how to make small gif files

[ahzra]

hi all , i recently learned how to make gif animation files using corel photo paint , but i cant adjust its file size . i want to to make animated gif for my avatar but the site here tells me that the maximum file size is 6 kb , i dont know how to make small gif files using corel .. if some one knows , i would be grateful

[slowtiger]

1. Use the right dimensions (in px).
2. Use a good bit depth.

[ahzra]

1. Use the right dimensions (in px).
2. Use a good bit depth.

thanks slowtiger , i know this , but the question is how to do this in detail in corel photo paint, i reduce the quality alot but it always becomes larger than 6 kb

[Víctor Paredes]

1. Use the right dimensions (in px).
2. Use a good bit depth.

thanks slowtiger , i know this , but the question is how to do this in detail in corel photo paint, i reduce the quality alot but it always becomes larger than 6 kb

If you need it as avatar, upload it to another site, like dropbox, and then link it to your profile. It's almost impossible to get a nice colored gif of less than 6kb, around 100kb should be ok.

[ahzra]

1. Use the right dimensions (in px).
2. Use a good bit depth.

thanks slowtiger , i know this , but the question is how to do this in detail in corel photo paint, i reduce the quality alot but it always becomes larger than 6 kb

If you need it as avatar, upload it to another site, like dropbox, and then link it to your profile. It's almost impossible to get a nice colored gif of less than 6kb, around 100kb should be ok.

thanks selgin , i will try it

[Little Yamori]

I don't see how to link an image on the edit avatar page, and all my upload attempts have been to large in file size. Obviously members are uploading avatars, but the mystery of doing this escapes me

[Greenlaw]

I don't see how to link an image on the edit avatar page...

Click on the Profile icon in the upper right. Then click on the Profile Tab. Edit Avatar is the third item down on the left size.



To upload a locally stored image file, click the Choose File button to select it, and then click the Submit button.

[Greenlaw]

Tips for rendering a GIF from Moho.

1. Scrub to a frame that contains ALL of the colors in your animation.
2. Render a frame. From the preview window, click the Sample GIF Colors button. The insures that all the colors are included and optimized for the final animated render.
3. When rendering the animation, choose the minimum color depth setting that gives you an acceptable result. (Be aware that GIF is seriously limited format and you're never going to get a perfect render with it.)

Note that TinyPic has a frame range limit. I don't remember what the limit was exactly but I think it's under 100 frames. This was discussed recently in another topic so a search might turn up the exact info. This frame range limit might be higher with a different image hosting service. Alternatively, consider rendering the GIF at a lower frame rate to multiply the range.

Hope this helps.

[Little Yamori]

Thanks Greenlaw,

I';; have to try the tinypics, as I tried uploading the 80x80 pixel 6.0 KiB and I can't get a clear image that small. I was going to skip trying an animated avatar and go with a static one.

I'll give it a go again,

Thanks

[Greenlaw]

I'll have to try the tinypics...

I wouldn't bother with TinyPics as it's going away soon. There are plenty of other hosting sites that work. imgur.com is an alternative to TinyPic that seems to work well with this forum.

More recently, I've been using DropBox to host my images. I like DropBox because it gives me more control over the image's availability, but it does require a slight tweak to the shared link text which I describe here:

http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtop ... 15#p188591

[Little Yamori]

I'll have to try the tinypics...

I wouldn't bother with TinyPics as it's going away soon. There are plenty of other hosting sites that work. imgur.com is an alternative to TinyPic that seems to work well with this forum.

More recently, I've been using DropBox to host my images. I like DropBox because it gives me more control over the image's availability, but it does require a slight tweak to the shared link text which I describe here:

http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtop ... 15#p188591

The topic explains how to imbed an image to a post, so will this work the same in the edit avatar page with the browse tab to go to dropbox?

Sorry I'm a bit thick with this

[Greenlaw]

Oh, sorry...I strayed off topic. I was thinking about images embedded in posts, which can include gifs. When you mentioned TinyPic, that threw me off. You don't need TinyPic to upload an avatar.

For avatars, I believe the images are hosted on this website. All you need to do is upload the image from your computer as described earlier. To recap: format the image to 80 x 80 pixels, choose the file from the Edit Avatar page in your User Control Panel, and then click Submit to upload it. The other stuff is just describing how to optimize the gif, if that's the format your using.

[Little Yamori]

Thanks Greenlaw,

You're really sticking with me.

So now we're at the area where I had the question. I got to the 80 x 80 px and the 6.00 Kib for the upload, and this is where I totally fail, I can't get my images to that small of a file size. In Photoshop I set up a new blank file with dimensions of 80 x 80 with a resolution of 1, and drag in my avatar, but the completed file image size still comes out at 12K, effectively double the file size limit for the forum. So I'm effectively looking doomed to have a question mark for my AS avatar

[Greenlaw]

In Photoshop I set up a new blank file with dimensions of 80 x 80 with a resolution of 1...

Resolution for screen images is typically 72 (and maybe higher these days with high density screens?) That said, I don't think setting it to 1 would cause the problem you describe.

Can you post the image file so we can look at how you’ve formatted it?

[synthsin75]

To get the size down, you may need to drop every other frame and have each frame hold for a longer duration...basically like animating on twos.