Saved gif's come out a bit slow

[ReMeDy]

I'm running version 5 of the license version of ULead on Windows XP Home SP2 and I've hit a problem: when I import my images into ULead and view them in the program, the images run very smooth and very fast; however, when I save the image as a gif, the delay for all the transitions seems to increase. It doesn't increase tremendously, but it increases a significant amount that leaves unsatisfactory delay results. The same slow results are displayed in my preview window, so I know it's not an issue of saving the file incorrectly.

To combat this, I set the delay for most of the transitions to 0 - the program runs the images really fast (not surprisingly) but when saved/previewed, it's still pretty slow (unfortunately I can't set delay lower than 0 ). I tried reducing my frame count to only 3 frames - same thing. Finally I also tried using .jpg images instead of .png images to compose the saved .gif file - again, same thing.

What's the problem? Are my ULead customization options misconfigured ? Am I saving the file wrong? What is causing my animation to run slower in preview/saved form? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[VikingAnimations]

The speed GA 5 plays at when you use the play button on the Frame Panel is not accurate (nor was it intended to be). That is why the preview section of the Workspace is there... So setting frame delay based on what you see in Edit mode just doesn't work.

The Preview feature uses Internet Explorer's engine to play the animation, so you can see what the GIF will look like on a web page. GA 5 requires IE 4 or higher for the preview function to work.

You don't give any specifics on the animation in question, so I will have to guess for the rest... If you could post it here, we could get a better idea. You don't mention what optimization settings you used, either. Global palette or local palette? How many colors? Removal method? All these little things can have an effect.

If the physical area of your animation is large, that can make it play slow. The bigger the area in pixels, the slower it may play in browsers like IE. If it's anywhere near the size of the image in your signature, that would do it. That is big. And if it's on the big side, reducing the frame rate to 0 won't make much of a difference, because IE chokes on it for whatever reason.

It makes no difference if you use jpg or png images to compose the gif. Once it's optimized, it's a gif...

Note that Firefox and Netscape tend to play some animations faster than IE does. So if you have either of those, view the animation there and see what happens. The Opera web browser is closer to IE's speed most times.

Also, I have noticed that not all computers behave the same. Someone I know has a brand new PC, same CPU as mine, same version of windows, all the same updates, plenty of RAM, same settings, but a few animations play slower on his machine than mine or most others I've seen or used. No idea why...

Lastly, one can always save the animation as a SWF file. The playback speed may be better with that. Putting SWF files on a web page isn't as easy as a jpeg or gif, as you have to add in the plug-in code (some HTML editors make it easy for you, some do not).

So that's about it. The result you see is not a GA 5 issue directly, but more related to the web browser and limitations of the GIF format. One has to try to manage things based on what web browsers display.

You could experiment by reducing the size of the animation in half. Just click "Edit" and select "Resize Image..." If it plays faster after doing that, then it's a size issue.

If you would like, post the image here and we can have a peek at it.

Happy Animating!

[ReMeDy]

Okay I did a bit of fiddling around and put your comments to the test Viking (thanks for the well detailed post btw, I appreciate it ). I tried pretty much everything:
-For testing purposes, I tried doing a very simple animation with a small arrow. The size was VERY small, the pixel colors were VERY basic (pretty much white and black only), and I only used four frames total. The delay of the outputted file was still atrocious . The preview speed matches that of the saved file so I definetely think its something internally.
-I tried both global and local palette with the optimization wizard. I didn't notice any speed difference.
-I tried viewing my file in both Internet Explorer and Firefox. Again, I didn't notice any speed difference.
-I tried testing this under a different, albite more cheaper gif animation program called "GIF animator." It was doing the same thing - very fast speed in the program, very slow speed outside.

Here I'll let you have a look.... first off, here's my .uga file I'm working with: http://miaclan.nuclearfallout.net/arrow.uga

What I'm trying to do is make the arrows point down very fast on par with the speed of a 0.05 delay. The output was slow, naturally, so I set the delay to '0', hence why the .uga file delay is all set to '0'. Basically no matter how I save the .gif, its MAX speed comes out looking like this:



If thats the MAX speed that a .gif file can operate under then thats pretty pathetic . That above arrow was made under 0 delay! In ULead, it moves INSANELY fast so the preview/saved file in comparison is not just inaccurate, its VERY inaccurate . Anyways let me know if I might be doing something wrong still. It could very well be that .gif's simply can't play very fast. If that's the case then what other options would I have in regards to displaying faster animations? Thanks.

[VikingAnimations]

As said before, don't rely on what you see by hitting the play button. See what the preview gives, and tweak the animation accordingly. With teeny images and a frame delay of 0, GA 5 will play insanely fast.

So here is my suggestion... to make it move faster, delete a frame or two. In this case, I deleted frames 2 and 4. Frame delay left at 0.



It's not the fault of the gif animation software, it's the file format and the browser. You have to learn to adapt... I've done plenty of "adapting" with all the animations I've done!