Problem with rendering GIFs in After Effects

[lisab1541498]

I'm creating a simple GIF using only PNG and JPG files. My actual AE project file is small. It's a little under 3 MB, however when I export to render queue or to the Media Encoder render queue the rendered GIF size is no less than 140 MB and at most 1.5 GB. I don't even have video in the GIF. I've never had this problem before and I cannot figure out how to fix it. Has anyone had success resolving this issue?

[imeilfx]

The best way to work with gif is to:
a) prepare everything in AE
b) export that animation as a video (f. eg. h264 mp4)
c) open Photoshop
d) import ypour video into PS
e) export your gif by going to File/Export/Save for web

As for file size everything depends on:
a) what FPS your animation have (lower fps = smaler size
b) file resolution - smaller resoluion - smaller size. I know that it is obvious for most but if is not to good on compression side so standard full hd animation saved as a gif can give much larger file size than some standard video formats.

[lisab1541498]

Hi Imeilfx,

My GIF is a bit too long for PS. PS limits to only 500 frames. Mine is about 18 seconds, well over 500 frames.

I have a low FPS. Also, I created several GIFs before this and never encountered this problem. I haven't a clue what setting has changed to make these files so large on export. Please let me know if anything else strikes you. Thanks!

[Rick Gerard]

When you create an animated GIF you should have no duplicate frames, the frame rate should be no higher than 15 (12 is better) and you should be controlling timing by setting the duration of individual frames. For example, a one-minute looping banner with transitions between 10 different slides that need to be on screen for 6 seconds could be as small as  if the transitions were all 1/2 second at 12 fps. 10 X 12 = 120 + 6 frames held for 10 seconds each makes the entire one minute animated gif only 126 frames long. I used to do that kind of work all the time for clients.

18 seconds at 12 fps is only 216 frames. At 15 fps 18 seconds is only 270. If there are no duplicate frames in the GIF I can see no reason for any more frames than that.

Think of animated gifs as cartoons. Buggs Bunny looked just fine at 12 FPS. That's right, traditional hand-drawn animation was and is actually only 12 frames per second because each drawing was photographed twice. There is no reason I know of for an animated gif to be more than 15 fps.

This animated gif that I found on the web is only 10 frames:

That's how you make an efficient animated GIF. After Effects alone is not the right tool.

[lisab1541498]

I am an extreme novice at After Effects.I know how to do basic functions and manipulate effects, but I haven't fully grasped the logic of the program. So, a bit of your terminology has gone over my head but I understand your general point. I'll explore your recommendations (along with imeilfx) to see if I can generate the appropriate sized file. I can't thank you enough for your insight.

[imeilfx]

To be honnest I never did GIFs in AE. I made animations in AE and export them to Ps as I described but never did and export file as a gif from start to finish in AE.
As for GIF restrictions in PS - 500 frames is more than enough to export when you are remembering about adequate fps to for your animation. And lower fps = smaller file size so why render more fps when you don't need them.

[lisab1541498]

I am using the turbulent effect of several blocks of text which, I suspect, makes additional frames when imported into Photoshop. But I will attempt PS again with this and see if I end up with the desired result. 

[imeilfx]

Try lowering fps as Rick said - 24, 25 or 30 fps is not necessery for gif.

[Rick Gerard]

When you step through the frames in Photoshop make sure there are no duplicates. No identical frames. If you find 24 duplicate frames you can delete 23 of them and just increase the time you spend on the remaining one. If your GIF is 12 fps just set the duration of the remaining frame to 2 seconds and you have just reduced the file size by 23 frames. Animated Gif's and Animated SVG's are the only fairly modern formats that I know of that allow you to set the duration of each individual frame.

[bucksommerkamp]

If there's no video, I'd move this entire task to Photoshop, which has specific features for creating animated .gifs and won't swell the file size to that degree.