GIF animator 5 - grainy gif image

userx · Post by **userx** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 3:59 pm

The outputed gif file is not what I'd call even good quality. I do use the optimization with 256 photo. On the frame properties I select "best" for image quality yet still the gif file looks grainy (poor resolution). It's not my video card as other people's gif have a high resolution look to them when I see them on the web.

Post by **VikingAnimations** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 6:20 pm

Without seeing the image, it's hard to give a 100% correct answer. But if your animation has a large number and wide variation of colors, optimizing it down to 256 colors isn't going to give a very good result. The GIF format is old, with color support for, obviously, only 256 colors... The more varied the images in your animation are, the less attractive it'll look when crunched down to 256 colors.

One tweak you can try is to change the optimization method to "minimum variance." Optimize Tab

You could also change from global palette to local palette for all frames.

If you could upload your image to the web (your own site, Photobucket, etc.) and post a link, we'd know for sure.

userx · Post by **userx** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 6:52 pm

Thanks for the info. Before I got your response I did play with "dither" and setting it at or near 100, help the image quality. I'm usually working with 5 - 7 seconds of video so I get about 200 frames.

I will also try setting the Minimum variance in the optimization method to see what effect that has.

Also, your link to your GIF animation basic guide has been very informative.

Post by **VikingAnimations** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 6:08 pm

Glad you found my tut useful!

Yup, 200 or so frames will likely strain the output quality... A high dither rate will help. Picking the best 256 colors from 200 images isn't going to give great results... a global palette keeps the file size down, but may sacrifice image quality, as you've noticed.

The GIF format is a bit dated - the gif89a format that supports animation dates back to 1989. There is an animated variant of the .png format, called .mng, but support for that hasn't really gone anywhere as of yet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple-i ... k_Graphics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_I ... nge_Format

The APNG (Animated Portable Network Graphics) format is another attempt at things, but it's not getting too far, either. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animated_P ... k_Graphics