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Social_Psyence
Known Participant
August 8, 2011
Question

Cannot Import Animated Gif

  • August 8, 2011
  • 6 replies
  • 10792 views

Hi all. I have been following the Lynda tutorials for Captivate 5 for Mac, and I'm at the point where they are inserting animated .gif files. When I attempt to insert the image via Insert > Animation, and select the file I receive the message that "The file is not an animated GIF file", and then nothing imports to the stage.

I downloaded an animated .gif from the web and tried to import that, but same result. They both open up on Photoshop fine.

Can anybody help me with this issue?

This topic has been closed for replies.

6 replies

J
Just Anythin
Known Participant
September 25, 2015

I'm having a similar issue in Captivate 8 (64 bit - version 8.0.1.242).

I created an animated GIF in Photoshop CC (2014), using the video timeline. Duration is 5 seconds, 30 Frames per second. The animation is essentially 12 layers of text animated to move left and right across the screen, dimensions are 453x280 pixels. Some of the layers change opacity, some change layer effects (drop shadows, etc), I'm using a transparent background. The produced GIF is 1.6M in size. It plays fine when opened in IE 11 (11.0.9600.18015CO) and FF (38.2.0)

I have previously created animated gifs this way before and imported them to Captivate 8. I'm not sure if I have a setting messed up or what, but every time I try to import the gif Captivate crashes. I have several other animated GIFs imported to this Captivate project, some that I created myself, and others that I got from elsewhere.

My Photoshop Save for Web Settings are:

GIF

Perceptual

Diffusion

Tranparency (Checked)

No Tranparency Dither

Interlaced (tried it both checked and unchecked)

256 colors

Dither 100%

Matte: None

Amount: greyed out

Web snap (0%)

Lossy: greyed out

Convert to sRGB: Checked

Preview: Monitor Color

Metadata: Copyright & Contact Info

Image Size: 453 x 280 pixels

Quality: Bicubic

Looping: Tried it both Once and Forever

Some previous entries in other forums suggested to "ensure that Photoshop's frame duration is not at the default setting of 0." However, I don't see how to adjust frame duration in a timeline animation (as opposed to a frame animation). Again, I have a total duration of 5 seconds, and a frame rate of 30 frames per second. So I'm not sure if this is a Photoshop issue or a Captivate issue. Any ideas?

J
Just Anythin
Known Participant
September 25, 2015

Ok, I got it to work.

What I did was to import the animation into the project via the Library:

  1. Window > LIbrary (if not already open).
  2. Select Media from the list under Name.
  3. Then go to the Import icon (Above the Name header, but just below the Preview area - It looks like a folder with an arrow pointing into the folder).
  4. Navigate to, and select, the animated gif (mine imported successfully).
  5. Drag the gif from the library and drop it onto the slide.
  6. Position it, set your timing and property settings, and save your work.

Initially, the Preview > Next X Slides did not show the animation working, but after a full publish to my hard drive, it did work in Preview mode, as well as when opening the entire course in the browser from the publish-folder.

My publish settings are (and this is largely due to my company's LMS and specific needs):

Publish as: HTML5/SWF

Project Title: as needed
Location: A folder on my hard drive
Publish to Folder: Selected

Output Format: Both HTML5 and SWF

Flash Player: 10

I always force re-publish all slides (and before I publish, I always delete the previous version). The rest is de-selected for this project.

I never take the option to view the output after publishing. I always navigate out to the publish-folder and open the multiscreen.html file.

A
arashmaz
Known Participant
March 20, 2017

This didn't work for me...

It just drops the gif into the images folder rather than the media folder.

Did it do the same for you or did it actually appear under 'Media' in the library?

    julmer40
    julmer40
    Known Participant
    April 14, 2015

    I found a way to open the GIF Animation. Thank you very much.

    Lilybiri
    Lilybiri
    Legend
    April 14, 2015

    Since this is a user forum, please post your solution! Maybe it could help some other users.

    christian lee
    christian lee
    Known Participant
    September 5, 2015

    I have this problem. I created my animated gif using Microsoft Cliplets. Any advice would be appreciated.

    Thanks Chris

    julmer40
    julmer40
    Known Participant
    April 13, 2015

    I just have the same problem with the *gif Animations. And Captivate crashes when I Import the Antimation.

    Lilybiri
    Lilybiri
    Legend
    April 13, 2015

    How did you create the GIF? And which version are you using?

    Ilianka
    Ilianka
    Participant
    July 9, 2014

    I had the same problem. The gif can't be imported into Captivated unless it's generated in Photoshop. Also, Captivate crashes when the gif is too large.

    P
    Pan_Ming
    Participant
    November 4, 2011

    Hi,

    In my envirement...

    If the animations frames set to "No Delay (0 Sec)" in PhotoShop, once import the GIF file to Captivate will get "The file is not an animated GIF file", if import the GIF file to Media Encoder will have problem too.

    Please try set frames to 0.1 seconds at least

    Pan Ming

    Lilybiri
    Lilybiri
    Legend
    August 10, 2011

    Hello,

    Think you did not get an answer yet because no user on this forum has already had this issue. I just tried to insert an animated GIF without any problem. You said you could open it in Photoshop, can you see the animation there? If yes, try to republish from PS. I always create animations in PS, and they work fine in Captivate.

    Lilybiri

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