Codezwiz >> Forums >> Flash Help >> gif's in mx 2004

when i export i sig that I made in mx 2004 to a .swf file everything looks great but, when I publish as a animated .gif it looks like garbage. what would make this happen? Also, is there a way to clean it up?

It's the same question that's been asked since the beginning of time. The answer is always the same. You can't get the same quality in an animated gif as you do in Flash. There are a couple of reasons:

1. When you convert a Flash movie to an animated .gif, you are rasterizing the images in the movie. In other words, you're forcing the images in the movie from one format to another format which by it's nature is of lesser quality.

Flash uses vector graphics. Vector graphics are based on mathematical calculations as a whole. Animated .gifs use raster images (.jpg, .gif, etc.) which are based on individual pixels.

(WARNING: LESSON MODE ENABLED)

When you resize a vector image, what changes is the mathematical equation of the image as a whole. When you resize a raster image, you are changing the size of the individual pixels in the image. That's why if you have a vector graphic, you can resize it up or down without losing any quality. With raster graphics, you can only resize down, not up. If you resize smaller, you are compressing the individual pixels to a smaller size. If done carefully, this can usually be done without losing alot of the quality. If you try to resize larger, you in essence are bloating the size of each pixel and the quality comes out horrible. But, I digress.

2. Flash animation is based on frames. It may take hundreds or thousands of frames to create the animation in the movie. Animated .gifs are also made up of frames, but each frame contains a separate raster image. When you convert a Flash movie to animated gif, you still have all those frames, but each one is a separate image. The filesize becomes ENORMOUS compared to the Flash animation.

You could open the animated .gif in a program like Image Ready or Animation Shop and cull some of the frames, but it's highly unlikely that you'dl be able to cull enough frames to make the filesize small enough without losing some of the frames that are vital to the flow of the animation.

No matter what program you're using to convert Flash to animated .gif, the process is basically the same. The end result is that animated .gifs are always going to be of lesser quality than Flash movies.

i was trying to use flash to publish it as a .gif but i guess any way u slice it .swf is better. i wish nuke came with the bbcodebox hack lol. thanks kelly

Coil? Is that you?

yeah hey knarf how r u?

Rather well actually, about to head out for some hunting in a few hours. Never see you on ICQ anymore, but I rarely fire it up either. Take care bud, cya around sometime. Gotta get some BHD or JO action going on.

Sorry everyone, I know this is off topic and all, but Recoil and I are old friends who havn't seen each other in a while....lol

Glad to hear it bro.