gif export problem

[peter wassink]

i'm trying to export a 5 frame gif-sequence
it looks fine in my layerpanel in Aura but on importing in flash part of the 3rd frame is missing
a strange thing i notice when i reimport that same gif back in aura is that when i flip through its frames in the "load-sequence" panel in Aura it shows al 5 frames going "forth" but fliping back this 3rd frame is again incomplete( in the same way as i saw in flash).
but when i do import the gif as sequence it looks fine again, nothing wrong with it(!?)

i can't figure it out

i tried picking the sequence up as a brush, putting it in the bin and then exporting it as a gif from the bin but this gifs me the same result.
its very strange because the brush itself in Aura is fine i can flip through it in the brush panel and all frames are fine.

is this a known bug?

somebody please help!

[pepe]

I've got a small idea for a cause.
Can you post the gif so i can have a look at it?

[peter wassink]

hi pepe,

thanx for the help
here is one:
(i've got more GIFs with the same problem)

[peter wassink]

strange???
now nothing seems wrong with it, but when watching it in ACDSee or importing it in flash on frame 3, i only get the wave lines and no boat
???

[pepe]

okay, then, the problem is with acdsee and Flash.
Aura uses an optimisation 'trick' (that i think is a legal one) that those two programs don't take care of.
Amongst other things, GIF can be optimized to not take care of transparent parts. It is done by skipping pixels , and uses a special token. this operation is very cheap, and gives an opportunity to often skip very large zones. Aditionnaly, it can be used to skip zones of an image where data is the same as the previous image, thus keeping only what moves.
This has a big problems for programs that don't handle gifs as a sequence of one way image sequence.
In your animation, the boat never moves, so there is no need to keep it for other images. Only water moves, so that's what is kept. Programs like browsers, very sensitive to file size, know that trick, and apply new frames of a GIF over the previous one, thus the boat is still here. On ACDSEE and FLASH, they apply the frame you want, but as the boat is not on the frame, and they don't take care to draw all previous frames before yours, you only see the waves.

Pfewww. hope i was clear. :)

[peter wassink]

thank you pepe

it makes sense.
so i could fix it by changing the boat very subtle?

[pepe]

Yes, but you'll have to take care to change each and every pixel of the boat. that can turn to a nightmare. :/

Is there an obligation to use GIF?
PNG can be imported in Flash, while keeping its 32 bits if necessary, and as far as i know, that 'trick' does not exist in PNG, or at least i've never had any problems of that sort. (i've had luminosity problems when exporting PNGs from Aura, some time ago, but i think it's over now)

[peter wassink]

wel the answer to my last question is no..

the only thing is that the subtle changes are to be seen above the wave lines but still no boat.

i wonder though why only frame 3, in all 5 frames the boat is excactly the same

[peter wassink]

yes i tried PNG but the colors were all washed out (luminosity problem?)
how did you fix that?

[pepe]

my guess is that if your anim was 10 frames long, only frames 1,2,9,10 will have the boat.
Too bad that ther's no flag to deactivate that 'feature'.

[peter wassink]

Originally posted by pepe
...
Too bad that ther's no flag to deactivate that 'feature'. [/B]

i guess thats's one for the "feature request" forum :p

do you now more about the "washed out" PNG's?

[pepe]

do you now more about the "washed out" PNG's?
Answered privately. Look at your messenger. In short, no.

[pepe]

oops, forget that.. saw you had the message..:o

[peter wassink]

:D

[MikeFrHoweTx]

PNG file seems to have been “Mostly corrected” since 2.5, However occasionally with certain formats, I get a washed or 256 color-look with PNG-exports.
I can correct this by
1. File>Mode>Png>Palette=32bit/Dithering=none
2. Export>sequence
Then I can go back to export>image(etc) and that works?
It occurs with some LW exports(I usually use 32bit tga), web files(jpg) but not with my Sony-DV-cam? Don’t try to optimize it prior to flash as your final SWF file will be much smaller (per flash optimized). Aura's features and filters are Much better than Fireworks! Good luck Mike