if everybody else spent only five minutes on their entries.

Giffing is funny.
Giffing is not easy to do.
Giffing is capacity to use immagination e to build a movie.
Giffing is................. a integrated function of Photoshop.
Therefore giffing must be respected from all!!!!!!!!
I like very much giffing, but i never told that i don't vote for still images.
If a chop is extra good, it is not important if it is still or animated.

you're half right, personally i see in a still image a piece of art, actually i don't see this in a gif.
A gif can pick up general attention more than a still image and due to its lack of quality you can pay less attention for example in a clean up.

i see you work hard in your gifs, and you've been awarded and respected by all here for this(4 wins, i don't think some other do that), but no ..... i don't think a gif and a still are on the same level to be judged.

you're half right, personally i see in a still image a piece of art, actually i don't see this in a gif.
A gif can pick up general attention more than a still image and due to its lack of quality you can pay less attention for example in a clean up.

i see you work hard in your gifs, and you've been awarded and respected by all here for this(4 wins, i don't think some other do that), but no ..... i don't think a gif and a still are on the same level to be judged.[/quote]


mmmmmm?
It could be my friend.
Half right goes good for me. The other half is yours .
In a still image the artist has to put all his ideas and messages he would send to other in only one frame. It is really not simple to do. He has to be also perfect in details.
but the work that is in a perfect gif takes very much time, believe me. And the idea how to create the movie is certainly art.

Well stated, Nifft, and much respect for saying it. We must decide if PSC is a learning site or purely a professional site. I believe it's a learning site and if that's the case all forms of PS related works should be included in the mix.

However, I do not think that 3D software should be included. There are plenty of sites for them...some learning sites, some professional ones.

Eve wrote:
Well stated, Nifft, and much respect for saying it. We must decide if PSC is a learning site or purely a professional site. I believe it's a learning site and if that's the case all forms of PS related works should be included in the mix.

However, I do not think that 3D software should be included. There are plenty of sites for them...some learning sites, some professional ones.[/quote]
I agree with you Eve.
No 3d software in psc.
Giff is one of the functions in Photoshop (all versions).
So you can learn also to giffing in this learning site.

I would like to learn how to do a gif. I have no idea. Is there a link or something to learn it fast, very fast... like in 1 hour. I don't have so much time in my hands...

Errrr... Importing 3D models is now a built in function in the Big Boys version of PS CS3

OMG...TISNF

And it should be fair, even if you don't do 3d, to hunt the web for 3d externals to plug in your chops. It's all Photoshop after all, right?

Unless you make a separate PS CS3 Extended contest

CS3?
woooow I have to buy it

That's not really true... I think a good .gif, one that earns votes, needs to be just as detail-oriented as any other chop. Yes, optimizing can be a problem with keeping the smaller details when the chop is finished, but it really can't hide sloppy chopping or mistakes.

Here's my one winning .gif, and I think my clean-up was spot-on, if I do say so myself.
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/114802/refreshing-gif.html

http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/98467/speed-kills.html