Animated GIF's aren't animated.

Now this is probably a simple problem to fix, but it is really bugging the crap out of me. Whenever I try to open an animated GIF, it simply sits at the first frame. This also happens in Preview, and it's very discouraging because I deal with a lot of animated GIF's, and it's a huge hassle to have to travel between my OSX and Windows partitions just to manage my photos. Any ideas?
iMac G5 20" Intel Core 2 Duo 2.33ghz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I have a similar problem:
We have some animated gifs on www.scbadasscoffee.com...they ARE working from computers from home. One computer is in an office at the shop sees everything fine...using current Firefox and Safari...we have 4 computers for the public...somewhere in the last weeks they stopped being able to view the animated GIFS. Any ideas on what happened, what to look for or ???
Thanks, -bill

Similar Messages

Create animated GIF using imageio

How do you create an animated GIF using the J2SE's javax.imageio classes?
I have been browsing these 3 threads (one of which I participated in) to try and develop an SSCCE of creating an animated GIF.
[Writing out animated gifs with ImageIO?|http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5204877]
[Wirting image metadata to control animated gif delays |http://forums.java.net/jive/thread.jspa?messageID=214284&]
[Help with GIF writer in imageio|http://www.javakb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/java-programmer/32892/Help-with-GIF-writer-in-imageio]
(pity I did not prompt the OP on that last one, to supply an SSCCE.)
Unfortunately, my efforts so far have been dismal. Either, without the IIOMetadata object, the GIF has frames with no delay, and it cycles just once, or with the IIOMetadata object I get an error.
IIOInvalidTreeException: Unknown child of root node!Can anyone point me in the right direction?
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.image.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.Iterator;
import javax.imageio.*;
import javax.imageio.metadata.*;
import javax.imageio.stream.*;
import org.w3c.dom.Node;
class WriteAnimatedGif {
/** Adapted from code via Brian Burkhalter on
http://forums.java.net/jive/thread.jspa?messageID=214284& */
public static Node getRootNode(String delayTime) {
    IIOMetadataNode root =
      new IIOMetadataNode("javax_imageio_gif_stream_1.0");
    IIOMetadataNode gce =
      new IIOMetadataNode("GraphicControlExtension");
    gce.setAttribute("disposalMethod", "none");
    gce.setAttribute("userInputFlag", "FALSE");
    gce.setAttribute("transparentColorFlag", "FALSE");
    gce.setAttribute("delayTime", delayTime);
    gce.setAttribute("transparentColorIndex", "255");
    root.appendChild(gce);
    IIOMetadataNode aes =
      new IIOMetadataNode("ApplicationExtensions");
    IIOMetadataNode ae =
      new IIOMetadataNode("ApplicationExtension");
    ae.setAttribute("applicationID", "NETSCAPE");
    ae.setAttribute("authenticationCode", "2.0");
    byte[] uo = new byte[] {
      (byte)0x21, (byte)0xff, (byte)0x0b,
      (byte)'N', (byte)'E', (byte)'T', (byte)'S',
      (byte)'C', (byte)'A', (byte)'P', (byte)'E',
      (byte)'2', (byte)'.', (byte)'0',
      (byte)0x03, (byte)0x01, (byte)0x00, (byte)0x00,
      (byte)0x00
    ae.setUserObject(uo);
    aes.appendChild(ae);
    root.appendChild(aes);
    return root;
/** Adapted from code via GeogffTitmus on
http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9988198 */
public static File saveAnimate(
    BufferedImage[] frames,
    String name,
    String delayTime) throws Exception {
    File file = null;
    file = new File(name+".gif");
    Node root = getRootNode(delayTime);
    ImageWriter iw = ImageIO.getImageWritersByFormatName("gif").next();
    ImageOutputStream ios = ImageIO.createImageOutputStream(file);
    iw.setOutput(ios);
    //IIOImage ii = new IIOImage(frames[0], null, null);
    //IIOMetadata im = iw.getDefaultStreamMetadata(null);
    //IIOMetadata im = new AnimatedIIOMetadata();
    //im.setFromTree("gif", root);
    iw.prepareWriteSequence(null);
    for (int i = 0; i < frames.length; i++) {
      BufferedImage src = frames;
ImageWriteParam iwp = iw.getDefaultWriteParam();
IIOMetadata metadata = iw.getDefaultStreamMetadata(iwp);
System.out.println( "IIOMetadata: " + metadata );
//metadata.mergeTree(metadata.getNativeMetadataFormatName(), root);
metadata.setFromTree(metadata.getNativeMetadataFormatName(), root);
//Node root = metadata.getAsTree("javax_imageio_gif_image_1.0");
IIOImage ii = new IIOImage(src, null, metadata);
iw.writeToSequence( ii, (ImageWriteParam)null);
iw.endWriteSequence();
ios.close();
return file;
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
// uncomment the other two if you like, but we can
// see it work or fail with just the first and last.
String[] names = {
"bronze",
//"silver",
//"gold",
"platinum"
String pre = "http://forums.sun.com/im/";
String suff = "-star.gif";
BufferedImage[] frames = new BufferedImage[names.length];
for (int ii=0; ii<names.length; ii++) {
URL url = new URL(pre + names[ii] + suff);
System.out.println(url);
frames[ii] = ImageIO.read(url);
File f = saveAnimate(frames, "animatedstars", "500");
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog( null, new ImageIcon(f.toURI().toURL()) );
Desktop.getDesktop().open(f);
ImageInputStream iis = ImageIO.createImageInputStream(f);
//System.out.println("ImageReader: " + ir1);
//System.out.println("IIOMetadata: " + ir1.getStreamMetadata());
Iterator itReaders = ImageIO.getImageReaders(iis);
while (itReaders.hasNext() ) {
ImageReader ir = (ImageReader)itReaders.next();
System.out.println("ImageReader: " + ir);
System.out.println("IIOMetadata: " + ir.getStreamMetadata());

According to imagio's [gif metadata specification|http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/javax/imageio/metadata/doc-files/gif_metadata.html], the metadata you are specifying is image-specific metadata. The stream metadata is global metadata applicable to all the images.
So change this,
IIOMetadataNode root =
    new IIOMetadataNode("javax_imageio_gif_stream_1.0");to this,
IIOMetadataNode root =
    new IIOMetadataNode("javax_imageio_gif_image_1.0");and this,
IIOMetadata metadata = iw.getDefaultStreamMetadata(iwp);
System.out.println( "IIOMetadata: " + metadata );
//metadata.mergeTree(metadata.getNativeMetadataFormatName(), root);
metadata.setFromTree(metadata.getNativeMetadataFormatName(), root);
//Node root = metadata.getAsTree("javax_imageio_gif_image_1.0");to this,
IIOMetadata metadata = iw.getDefaultImageMetadata(
        new ImageTypeSpecifier(src),null);
System.out.println("IIOMetadata: " + metadata);
metadata.mergeTree(metadata.getNativeMetadataFormatName(), root);Here is your program again, but with the above changes.
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.image.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.Iterator;
import javax.imageio.*;
import javax.imageio.metadata.*;
import javax.imageio.stream.*;
import org.w3c.dom.Node;
class WriteAnimatedGif {
    /** Adapted from code via Brian Burkhalter on
    http://forums.java.net/jive/thread.jspa?messageID=214284& */
    public static Node getRootNode(String delayTime) {
        IIOMetadataNode root =
                new IIOMetadataNode("javax_imageio_gif_image_1.0");
        IIOMetadataNode gce =
                new IIOMetadataNode("GraphicControlExtension");
        gce.setAttribute("disposalMethod", "none");
        gce.setAttribute("userInputFlag", "FALSE");
        gce.setAttribute("transparentColorFlag", "FALSE");
        gce.setAttribute("delayTime", delayTime);
        gce.setAttribute("transparentColorIndex", "255");
        root.appendChild(gce);
        IIOMetadataNode aes =
                new IIOMetadataNode("ApplicationExtensions");
        IIOMetadataNode ae =
                new IIOMetadataNode("ApplicationExtension");
        ae.setAttribute("applicationID", "NETSCAPE");
        ae.setAttribute("authenticationCode", "2.0");
        byte[] uo = new byte[]{
            (byte) 0x21, (byte) 0xff, (byte) 0x0b,
            (byte) 'N', (byte) 'E', (byte) 'T', (byte) 'S',
            (byte) 'C', (byte) 'A', (byte) 'P', (byte) 'E',
            (byte) '2', (byte) '.', (byte) '0',
            (byte) 0x03, (byte) 0x01, (byte) 0x00, (byte) 0x00,
            (byte) 0x00
        ae.setUserObject(uo);
        aes.appendChild(ae);
        root.appendChild(aes);
        return root;
    /** Adapted from code via GeogffTitmus on
    http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9988198 */
    public static File saveAnimate(
            BufferedImage[] frames,
            String name,
            String delayTime) throws Exception {
        File file = null;
        file = new File(name + ".gif");
        Node root = getRootNode(delayTime);
        ImageWriter iw = ImageIO.getImageWritersByFormatName("gif").next();
        ImageOutputStream ios = ImageIO.createImageOutputStream(file);
        iw.setOutput(ios);
        //IIOImage ii = new IIOImage(frames[0], null, null);
        //IIOMetadata im = iw.getDefaultStreamMetadata(null);
        //IIOMetadata im = new AnimatedIIOMetadata();
        //im.setFromTree("gif", root);
        iw.prepareWriteSequence(null);
        for (int i = 0; i < frames.length; i++) {
            BufferedImage src = frames;
ImageWriteParam iwp = iw.getDefaultWriteParam();
IIOMetadata metadata = iw.getDefaultImageMetadata(
new ImageTypeSpecifier(src), null);
System.out.println("IIOMetadata: " + metadata);
metadata.mergeTree(metadata.getNativeMetadataFormatName(), root);
IIOImage ii = new IIOImage(src, null, metadata);
iw.writeToSequence(ii, (ImageWriteParam) null);
iw.endWriteSequence();
ios.close();
return file;
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
// uncomment the other two if you like, but we can
// see it work or fail with just the first and last.
String[] names = {
"bronze",
//"silver",
//"gold",
"platinum"
String pre = "http://forums.sun.com/im/";
String suff = "-star.gif";
BufferedImage[] frames = new BufferedImage[names.length];
for (int ii = 0; ii < names.length; ii++) {
URL url = new URL(pre + names[ii] + suff);
System.out.println(url);
frames[ii] = ImageIO.read(url);
File f = saveAnimate(frames, "animatedstars", "500");
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, new ImageIcon(f.toURI().toURL()));
Desktop.getDesktop().open(f);
ImageInputStream iis = ImageIO.createImageInputStream(f);
//System.out.println("ImageReader: " + ir1);
//System.out.println("IIOMetadata: " + ir1.getStreamMetadata());
Iterator itReaders = ImageIO.getImageReaders(iis);
while (itReaders.hasNext()) {
ImageReader ir = (ImageReader) itReaders.next();
System.out.println("ImageReader: " + ir);
System.out.println("IIOMetadata: " + ir.getStreamMetadata());

Control Animated Gif with ImageAnimator Class

Here is something I just found that some of you may like. You can use the
ImageAnimator Class to run Animated Gifs in vb.net.
Public Class Form9
Private animatedImage As Bitmap = Image.FromFile("C:\bitmaps\animated gifs\hopping rabbit 2 - animated.gif")
Private Sub Form9_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Button1.Text = "Start"
Me.BackColor = Color.Teal
End Sub
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
If Button1.Text = "Stop" Then
ImageAnimator.StopAnimate(animatedImage, New EventHandler(AddressOf Me.OnFrameChanged))
Button1.Text = "Start"
Else
'Begin the animation.
ImageAnimator.Animate(animatedImage, New EventHandler(AddressOf Me.OnFrameChanged))
Button1.Text = "Stop"
End If
End Sub
Private Sub Form9_Paint(sender As Object, e As PaintEventArgs) Handles Me.Paint
'Get the next frame ready for rendering.
ImageAnimator.UpdateFrames()
'Draw the next frame in the animation.
e.Graphics.DrawImage(Me.animatedImage, New Point(0, 0))
End Sub
Private Sub OnFrameChanged(ByVal o As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
'Force a call to the Paint event handler.
Me.Invalidate()
End Sub
End Class

Hey Tom,
Yes the ImageAnimator is a handy class for showing animated Gif images. I looked at it when making the Playback panel on my Gif Creator program. I could not use it though because, i would of had to create the Gif image before i could play it back
and being my images are all single images i was stuck using a Timer to show each one.
I wish there was a way to use a list of single images with this class. It would have been much less work. 8)
If you say it can`t be done then i`ll try it
Yeah, I see that it is not enough for your Gif Creator.
I just did not know about it and was using the gif strip to manually make a list of all the gif frames and showing individually with a timer. This class does it and a couple other things much easier.

Question re Flash to Animated GIF

Hi,
I developed a simple animation for my home page. It simulates
a title being "typed" out one letter at a time the way it would
look if keyed in a program like MS Word. Once the words are
"typed," the .swf version of the animation stops, and the title
remains on the screen.
After creating the .fla file, it occurred to me that it might
make sense to export the file as an animated .gif so that folks
without the Flash plugin could see it.
However, as far as I can tell, I have only two options for
creating the animated .gif version: either have the animation
repeat, or have it disappear after it finishes.
Is there a way to convert to an animated .gif so that the
animation occurs once and then the title's words remain on the
screen instead of disappearing?
Thanks!
Bill

OK, the answer is to put "1" in the "Repeat" field in the GIF
publish settings. To me, that means it will repeat one time,
meaning it plays twice. I had put 0 in that field and that makes it
loop continuously.
That's the answer!

Importing animated gif files

Hello,
I have some animated gif files that i would like to import into framemaker.
The problem is that these animated gif does not activate. Is Framemaker compatible with animated gif's?
Out of this framemaker file we would like to extract a pdf and a microsoft html help file (via e-publisher).
How do i keep these gif files animated in Framemaker & pdf?
We are working with Framemaker 8.0 on a windows vista operating system.
PDF = adobe acrobat 9 pro.
Bjorn

If you are using FrameMaker and WWeP you can certainly use a reference to the animated GIF and pull the animated source into your HTML help from WWeP. Check a WWeP forum on doing that.
Also, PDF now supports Flash. Have you tried using Flash animations?
HTH,
Sean

Problem at displaying animated gif images !!!!!!!!!!!!

hello everyone......i am trying to display an animated gif image..............so till far i have no issues on this....
but i face problem when :
i have created a class called SimpleGame which extends JPanel....
public class SimpleGame extends JPanel
//code
public void paintComponent(Graphics g)
//code to draw image
}now i have written another class with main method
public class MyGame extends SimpleGame
public MyGame()
        JFrame frame=new JFrame();
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.setSize(800, 600);
        frame.setUndecorated(true);
        frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        frame.getContentPane().add(this);
        frame.setVisible(true);
        this.repaint();
}so image gets displayed but only one frame of animated image......image that is displayed is static.....since it is a animated gif,,,,,so some how animation is not rendered......only one frame is displayed......
why is it happening ??
if i try to display animated image from a single class i mean my paintComponent method and main method is at same class then i do not face problem.....
but if my paint method is in another class and i am using that method from another class then animation does not get rendered.........
any help !!!!! please...........

class SimpleGame extends JPanel
Image img=new ImageIcon("y.gif");
public void paintComponent(Graphics g)
g.drawImage(img,150,150,this);
}main class//
class MyGame extends SimpleGame
public MyGame()
        JFrame frame=new JFrame();
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.setSize(800, 600);
        frame.setUndecorated(true);
        frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        frame.getContentPane().add(this);
        frame.setVisible(true);
        this.repaint();
public static void main(String[] args)
new MyGame();
}my image gets displayed.......but only single frame of a animated image....animation is not happening..........

Toolkit.createCustomCursor(...) blocks when provided with an animated GIF

Hi everyone:
Here is a code snippet from an application of mine:
// Loading an image: works fine. duke.gif is an animated Duke icon found in the source code version of J2SDK 1.3.1.
ImageIcon imageIcon = new ImageIcon("duke.gif");
// Conversion into an image: works fine too. I checked its proper termination with a MediaTracker, which I removed after determining that getImage() does not block at all.
Image image = imageIcon.getImage();
// This method blocks forever!
Cursor myCursor = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit.createCustomCursor(image, new Point(0, 0), "Duke");After testing with a few other GIF images, I could determine that this blocking problem seems to occur only with animated GIF images. Are animated GIFs supported as cursor images at all? Also, what is the best method to use the Toolkit.getBestCursorSize(...) to properly size the loaded image for use as a cursor icon?
Thanks in advance for helping...
Jean-Fran�ois Morin

I think the problem may be that your using an animated gif. If you read the doc on the Curson class it says that Cursor is a bitmap representation of the mouse cursor. Bitmaps do not generally support animation. Also it is likely the createCustomCursor method is waiting for a call to ImageConsumer.imageComplete(). I am not sure, but if the GIF animation loops this function may never get called. This could cause your hangup. I would suggest trying a non-animated GIFf produced from the same program to ensure that your paint program is producing compliant GIFs. If that works I would assume the problem is that Cursor does not support animation at this time. I could be wrong about that, but there is nothing in the documentation to indate that it would.
NoOneLeft

Applet Parameters For Animated Gif Using AWT

I need to have my applet except parameters to change from one type of animated gif (dog) to another animated gif (cat). There are two for each animal. If the animal parameter is "dog" the dog1.gif and the dog2.gif will be used for the animation. I'm not too sure on how to go about this.
private String sDog;
private String sCat;
sDog = getParameter("");
if (sDog.equalsIgnoreCase("dog"))
How do I add both gifs in the control statement?
Thanks so much,
Jeff

private String sDog;
private String sCat;
sDog = getParameter("dog");
for(int i=1;i<3;i++){
if (sDog.equalsIgnoreCase("dog" i".gif"))
//code to display the gif
remember your parameter should be <b>dog</b>

Identifying/resizing animated GIF

Hi
This is my situation: I load user-selected image files (any format is OK, the more the better) for later transmission as byte array, always re-encoded as JPG. If the image is over some certain width/height, I scale down the image (display size issues). Until now I was reading the images with ImageIO.read, downsizing with Graphics2D.drawImage and encoding with ImageIO.write, and everything works nicely.
Now I need to support animated GIFs as well. The current method makes animated gifs as a static first frame of the animation. My two alternatives are:
1 - support animated GIF downsizing
2 - detecting animated GIFs and handling them separately (no resize allowed, no re-encode)
The first alternative sounds cumbersome, Googling around showed problems with lost transparency and requiring to downsize all frames separately and then re-encode. If I have to do this extract-downsize-encode I won't take this route, better do not perform animated GIF resizing. The second alternative sounds much simpler, and less problem-prone.
Now I would like suggestions on how can I archive this. I'd really appreciate some code/lib to detect and optionally resize animated GIFs. It must be a free code solution.
The only animated GIF detection code I found was this, but it requires looking for certain bytes, and I'd like a more robust solution (also it didn't worked).
I would like to keep using ImageIO API rather than older APIs, as it seems to provide better image format support and is way simpler. A lib to do the GIF part of the job is fine.
Thanks!

This is my situation: I load user-selected image files (any format is OK, the more the better) for later transmission as byte array, always re-encoded as JPG. If the image is over some certain width/height, I scale down the image (display size issues).If they are JPEGs that is entirely the wrong solution. You are losing far too much image quality. What you should be doing here is saving with a lower 'q'. That's exactly what it's for - intelligent compression of images. You are just doing naive resampling. JPEG can do far better than that.
I worked on a project where somebody downsized thousands of images like this, entirely the wrong way. Don't repeat this mistake.
As to the rest, sounds like you need a GIF plugin for ImageIO that will let you read the header.

JFileChooser animated gif preview

I'm using an Accesory with an ImageIcon to preview images on a JFileChooser.
It works ok, but I would like to know how do I get those animated gif to restart their animation whenever I click some other file (so the image preview goes to null) and click back on them.
There are non-looped gifs and looped ones, it is specially for the non-looped gifs as to give a way to get to see the animation again. After clicking the file once the animation never plays again, even if a load another preview by clicking another file and then go back...
Since there's no obvious method on ImageIcon or Image I tried flush since it says it clears the data but the only thing I got was the gif animating improperly (it would get trash/noise).
* JFileChooserImagePreview.java
* Created on 16 de junio de 2005, 12:58 AM
package ptcg.win.util;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.beans.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.io.File;
/* from FileChooserDemo2.java. */
public class JFileChooserImagePreview extends javax.swing.JComponent implements PropertyChangeListener {
     public JFileChooserImagePreview(JFileChooser fc) {
          setHeight = -1;
          setWidth = -1;
          setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100, 50));
          fc.addPropertyChangeListener(this);
     public JFileChooserImagePreview(JFileChooser fc, int setHeight, int setWidth) {
          this.setHeight = setHeight;
          this.setWidth = setWidth;
          setPreferredSize(new Dimension(setHeight, setWidth));
          fc.addPropertyChangeListener(this);
     public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent e) {
          boolean update = false;
          String prop = e.getPropertyName();
          //If the directory changed, don't show an image.
          if(JFileChooser.DIRECTORY_CHANGED_PROPERTY.equals(prop)) {
               file = null;
               update = true;
          } else if (JFileChooser.SELECTED_FILE_CHANGED_PROPERTY.equals(prop)) {
               file = (File) e.getNewValue();
               update = true;
          //Update the preview accordingly.
          if (update) {
               thumbnail = null;
               if(isShowing()) {
                    loadImage();
                    repaint();
     public void loadImage() {
          if (file == null) {
               thumbnail = null;
               return;
          ImageIcon tmpIcon = new ImageIcon(file.getPath());
          if (tmpIcon != null) {
               Image i = tmpIcon.getImage();
               //i.flush(); //screws the animation
               thumbnail = new ImageIcon(i.getScaledInstance(setHeight, setWidth, Image.SCALE_SMOOTH));
     protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
          if (thumbnail == null) {
               loadImage();
          if (thumbnail != null) {
               int x = getWidth()/2 - thumbnail.getIconWidth()/2;
               int y = getHeight()/2 - thumbnail.getIconHeight()/2;
               if (y < 0) {
                    y = 0;
               if (x < 5) {
                    x = 5;
               thumbnail.paintIcon(this, g, x, y);
     ImageIcon thumbnail = null;
     File file = null;
     int setHeight, setWidth;
}Thanks in advance

Never-mind. I have it working properly now.

Animated GIFs in Captivate 2 or 3

I have 31 lessons (PowerPoint) that contain animated GIFs. If
I import these into Captivate 2 or Captivate 3, will these
animations within the animated GIFs be maintained?
Thanks for any replies! All the best with your own projects.
Dean

Hi Dean
To import an animated .GIF and retain the animation
properties, try clicking Import > Animation... and pointing at
the .GIF.
Captivate may munge it when it comes in. So don't be too
surprised if that happens. For example, I have a small animated
dancing stick man. The background is transparent when I drop him on
an HTML page. But when he comes into Captivate, the background is
black.
Cheers... Rick

Animated GIFs slow down application

Hi all,
When I open a JDialog with some animated GIFs in a JTextPane (HTML or Styles), the whole application slows down. The GIFs are very slow and are flickering.
The problems already start after less then 10 small GIFs. I'm using Java 1.5 and I have a new, fast PC. I planned to have mor than 100 animated GIFs on the screen (animated smiles in a chat).
Thanks in advance
Markus

Make sure to use the Flyweight design pattern so you don't open the same GIF file twice.

Flash vs. Animated GIF for web page

I recently bought a flash template which looked really cool.
However after realizing I was in over my head and reading numerous
posts on Flash sites I am thinking that I should scrap the Flash
altogether. It is an awesome utility but for what I need I am
thinking an animated gif would do better. One concern is that I
don't want a prompt asking people that go to my website to download
an ActiveX control. I know that annoys me so I want to circumvent
it.
What is the general consensus on when to use Flash and when
to use an animated GIF?
Is an animated GIF the best alternative or is there something
else that makes more sense?
On my homepage I would like a GIF to loop continuously in the
background and perhaps have another animated GIF on top of it that
runs once then stops. Is this easily do-able? Is there a way to get
the anim GIF to download fully before it runs and perhaps show a
still of the GIF as a placeholder until the anim GIF is ready?
Any responses would be greatly appreciated.
Patrick
p.s. I posted this message to the Flash group then realized
it is more appropriate here

Just some thoughts on the subject...
Some people disable Flash, in their browser. Also, some
people use browsers that are not up-to-date and their Flash, in
particular, may be out of date. OTOH, others, like me, set animated
GIFs to animate only twice or maybe even, not at all.
Considering all that, I typically use animated GIFs, unless
there is an abiding reason to use Flash. The reason is that in the
history of Flash, there have been several version changes, while
there has only been one version of animated GIFs. In other words,
with animated GIFs, I don't have to worry if my visitor's browser
is up-to-date or not.
Since most of my clients are heavily dependent upon their web
site for income, my rule of thumb is, to try not to use any
technology that would limit the number of visitors who can view the
site, without any problems. After all, would you want to tell even
10% of your potential customers to
"Go away until your browser is up to date"? Think about
it...
That means avoiding, whenever reasonable, Flash, Java and
other plugins. For example, I used to use JavaScript for drop-down
menus. But now, I do the entire thing with CSS.
If your site is offering a product that everyone already
knows about and
already wants, then you can expect your visitors to take
that extra step (such as turning on JavaScript or downloading the
latest version of Flash) in order to use those features. In other
words, Microsoft and Fox News can expect you to have an up-to-date
browser, with all of the features enabled.
But, if you are trying to sell people on a new product that
they know nothing about, you can't afford to drive away even 1% of
your visitors. After all, that 1% might contain the purchasing
manager for a large corporation that might have bought thousands of
units of your product, had he been able to view your site.
On another related subject, there is one important note about
continuous animated GIFs. It's a good idea to make the first and
last frame the same, with the last frame set to just 1/100 of a
second. Those frames should also be the most image in the
animation. That way, if the visitor has animations disabled, he
sees the first frame and that's all. On the other hand, if the
visitor is like me and has animations set to one or two cycles,
then when the animation stops, it is on the last frame - not the
first. If your last frame is the same as the first, then the
animation stops on your most important frame.
That 1/100 of a second won't make any difference in your
animation, but adding that extra frame at the end of the animation
insures that regardless of what limits the visitor may have placed
on animations, they will always see your most important frame.
As for preloading the GIFs, you can do it with JavaScript.
Just remember that, in that case, you are depending upon the
visitor having JavaScript enabled.
One other option that may help with some browsers is to place
the animated GIF inside a <DIV> of the exact same size as the
image and then set the background of the <DIV> to a static
version of the foreground GIF.
I hope that this helps.

Animated GIFs aren't

I can't view animated gif files ... neither in finder coverflow (which would be awesome) nor in preview.
I have to drag them to the browser to view the animations, which is unacceptable.
Is there a way to see the animations at least in preview ... or even in finders cover flow mode ?

Like, they do. If enough people are unhappy with something, and communicate their unhappiness, Apple has changed things. Case in point: stacks in the Dock killing the way people had been using folders in the Dock. The option to use folders reappeared in the first update to Leopard. Ditto for an UNtranslucent menu bar option. Whether something gets changed or not probably depends on a number of things: whether it is easy to fix, whether enough people are unhappy, why the the whatever-it-is is the way it is rather than another way. Since we can't know what prompted the state, nor probably how easy it is fix, we can only send our feedback and urge others to do the same, and hope enough complain to make it worthwhile for Apple to respond.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Problem with importing animated gifs

Hi i'm trying to use an animated gif in my project. Basically my after effects project is just a countdown from 10 to 0 while the animated gif spins continuously during the countdown. My problem is when I use the animated gif the background it is no longer transparent and the background is instead white. How do I make it transparent again in after effects? Next the animated gif is about a 2 second loop, it won't let me drag the bars to extend the time to 10 seconds. How do I loop it for 10 seconds?
These aren't musts, but if anyone could, help would be greatly appreciated:
1) For the text effect 'numbers' (which I used for the countdown effect) it always renders really shaky and bouncy when i preview it. Is that normal?
2) It has the time as 00:00:00:00 (type: timecode 30). How do I make so it only shows 00:00 ?
Any help would be awesome.
Thank you

My problem is when I use the animated gif the background it is no longer transparent and the background is instead white.
Correct. As a conmpositing program, AE requires proper Alpah transparency, not palette-based transparency. File must be converted to an image sequence with Alpha channel.
Next the animated gif is about a 2 second loop, it won't let me drag the bars to extend the time to 10 seconds. How do I loop it for 10 seconds?
Footage interpretation --> Loops
1) For the text effect 'numbers' (which I used for the countdown effect) it always renders really shaky and bouncy when i preview it. Is that normal?
Yes, it's normal if you are using a non-monospaced font. Use a suitable font.
2) It has the time as 00:00:00:00 (type: timecode 30). How do I make so it only shows 00:00 ?
Use multiple layers and effects and mask them out.
Mylenium

Animated GIF's aren't animated.

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