How to create soft GIF edges?

[mickyfokken]

I have a character that fades in over the background of a hallway.  As a GIF, it has jagged edges.  Any ideas how I can make it soft edges?

I have two images to show the difference.  The image with soft edges also used Captivate to fade in the character over a background.

EXAMPLE:  HARD EDGES - click on the image to see in 100% size.  (do not want)

EXAMPLE:  SOFT EDGES (I DO want)

Both use Captivate to fade in the person over the background after 2 seconds.

Micky

[Guest]

Hi,

Does the source GIF's have those jagged edges?

If yes then you hav to edit that in an external image editor (say photoshop, and feather the edges)

If the source GIF's are proper, then you can increase the slide quality to high and check if it solves the problem..

regards,

Hari

[Lilybiri]

Why GIF? It is limited to 256colors, and doesn't support partial transparency AFAIK. That is possibly the reason for those edges if it is not the resolution.

Any reason why you cannot use PNG-24 bit?

Lilybiri

[mickyfokken]

I'll try PNG-24 bit in Photoshop and see if that has better results.

I just did GIF because i'm used to using that format for transparency.

[Lilybiri · Accepted solution]

OK, but forgot, like Hari mentioned, to ask about slide quality. For PNG you'll have to change to High or Optimized.

Lilybiri

[mickyfokken]

Thanks to both of you.  The quality is much better and the edges are not nearly as jagged.  With a little more cleaning up in Photoshop, I can make it look like the example above.  Thanks again!

[SteveNixonCW]

PNG - use a transparent layer behind the image before you export from PS as PNG 24. If you're using it in Captivate keep it large and scale it in Captivate. Btw Captivate is amazing at scaling png files in animations f you have a large original.

Best, Steve