Exporting GIF issue with after effects

[Alexander267515044abt]

Hi! I hope this is the correct thread for this issue.

I'm doing an animation in After effects, but after I exported it in Media Encoder (I use the GIF format) it creates an image with noisy pixels (see image):

Those dots were never present in the animation I was working

But when I exported it via video (H.264) these dots are gone

I wonder if I can do something so I can export it on GIF without having those dots.

After effects and Media encoder are updated and I used Fractal noise in the animation, but I don't know if it have something to do with it.

I'm also working on Mac, M1 pro

Let me know if I need to share the entire gif.

[eckiAMETeam]

I just rendered a H.264 movie into a GIF and did not see your dithering issues. It might be related to After Effects settings. Can verify if the GIF preset is set to "match source" in the AME encoding settings? 

[Alexander267515044abt]

The issue is not related to the H.264 video, is more about when I'm exporting the animation on after effects to GIF.

It only happens on GIF because when I'm exporting it to H.264 the dithering is gone.

Now I think the reason why it happens is that the file I'm using have a very low res (960 x 540 px) and I'm using fractal noise and other effects, so the image is very complicated and the low res is creating the dithering, but that's my theory.

At the end the image looks okay looking a it far away like it was intended.

Thank you!

[eckiAMETeam]

I will ask our After Effects guys.

[eckiAMETeam]

Would you be able to share the project and media? I can send you the instructions via private message in this forum.

[Alexander267515044abt]

Here are the files if you need them, thank you for taking your time!

[eckiAMETeam]

Thanks! Our After Effects quality engineers will look into your issue and try to repro.

[Warren Heaton]

Something to keep in mind is that the GIF file format supports a maximum of 256 colors while H264 supports millions of colors.

While Media Encoder has an option for Animated GIF, it treats GIF like it's a video format when it's a graphics format.

Render your animation at "Best Settings"for the Render Settings and "High Quality" for the Output Module from After Effects.  This file will be large.  Open the resulting movie file in Photoshop and then choose File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy), setting the "Optimized file format" pop-up menu to GIF and adjusting the GIF options for a good balance of appearance and file size.  For best results, use a low frame rate in After Effects (8, 10, or 15) and keep the duration as short as possible (Photoshop's GIF option is limited to something like 500 frames).

If transparency is needed, use the "High Quality with Alpha" Output Module template in After Effects instead of "High Quality".

If you are creating animated GIFs frequently from After Effects, GifGun is well worth it (a trial version is available).