PHOTOSHOP CS3
User Guide
582
Optimize animation frames
After you complete your animation, you should optimize it for efficient download to a web browser. You optimize
an animation in two ways:
•
Optimize the frames to include only areas that change from frame to frame. This greatly reduces the file size of
the animated GIF.
•
If you are saving your animation as a GIF image, optimize it as you would any GIF image. A special dithering
technique is applied to animations to ensure that dither patterns are consistent across all frames and to prevent
flickering during playback. Due to these additional optimization functions, more time may be required to
optimize an animated GIF than to optimize a standard GIF.
When optimizing the colors in an animation, use the Adaptive, Perceptual, or Selective palette. This ensures that the
colors are consistent across frames.
1
(Photoshop Extended) Make sure the Animation palette is in frame animation mode.
2
Choose Optimize Animation from the Animation palette menu.
3
Set the following options:
Bounding Box
Crops each frame to the area that has changed from the preceding frame. Animation files created
using this option are smaller but are incompatible with GIF editors that do not support the option. (This option is
selected by default and is recommended.)
Redundant Pixel Removal
Makes all pixels transparent in a frame that are unchanged from the preceding frame. The
Transparency option in the Optimize palette must be selected for redundant pixel removal to work. (This option is
selected by default and is recommended.)
Important:
Set the frame disposal method to Automatic when using the Redundant Pixel Removal option. (See “Choose
a disposal method” on page 571.)
4
Click OK.
See also
“Optimize an image for the web” on page 525
“GIF and PNG-8 optimization options” on page 531
Flatten frames into layers
When you flatten frames into layers, a single layer is created for each frame in a video layer. This can be useful, for
example, if you’re exporting the individual video frames as separate image files, or if you’re planning to use the video
of a static object in an Image Stack.
1
In the Animation or Layers palette, select the video layer.
2
In the Animation palette, choose Flatten Frames Into Layers from the Palette menu.
See also
“Image Stacks (Photoshop Extended)” on page 594
