GIF dosen't support alpha transparency, it dosen't support high color, it dosen't support a ton of things, and I think you should add APNG support to your png library.
Despite the fact that there is still a lack of browser support for APNG, I think Photoshop should begin supporting them. If people start using APNG on their websites, perhaps browser developers will catch on and start supporting them.
APNG is a form of the PNG file extension that allows for animated images (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APNG). APNGs, although less popular that GIFs, are superior.
I hear what you're saying but on the flip side of that coin maybe all the browser makers need, to be convinced to add support for the format, is its inclusion in an extremely popular graphics editor.
All Web browsers do not support animated png files some like Chrome have add-ons the support animated png. IMO there are ways to plat videos in all browsers. Video can contain audio as well as animations and the video and audio compression used produce smaller files sizes then animated png files I have seen for animated png files.
Animated png files have much better color and image quality when compared to animated gif however I feel video is a better choice then animated png. CC should be able to create those video animations.
I have create animated png files using Photoshop to create the frames and a free program to create the animated png files from the frames. I do not know if I still have the free application installed. I feel that at this point in time animated png is dead. or the softwae is end of life.
I would like to see it included within Adobe products (photoshop likely).
I disagree that its dead since Apple's iOS stickers have APNG as a recommended format for delivery. Not that apple is always right, but there is a very relevant place for 1-3 second animations at web friendly data rates and not video.
This is a user forum. If you want to tell Adobe what you want in a Photoshop related product of theirs they have setup a web site you can do that in. It is Photoshop Family Customer Community most user here do not work for Adobe. Most people do not know or care that iOS stickers have animated pngs.
Thanks for educating me on where to go. I suppose opinions should be left out of both of our messages.
For anyone else that finds this thread, Free programs APNGASM GUI and Gif2APNG GUI are available for conversions. VirtualDub APNG Mod (v1.9.11.1) is another option with more settings.
I suppose opinions should be left out of both of our messages.
I think people have a right to have opinions and to let their opinions be known. However I feel what you think my opinion is a is more of a statement of reality. What percent of human population know there are animated png and of the percentage of the world population what percent think animated pngs are important for mankind.
Seems like a lot of those "answering" questions here on these forums have a bit of an attitude... Why not rather try to be cordial and helpful? That sort of response might be somewhat acceptable if they at least knew what they were talking about.
Instead of trying to tell people that what they want to do is stupid and trying to convince them to do some other thing - perhaps look into the issue a bit first? Some have spent some time here now telling everyone why the APNG format is dead but their logic and justifications are moot (and they are just plain wrong).
To paraphrase a comment from above: What percent of human population know there are animated GIFs and of the percentage of the world population what percent think animated GIFs are important for mankind?
Animated GIFs ought to be dead as well due to the above reasoning (why don't those millions of people making animated GIFs just make videos instead right?) but they are not dead at all. Looking at Tumblr, IMGUR, Meme Center, GIPHY and many other extremely popular internet forums proves without any hint of doubt that animated GIFs are far from dead.
Maybe we should ponder on why that reality yet exists... In my opinion the reason is that videos are loaded on demand while animated GIFs (yes and APNGs too!) are loaded with the page and play without interaction. The other reason is that they can be more cleanly implemented (without a player/controls) and with transparency as well, which APNGs particularly shine at. Here are a couple of comparisons between GIFs and APNGs with transparency. Note the vast improvement in quality (due to being able to use millions of colors as opposed to the 256 color maximum which GIFs are capable of) as well the smaller file sizes.
Anyhow, the fact is that Firefox has always supported APNGs. I just discovered that Apple's Safari browser supports APNGs now as well, and also Chromium (which Chrome is based on). See here: http://caniuse.com/#feat=apng
In response to the original question the answer is to perform all of your desired edits and/or animations in Photoshop, then choose to export your animation as a video, then select PNG image sequence. From there you can choose from a plethora of available free programs or free online tools (here,here or here) to (re)assemble your image sequence into an (exceedingly awesome) APNG animation
I tested a variety of options after reading through the APNG wiki listing out all software to be able to create them. I wrote off the format initially because the file sizes were extremely large despite compression attempts. After speaking with a developer who knows compressions really well he pointed me to TinyPNG. They've also got a plugin for PS, though the web interface works quite well.
Using the TinyPNG plugin with scripts pack within photoshop to compress without visual loss and then use this apng assembler APNG Assembler (EZgif uses this, the assembler crashes on me often though. currently looking for offline alternative instead of using EZgif) works for me very well. Pay attention to the flags though, so you get an output you want. This process can take a while too for 1080p png sequences during the TinyPNG pass.
Your best bet is to export the frames into a folder as a PNG image sequence. This will minimise any additional compression if you use third party software to convert it later. Hope this helps.
Well said, I agree wholeheartedly. I was very vocal in the After Effects community about wanting to keep animated GIF output from AE. Sadly, others voices were louder so they removed it. They are probably regretting that now and I hope it will be back at some point soon. Just goes to show that truly creative people can make beautiful things in any format, whether it's cutting edge or not 🙂
I would love to see native animated GIF support come back to After Effects! GifGun (GifGun - aescripts + aeplugins - aescripts.com ) does a great job, but that's an extra $29 if you need more than the free version offers.
Photopea can open and save PSD files, so it is fully backwards-compatible with Photoshop. It supports APNG, so you can use it to convert a PSD file into APNG (each layer will become a separate frame), or to convert APNG into a layered PSD.
You can also use it to convert between APNG and GIF.
Loving the revival of this post. Just wanted to stop in and thank everyone for their updates, software options and viewpoints. Seems to me this is beta vs VHS all over again, and just like that battle, the wrong side won, but this post gives me hope. With so many viable looped image options out there (like cinemagraphs and 'plotagraphs') it's surely time to have another look at APNGs.
I'll be submitting requests for Photoshop and Media Encoder and checking out all your software commendations. Thanx again!
It really comes down to browser support and social media support. If those platforms embrace it, I'm sure we'll see them show up in PS and AME; however, it is a little surprising that they're not there already.
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