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Answered

Gifs export slow no matter the frame rate

Forum|Forum|13 years ago
April 24, 2012
16 replies
197832 views

Hi,

I have Photoshop CS5 Extended, running on Mac OS X Snow Leopard. I use photoshop to make gifs, either from video frames > layers or from importing screenshots into a stack. When I make the gifs, I set the frame delay in the animation panel to whatever I want - mostly 0.04, 0.06 and 0.1 and when I play it, it works exactly how I want it to, running at the speed set.

But when I go to Save for Web and Devices, the preview of the gif is slow and doesn't play at the same rate as what I set. No matter what I do to the frame rate - set it to no delay, convert it to a timeline gif, the gif doesn't run faster in the Save for Web window. When I upload it to a website, again the gif plays at the same slow rate shown in the Save for Web window.

This problem doesn't happen when I import a video to layers and set it to skip every two frames (or more). But even if I make a gif with very few frames (either from importing from a video with no skipping or from importing screenshots), it still runs very slow.

Other friends who make gifs via the same method as I do don't encounter this problem. I even opened a .psd from a friend of a gif with a frame rate of 0.06 and when I went to Save for Web, it still played very slow but for my friend, they managed to export the gif and have it play at the intended speed in their photoshop (also CS5).

So how can I make the change the setting for the frame rate in Save for Web and Devices because I assume it must be an issue within that panel?

Thanks so much.

Correct answer JDBEC

Gifs on Photoshop are better quality and way less heavier than those made on After Effect.

In case people still wonder why their gif is still slow while using photoshop :

First you are doing it wrong : you are not setting the framerate but you are setting the delay time for each frame.

You can stil get the result you want but its way more complicated.

The method since Photoshop cc2015 (at least)

When you click on Window > Timeline you are working with the "Frame Animation"

Once you are done with the animation of your gif you must convert it to "Video Timeline" (click on the lower left corner tab, in your Frame Animation window, just next to the loop setting (once, 3 times, forever).

Then click on the tab to the right corner of the timeline : the timeline setting. Click next on "Set Timeline Frame Rate..."

Lower the framerate to get your animation faster, and higher is you want is faster.

Hope it will help.

Show previous replies

rbniland

Participant

You are importing the video frames to layers at an "every 2 frames" level. Just bring it in as every 3 or 4 frames and it will speed up.

sinious

Legend

While faster, that will lead to less FPS and a jagged animation. You can have it be faster yet retain the FPS which is the best option.

G-Dubb

Participant

Anyone still looking into this "speed issue", I have something that helped me.

As theSchtickla said above:

- Select all the frames in the Timeline window

- Right click on a frame image, and select "Do not dispose" from the dropdown.

But also:

- Set the delay to ".03"

I have not idea why this delay renders faster than a delay of "no delay", but it does...and its remarkably faster across whatever viewer or browser I look at it in.

I believe this would have "fixed" any of the issues of the original post in this thread.

A

alexandrafarmer

Participant

A very simple looping rotating arrow .GIF set at "No Delay" is fast in photoshop but slow when dropped in Chrome or IE.

I tried "Do not dispose" with a "0.3" delay it in Photoshop CC 2014 and it does not work but 0.03 did.

sinious

Legend

Just a tid bit here but I want to be clear that "No Delay" does not mean the delay is literally set at 0.00.

Think about it.

A delay of 0.00 means the animation would instantaneously happen, and if in a loop, indefinitely. Almost the equivalent of unleashing an infinite loop in code that just brings that applications process to an inevitable halt (asking you to kill the task). It just makes no practical sense on modern systems.

We learned a very long time ago not to base the speed of things like games on the average performance of computers since there is no way to predict how fast computers will be 10 years from now (Moore's law aside, we're not just scaling anymore).

So to be really clear, when it says "No Delay", there should be some nominal delay in there. It was probably labeled as such instead of 0.00 so people wouldn't even consider setting a 0.00 delay. Again, because it makes no sense.

Always set a delay value above 0.

L

Lukeh Scotney

Participant

Old post but thought I'd add in that I know exactly what offtotheraces was talking about. I have a brand new Macbook and exporting a timeline with 0.0secs between frame still caused a slow laggy kind of animation and it is no way my specs. Yes crappy computers struggles to render but GIFs don't need a power house to run.

Thanks to the tips from theSchtickla the GIF exported a lot smoother and how I intended it. So just my 2 pence so people know there is an answer in this thread and not a misunderstanding

T

theSchtickla

Participant

OK, I have worked it out!

To get photoshop to deliver much better framerates....

- Select all the frames in the Timeline window

- Right click on a frame image, and select "Do not dispose" from the dropdown.

This has given me much faster results.

sinious

Legend

Thanks for your extra tips.

I believe the last GIF animation I made was from Fireworks. I don't even know if it still supports that editing mode but you're right that the GIF animation format supports quite a few interval changes. I never examined the actual bytes exported previously but if I told a specific frame to hold for 10 seconds the file size was identical if I did not delay it at all. Essentially that told me the format supports encoding an actual delay per frame rather than the software stacking 10 seconds worth of the same frame (which would increase file size). So you should be able to achieve any frame rate you desire, especially varying rates.

T

theSchtickla

Participant

OK, I'll add to this. I too find photoshop's GIF export framerate pretty crappy. I've been trying to create a loading circle GIF, and the speed from PS just isnt right. And its not a limitation of the GIF format. The best results I have achieved are from Flash, exporting the movie as an aminated GIF. This give amazing speeds and correct framerates. Problem is, you dont get all the good compression settings that you do in PS.

Here is the file exported from photoshop

http://imgur.com/L5ZKjEz,ulZ9ssN#1

Here is the file exported from Flash

http://imgur.com/L5ZKjEz,ulZ9ssN#0

As you can see, you get amazing speed from Flash, but you dont' have good color palette options...

So, I think the issue is with PS, because if Flash can do it, there's no reason PS can't....

A

Anonymous

The GIF animation settings in Photoshop are only guidelines. Actual playback speed will depend on the distinct hardware/software of each user. Those that choose to create animations with such a fast framerate (0.04 second delay) are often misusing the GIF format when they should really use a video format.

O

offtotheracesAuthor

Participant

Okay, but I have really good hardware specs and a good internet connection so images download fast, so I have no idea why this happens to me. I keep deleting my Save for Web preferences but nothing changes. I just don't understand why the gif runs in photoshop but when I go to save it, the frame rate makes no difference to the preview in the Save for Web window and what I eventually save. Surely there must be an issue if the Save for Web plugin ignores the framerate I set, no matter what I set it as.

And animations with a fast framerate are very popular on a website called tumblr, where pretty much every user makes gifs of such a rate so while I appreciate that it's not the best use of the GIF format, it's something I'd like to figure out how to do.

A

Anonymous

offtotheraces wrote:
Okay, but I have really good hardware specs...

That means nothing if the GIF is poorly designed/optimized. GIF is simply not a format that was intended to render great changes between frames.

Would you care to share what you are producing?

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