Issue with exporting an animated gif from Photoshop

[Zuhoor27601337tz6u]

Hello dear folks, after having tried many different approaches i have to resolve to asking the community for help. 

I have made a 10s long animation in After Effects, 600x600px @10fps, render it to avi, then converted it to an animated gif through AME - file size 11MB....i need it as a gif for embedding into holiday emails (max size 3MB)

Next was to try to put the mp4 directly into PS and export - the option export as (choosing the option GIF) -  for me results in a static image. I am trying to understand why PS refuses to expor the gif, file size of the MP4 file is less than 2.1MB, the output shows a very satisfying 200kb gif to be exported - and it always ends up as a static image even with ending .gif....

I really hope someone can help solve this issue as it's really annoying at this point. 

Thank you so much in advance, 
All the best.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

You cant just open a video in PS and save as a gif. You need to create a frame animation first.

Here's how to do this:

1. Go to File>Import>Video Frames to Layers.
2. In the dialog box check "Make Frame Animation".
3. Go to File>Export>Save for Web (Legacy) and choose GIF as the format.

[Zuhoor27601337tz6u]

Thank you for the reply @Kevin Stohlmeyer . I have had the same approach as that one in one of the many tries, but unfortunately that still does  not solve my problem of "Export - Export As - Gif" getting exported as a static image instead of animated. 

Using this method the output is around 7-8mb which is still far more than what i can use.

Non the less i appreciate the your time and the answer.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

How large is your image size (pixel dimensions/resolution)? how many frames?

[Zuhoor27601337tz6u]

600x600,72p,10fps - png's used for animation are around 10-20 kb

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Dont use Export to create an animated gif. You have to save for web.

[Zuhoor27601337tz6u]

just trying to understand why is there a GIF option there if its not working anyway 🙂

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Its working. That option creates a GIF file format, not an animation.

[Zuhoor27601337tz6u]

save for web works, but i cannot get it to or below 3MB without loosing a lot of quality or halfing it to 300x300.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Uncheck "Convert to sRGB" - embedding color profiles will affect file size.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@Zuhoor27601337tz6u I saw you liked the post - does that mean it worked? If so be sure to mark the post as correct to help other users. If not, let me know and we can continue to work the issue. Thanks!

[Zuhoor27601337tz6u]

I've tried but unfortunately in the "Save for Web" window there are no options regarding converting color profiles.

[Test Screen Name]

What you are missing is that "GIF" means both the still graphic GIF and the animated GIF format. When you export, You are seeing a still GIF, a normal web format, nothing is wrong. 

[Test Screen Name · Accepted solution]

Colour profiles are irrelevant for GIF. This is a very old format and it cannot contain profiles. It also uses very old compression compared to modern movie formats, so it is no surprise that converting MP4 to GIF makes a huge file. You need to simplify it enormously to make a small file.

[Zuhoor27601337tz6u]

Is there an alternative format that You would reccomend that can be used in this scenario? 
embeding into emails as an animation...thanks you for the past explanation aswell 🙂

[Test Screen Name]

Animated GIF is fine for a few seconds, maybe a few dozen frames. It's not for full videos. Ask yourself if you ever saw a video like this in an email as a GIF? Emails are very simple and basic. 

[Zuhoor27601337tz6u]

Oh maybe I should've shared a preview of work - it's a very basic 2d animation with only 1 text transition (fade in and fade out) and a movimg background...i assumed that was simple enough for it to be used in emails as i have seen more complex works being used in the same manner..