FA+
Shop
FA and GIFs
10 years ago
Ha! Looks like I finally figured it out.
Normally FA takes GIFs and displays the last frame for the gallery/browse view. But many times this frame is blank due to the way GIFs are optimized (if something isn't moving, then it just overlays a blank layer when a new frame is called for). That's why many times you upload a gif, you get a thumbnail that can't even be clicked, or one that looks like just a blob of pixels.
One method of keeping this from happening is to tell Photoshop that you want to dispose every frame after it plays, meaning even if an image is static, it will dump that frame and display a new one. You won't see it move, but the image is being replaced. The problem is that for large GIFs this means the file sizes can quickly go from kb to mb (not a problem for smaller GIFS).
Well I tried out something, and it appears to work: In Photoshop, select and dispose of the second to last frame, and the second to last UNIQUE frame. Those are the only ones that appear to require disposing. I tried just disposing the second to last frame, but that didn't seem to work, i just got a blank canvas (but at least it was clickable). It's possible you may just need to dispose the last unique frame only, but I didn't try that.
If it doesn't work, let me know. It seemed to work for the most recent thing I posted, but it might just be that one case.
Normally FA takes GIFs and displays the last frame for the gallery/browse view. But many times this frame is blank due to the way GIFs are optimized (if something isn't moving, then it just overlays a blank layer when a new frame is called for). That's why many times you upload a gif, you get a thumbnail that can't even be clicked, or one that looks like just a blob of pixels.
One method of keeping this from happening is to tell Photoshop that you want to dispose every frame after it plays, meaning even if an image is static, it will dump that frame and display a new one. You won't see it move, but the image is being replaced. The problem is that for large GIFs this means the file sizes can quickly go from kb to mb (not a problem for smaller GIFS).
Well I tried out something, and it appears to work: In Photoshop, select and dispose of the second to last frame, and the second to last UNIQUE frame. Those are the only ones that appear to require disposing. I tried just disposing the second to last frame, but that didn't seem to work, i just got a blank canvas (but at least it was clickable). It's possible you may just need to dispose the last unique frame only, but I didn't try that.
If it doesn't work, let me know. It seemed to work for the most recent thing I posted, but it might just be that one case.
> Using Flash
> Ever
Although yeah, the final product is likely to be in SWF, I try to avoid it at all costs.
Plus, Flash isn't supported on mobile devices.