Making GIFs...

rudel_ic · Post by **rudel_ic** » Wed May 14, 2008 5:07 pm

You need to make a layer for each frame of your movie.

When you then want to save it as a gif, Gimp asks you how to handle that mess. If there's multiple layers to your picture, you have the option to make it an animation.

Also, there's an animation preview under Filters in the main menu.

If you want to open multiple pictures at the same time, for example jpg framedumps from some anime flick, Gimp even asks if you want to open each pic on a different layer. And it possibly messes up the order of the frames somehow if you do it that way, but you can try it out, sometimes it works just fine.

But Gimp is not especially good for gif baking, there are other tools that do it better. Tools that I don't know. Maybe some Adobe soft, who knows.

Cmyszka · Post by **Cmyszka** » Wed May 14, 2008 9:36 pm

Cmyszka wrote:...program for putting it together I'll be able to get for free....

yeah... i'm sure there is, but I don't need to pay for it. I don't want it that badly

rudel_ic · Post by **rudel_ic** » Wed May 14, 2008 9:49 pm

Well, then just try it with Gimp; if the Mac OSX version of it is up-to-date and fully functional, you just make a new pic with the correct size, open the Layers dialog (Ctrl+L), drag all your frames in there, correct the order if necessary, delete the first (blank) layer, save that as a gif, make sure to choose the option that it's supposed to be an animation, make sure "Looping" is checked, adjust the framerate so that it makes sense and you're all set.

rudel_ic · Post by **rudel_ic** » Wed May 14, 2008 10:28 pm

But if you've got gradients in different colors all over the place, you'll never be satisfied.
You can of course reduce the palette by hand, but that's a lot of work. Gimp has some filters that could help there.
Still, if you've got tens of thousands of colors, you'll have to use some tricks.

Gimp also lets you generate an indexed palette and there is some mathemagic involved that makes gradients possible and enjoyable.

Here's an example that worked out:

(That's 2,318KB, so it may load slowly, sorry).

This gif has indexed colors, optimized for gradients, so it's quite possible with Gimp.

Edit: That image originally had about 40,000 colors.

Cmyszka · Post by **Cmyszka** » Thu May 15, 2008 8:03 pm

Grr.... I can't get GIMP to work.

I downloaded it but it needs a program called 'X11' to run. It's a basic app that comes with the compy but I couldn't find it when GIMP asked me to browse and find it. I thought maybe it wasn't installed and went to the apple website to download it. I did that successfully but then when I tried installing it it said I had a newer version of the application already installed and wouldn't let me go any farther...

So apparently I have it somewhere and it's playing hide and seek... It doesn't do me much good if I can't find it.

I'm beginning to wonder whether this is worth it all. ¬_¬

rudel_ic · Post by **rudel_ic** » Thu May 15, 2008 11:49 pm

Well, it's definitely not worth it.

X11 is an open source window system. It's kind of freaky that Gimp explicitly relies on that.

If you've got Mac OSX 10.4 Tiger, you're not alone with your problem.
See here for a possible solution:
http://overstimulate.com/articles/insta ... 10-4-tiger

I hope it works out for you.

Count Roland · Post by **Count Roland** » Fri May 16, 2008 12:26 am

I had the same problem but managed to download it from a third party site, the apple website has a previous version of x11 which doesn't work, so you've gotta get it either from the system install disk thingy that came with your computer, or you can download it from a third party site, OR you could ask me very politely and I'll either send it to you or give you a link to the right website for downloading it

EDIT: screw all that hard work stuff here's a link to a website with some downloads of it for tiger or something http://cjmart.in/2006/12/01/install-x11 ... stall-dvd/

Chainsaw man · Post by **Chainsaw man** » Fri May 16, 2008 1:11 am

Asking anyone politely is Hard work... lol.
Dose anyone think that in 80 years, the English laguage will evolve to the point people say lol as a Colen?

wormguy · Post by **wormguy** » Fri May 16, 2008 1:25 am

Macromedia Fireworks MX was my favorite GIF-making program. It's expensive, though.

BunnyWithStick · Post by **BunnyWithStick** » Fri May 16, 2008 2:22 am

If you ever install OSX onto a blank hard drive, be sure to install X11 during the process (Click on Advanced Install to bring up the checklist of things to install).

And I'm pretty sure The GIMP actually has instructions for installing X11 somewhere. On it's website or something. I never had any trouble installing X11 the first time round. It's very handy for the cheap ports of PC things that didn't want to convert anything to the mac GUI, and just used X11 to emulate a PC GUI.

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Making GIFs...

Re: Making GIFs...