Re: [Gimp-user] Save for Web for GIF Animations?

[Steve Kinney <admin pilobilus net>]

On 08/24/2013 03:16 AM, Aviziel wrote:
> I've done a fair share of looking around, and I've found a few "Save for Web"
> plug-ins that allow me to use sliders to change settings and thus the output
> file size, and most (all?) of them work with GIFs.
>
> But so far I've found no way of getting any of them to work on Animated GIFs.
> This wouldn't be such an issue, but trying to get these images all under a
> certain file size can become a lot of trial and error, so I would greatly
> appreciate it if someone could help me out with this.

Hey,

Here's some basics about animated GIF files and the GIMP.

Each "frame" of the animation is treated as a layer in the GIMP.

When a multi-layer image is exported as a GIF file, a dialog opens
asking if you want to "flatten" the image or save it as an
animation.  This is fairly self explanatory.

Note that the frame rate, i.e. duration for which each layer is
displayed in the finished animation, is one of the options in the
export dialog.

To radically reduce the file size of an animated GIF, use the
command Filters > Animation > Optimize (for GIF).  This will create
a new image, with everything that does NOT change from one frame to
the next, deleted from the next frame, from the bottom of the layer
stack (first frame) to the top (last frame).

For a lot more detail, see:

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Simple_Animations/
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Using_GAP/
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Advanced_Animations/

Hot tip:  The menu at Image > Mode will allow you to convert from
Indexed (GIF native format) to RGB (a much more flexible format).
When you have to edit the content of GIF frames, make sure the image
is set to RGB format; many filters and tools either don't work, or
work very badly, in Indexed mode.  The GIMP will convert an RGB
image to Indexed format when you export it as a GIF file.

Have fun!

:o)

Steve