Animated .gif not moving

[Carol Svec]

I've been intrigued by the new animated "postcards" or cinemagraphs (for example, see http://fromme-toyou.tumblr.com/tagged/gif). I found a great tutorial about how to do this using Photoshop Extended and the animation panel. I created my own, and then followed the instructions for saving the file:

1. "Save for Web and Devices"

2. make sure to save as GIF, looped "forever"

When I previewed the gif (from the "save for web and devices" dialog box), it worked great.

But when I save the gif, it doesn't move. It is just one frame of the animation, as a static photo. When I click the file, I get a "Preview" that shows all the frames, but I can't ever get it to move.

Is there a step I'm missing? Or is there some operating system setting I need to change? I've never created an animated gif before, but I can see other people's animated gifs in my email. (I'm attaching my gif in case you can figure it out from that.)

OKAY...I looked at the attachment, and it moves (my dog's eyes). This is the only time it has worked. I've tried to email it, post it on Tumblr, open it in my browser, but it never worked. Now, I post it here, and--at least as I look at the attachment--it works here. How can I get it to move when I post it online or try to send it via email?

I'm running Mac OSX 10.6, Photoshop CS 5.1.

Thank you!

Carol

[Carol Svec]

After this question was posted, the online version doesn't seem to be moving. Does anyone know what's going on?

[Guest]

There are several reasons why this may not be moving.

The inline image shown on this page has likely been disabled by the forum software. However, if you click on the image to view full size, it works.

[Carol Svec]

Thank you! So I know I created it correctly. (That's good to know.)

The question then becomes why it doesn't move in emails, or when posted online. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent trying to troubleshoot this myself.

[Guest]

Some email clients disable animated GIFs.

Web sites like Tumblr that have image upload functions may further process your file during upload by removing its animated features. You could control this by hosting images on your own web site.

In general, animated GIF files are not ideal for emails because of their large size. GIF is an inefficient format for photorealistic animation/video.

[Carol Svec]

AND...a friend just told me that the image was animated on iPad when sent as an email attachment, but not on her computer-based email.