Fun with avatars

[Steve Carlton]

Stijn- is there any freeware that you know of that will crop/resize animated GIFs width and height-wise?

[svandamme]

i use Jasc Paintshop pro
actually animation shop pro , but it's bundled

not freeware , but shareware

[svandamme]

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Products/Display&pid=1047024390003

bought by corel, so now it's trialware

[JeremyD]

[svandamme]

the trick to a good avatar, is finding something that

A looks good in the limited pixel size , 50x50

B can be animated short enough so the filesize is acceptable
on PP , it's a rather limiting < 20 kb

the pixel size cannot be worked around
the file size, sort of can

with Animation shop pro , you can apply several compression techniques
but the most handy one is frame reusing

if you try to make a one directional loop , eg , trying to find frames where the beginning matches the end for a smooth transition , it's usually not going to work out with the filesize

so what i usually do , is i take a movement
for example , man raises his hand and back
1234567890
in this case, forget about the back part

in animation shop pro
delete all the frames that make up the lowering of the hand
(67890)
all you need is the start frame, and all the frames up to max height of the hand
12345
1 you select all frames, and copy them to the clipboard (12345 copy)
2 delete frame number 1, and the ending frame (234)
3 paste your clipboard at the end of your little animation (23412345)
4 keep the pasted frames selected, and then mirror then (ctrl+m)
(23454321)
at this point , you have an animation of a man raising and lowering his hand, a smooth loop , no visible cuts
and you got a 8 frame animation , but only 5 unique frames
so only 5 frames need to be saved

next you can save the file

it will ask you what compression you want
there is a wizard, you can run the wizard untill you find an acceptable size, you can usually drop the number of colours a bit , due to the low pixel resolution , you can get away with lower colors but this depends on the animation you started out with

obviously there is a point where you compress to much , and end up with garbage... if that's the case , and you need a smaller file , then your only option is to cut more frames ...

you could try interleaving
eg , if you have
123456789876543210
135679765310

note , if you delete a frame in the upgoing movement
you have to delete the same frame in the return
because identical frames , count as one in the compression stage

if you only delete one out of 2 , you win nothing
eg 13454321

if you delete 2 different ones , you still win nothing
eg 1345321

also check when deleting the beginning , or the ending

123456789876543210
12345678987654321 > you loose a frame , but your loop is wrong
1234567898765432 > you loose a frame, loop is right
if you want to trim more, you need to cut from the other end:
234567898765432 > loose a frame , loop is wrong
34567898765432 > corrected

[SLO-BOB]

time for more....

this is disturbing......yet mesmerizing

[Steve Carlton]

I've been goofing around with animated gifs. Here's some that will fit on this site if anybody wants them...

[ZOA NOM]

How could this thread have escaped me...








Does it seem like there's a theme?

[juanbenae]

i am trying out a new one this week.

[Leland Pate]

Or one for the sensitive man...

[fastpat]

I rather like this one:

[cegerer]

[Steve Carlton]

If you guys need something resized for this forum, I've got the hang of it now.

[Leland Pate]

For the life of me I can't find it in the archives... who remembers the 3.0L motor GIF animated to where the crank, fan, and valve train rotated... I'd love to have that as an avatar... if only we could resize it to 250x300 pixels.

Rats, I can't find it!

[Leland Pate]

Ok, someone's got to resize this one so I can upload it on Rennlist.
It needs to be under 20K.
Joe, where did you find this?

[Saintly]

Originally posted by Leland Pate
For the life of me I can't find it in the archives... who remembers the 3.0L motor GIF animated to where the crank, fan, and valve train rotated... I'd love to have that as an avatar... if only we could resize it to 250x300 pixels.

Rats, I can't find it!

Does this count?

[cowtown]

Here's the thread with the animated engines:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?threadid=204904&highlight=fuchs+polishing+fool

[ZOA NOM]

[Steve Carlton]

Originally posted by Leland Pate
For the life of me I can't find it in the archives... who remembers the 3.0L motor GIF animated to where the crank, fan, and valve train rotated... I'd love to have that as an avatar... if only we could resize it to 250x300 pixels.

This is uncropped, 300x238 pixels. Do you have a file size restriction? Want it turning faster or slower?

[Steve Carlton]

Originally posted by Leland Pate
Ok, someone's got to resize this one so I can upload it on Rennlist.
It needs to be under 20K.
Joe, where did you find this?

Uncropped. Are there pixel limits? File size reduced. (20K = 20,480 bytes).