Gifs in 2025

Question

Hey Everyone - Serious question. Why are gifs so difficult to deal with in 2025?

My current workflow - to which i am unable to find an easier solution - is as follows for this given project:

1. Create 3D animation in Cinema 4D. Export as PNG sequence.

2. Import the PNG sequence into After Effects, duplicate sequence and time reverse to create perfect loop.

3. Export as .MOV (rgb+alpha).

4. Import MOV into Photoshop.

5. Export to Legacy GIF.

It seems like a huge amount of effort to have a GIF with a transparent BG. But even now, as I do this, I am getting silly white artifacting around the element. When i remove the matte, the artifacting is gone, but the animation looks pixeled and not super smooth. The whole point of these animations are that they can go on a website and they are overlayed over 2 different colored blocks. I feel like in 2025 there has to be an easier solution to creating a transparent BG gif that isn't 15MB that looks smooth and has no edge artifacts. I have tried using EZGif & Adobe Express with no success either.

What sort of solutions do some of you have when it comes to doing this? I might just be living in some oldskool bubble of deniability at this point, so I look to you for easier, cleaner solutions.

Thanks in advance!

Trevor.Dennis · Answer

If the PNGs are individual files, then you can load them to a single image document using this script:

In the Motion workspace, create frame animation with the first layer, and then use Make Frames from Layers via the pop out menu.

You might have to delete a frame or two if you had a Background layer, or select all frames and turn on a background layer if you are not wanting transparency. You'll know to use Export > Save for Web (Legacy) to save the GIF. IME they run a lot more smoothly if they start out as video files. Least ways I don't know the secret of making perfectly smooth frame animations from raster layers, even with lots of anti aliasing.

I like to save out with transparency as you can add different backgrounds later just using the GIF file, without having to hunt down the layered .PSD.

I don't know if this helps, but it might save some steps from your current workflow.

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