Keeping down animated GIF file size

I have a question about animated GIFs and filesizes:

I'm supposed to make this little banner ad for a friend, but the website intended for the ad, specifies the filesize for the said ad to be 250x120 pixel, with a max size of 15 K.

I've tried to keep the layers of the file at 92dpi (Photoshop), (maximum screen resolution, yeah? Or is it 72dpi??) but I can't seem to get the output file from Image Ready below the magic marker at 15k. Oh, and the file has 12 layers in it.

What am I doing wrong? Or missing? there must be some way to reduce filesize, I've checked a few tutorials online, to no avail. If anyone could give me some pointers, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance.

O11

I can't help you with your question, but I just wanted to say wassup dood! long time no see O11

[edit on 4-8-2006 by Lysergic]

Heey Lys! Yeah it's been ages... been busy with all sorts of stuff.. Nice seeing you again!

Try to limit the amount of colors your using in the gif.

Gif's use tabled colors, which means it uses a table with colors present in the image, uses shortend color codes for the coordinates and as such will compress images much better then when the full RGB color coding is used.

Also, try to use a background layer of a single color with transparancy in the subsequent layers, overlaying this main background layer.
That way, the animated slides will only have the animations in them instead of colors for the entire image slice.

Hey thematrix, thanks for the pointers, I'm sort of a newbie when it comes to IR... I mostly know PS...

O11

There are a few options in the Optimisation palette which can help you to reduce the file size.



As thematrix mentioned, you can reduce the number of colours. Also increasing the "web snap" will reduce the number of colours used and hence the file size. The "lossy' slider increases the amount of unnecessary data that will be discarded, decreasing the file size even more. Play around with these settings, but make sure you watch the preview, because they will effect the image quality when used too much.

Before you get to the optimisation stage you should first try to reduce the number of layers as much as you can. If any layers can be merged without messing up the animation, then merge them.

Also try to ensure that the individual elements within the file are as simple and clean as possible. Bleeding, graded edges, colours and effects will increase the file size drastically. For example in the below text, the amount of info in the second word is much larger than in the first because of the motion trail effect using many more colours. If you can simplify elements without sacrificing too much artistic flavour, then this will help to reduce file size.

Hey wecomeinpeace, thanks for the tips, hopefully I'll get the filesize right now, with your and thematrix' tips

I don't use Photoshop, so I can't give you any tips for that.

But I usually optimize my GIFs, if I can without it messing up too much. I have a few tutorials on my website that might help. I feel kind of silly posting the links though. X3 Don't know why.

[Link 1] - Better for non-animated GIFs
[Link 2] - Better for animated GIFs

It pretty much involves getting rid of some of the colors though. Like what thematrix said.

I've been doin' it for who-knows-how-long, so you can U2U me if you need help. Or I could do it for you if you want. I have nothing to do right now. 3: