Anytime I create a GIF, no matter how small or large the file size or how many frames, GIMP distorts the GIF upon saving it (see "GIMP.gif" and "Photoshop CC.gif"). The other GIFs are ones I found online. They look quite good, but if I attempted to create the same GIF using the same frames, GIMP would distort the GIF upon saving it.

I hate this mailing list format
That should of course, read

If you are editing as a color indexed file, don't do it.

convert to RGB first.

rich: www.gimp-forum.net

Image > Mode is set to RBG (see "Mode"). Is this what you mean? The following are the steps I used to create the image.

1. Open .png files as layers. 2. Resize image.
3. Export as a .gif file.

I did nothing else. Also, "Overlord (in GIMP)" and "Overlord 2 (in GIMP)" are screenshots of the GIF in animation playback. The quality of all frames look great when they are played back in GIMP.

I hate this mailing list format
That should of course, read

If you are editing as a color indexed file, don't do it.

convert to RGB first.

rich: www.gimp-forum.net

When I select 'mode > assign color profile' or 'mode > convert to color profile,' GIMP says the current color profile is 'sRGB in-built.'

I hate this mailing list format
That should of course, read

If you are editing as a color indexed file, don't do it.

convert to RGB first.

rich: www.gimp-forum.net

Oh, you're right. The GIF is being converted to an indexed color file at some point during the export process (see "Before" and After"). But I'm not doing it; not intentionally. At no point during the export process does GIMP ask me if I want to convert the file to an indexed color one. Preferences are all at their defaults except that I added a custom padding color.

Oh, you're right. The GIF is being converted to an indexed color file at some point during the export process (see "Before" and After"). But I'm not doing it; not intentionally. At no point during the export process does GIMP ask me if I want to convert the file to an indexed color one. Preferences are all at their defaults except that I added a custom padding color.

On second thought, all of the GIFs I open with GIMP display "indexed color." It seems I am back to square one.

Yes, you are back to sqare one, by definition a gif is 'indexed' color mode.

But you are losing colors some where in your editing process.

I confess to being no animation expert but: A common work flow is

Open the gif

Filters -> Animation -> unoptimize

Change mode to RGB

Do all your editing (beware of merging with non-RGB images)

Export as an animated gif, which converts back to indexed color mode.

Where the colors are being lost is a complete mystery. All I did is scale the images down. I tried making the GIF without scaling the images, and as I expected, it didn't help.

There shouldn't be anything to unoptimize, but I tried it anyway, and it didn't help. The banding still occurs.

The mode is RGB by default.

Photoshop CC doesn't seem to do this. It produces a much better looking GIF, though it is not as clear as when the images are animated in GIMP.

Where the colors are being lost is a complete mystery. All I did is scale the images down. I tried making the GIF without scaling the images, and as I expected, it didn't help.

There shouldn't be anything to unoptimize, but I tried it anyway, and it didn't help. The banding still occurs.

The mode is RGB by default.

Photoshop CC doesn't seem to do this. It produces a much better looking GIF, though it is not as clear as when the images are animated in GIMP.

I decided to try converting the images to indexed color mode before exporting them as a GIF to see what happens. What happens is the images are distorted when playing them back as an animation in GIMP, which previously produced a nice clear animation.

By the way, does GIMP have something like Photoshop CC's frame-by-frame timeline (see attached image)? The image I click on in the timeline is displayed in the main panel. it makes working with layers convenient.

Well, this is a problem. Both of my GIFs, whether made using GIMP or Photoshop CC, have a far fewer number of unique colors than other GIFs. Even the GIF I made using Photoshop CC suffers from severe color loss. The million dollar question is: Why?

Well, this is a problem. Both of my GIFs, whether made using GIMP or Photoshop CC, have a far fewer number of unique colors than other GIFs. Even the GIF I made using Photoshop CC suffers from severe color loss. The million dollar question is: Why?

The GIF format supports 256 colors. Why on earth do my GIFs have so few colors (5 and 11)? For some reason, my GIFs are losing far too many colors during exportation.

The first 5 attachments illustrate the process I used to create a GIF. By the way, this is a new project. The result is 61 unique colors, which is significantly better but is still far from the maximum 256.

Attachments 6 and 7 illustrates what happens when I apply RGB noise to each frame. The result is 255 unique colors, but the image suffers from severe particles.

Finished projects.

RGB noise:

https://s27.postimg.org/mw7rtgsbn/Overlord_Episode4_Ainz_Negative_Burst_RGBNoise.gif

I'm going to tinker with colors and contrast.

I think you will need a lot of tinkering. It might be a new project for you but it looks like it is based on an existing gif. What would be better, is using the pre-gif graphic work.

From those screen shots, the image size is scaled from 1250x720 to 450x253 = 35.14% that is a lot of information lost, regardless of the image format / color mode. No real way around that one. For best results scaling down using a pre-blur (gaussian) is usually recommended. 2 for 50% That would be for each layer. I think more than 50% and loss of pixels really starts showing, but again that depends on the image(s).

Disguising the defects with noise is a clever idea. Looking at the animation that works quite well. Best of luck. Best way to learn Gimp is experiment.

rich: www.gimp-forum.net

I scaled the frames down before doing any other editing. Every tutorial I've read has me scale the frames down first thing. Particularly, I used the following tutorial.

http://nikiphorov.tumblr.com/post/88869707515/how-to-gif-and-color-anime

The author's result is attached. Even the GIF that hasn't been colored has far more unique colors than my GIFs after they have been colored... It puzzles me.

I followed the aforementioned guide exactly and the most I achieved is 83 unique colors. Of course, this led to an awkwardly colored and bright GIF due to significant differences between the source frames, but the purpose was to simply see how many unique colors I could achieve.

I downloaded a pre-made .psd file containing colors and effects for anime GIFs. I am going to apply it to the GIF I am working on and see what happens. Photoshop CC is taking ages to process the save dialogue. There is no telling when it will be finished. Eventually I would like to translate this to GIMP. But I need to get it right in Photoshop first. It is what is used in all the GIF-making guides.

Even after applying a pre-made PSD containing colors and effects for anime GIFs my GIF still has only 65 colors, no where near 256...

I have confused you with the colorcube analysis - sorry.

I was trying to make the point that an animated gif is a finished format, not meant for editing and you will get degradation especially scaling down and when a gradient is involved.

I'm not editing a GIF. I import frames into GIMP that were exported using VirtualDub. I never open a GIF file using GIMP and edit the file.

The colorcube analysis applies to individual layers, not the whole image, which might well have 256 colours. For a color-indexed image look at the colormap. Use the Gimp menu: Windows -> Dockable Dialogs -> Colormap. The essence is, in Gimp and other applications such as ImageMagick each frame can only use colours from that colormap. That will make for banding in a gradient as with your first example.

And dithering gets rid of the banding?

I put all the above into a video demo. no epic, 4 minutes duration.

https://youtu.be/M3lR7AjnHHI

Thanks for the video.

Remember, open any gif animation in Gimp and it reduces down to a single colormap, maybe that is the problem.

I'm not so sure. If I open a GIF from the Internet using GIMP and then save the GIF, the GIF appears to have the same exact quality as the original GIF from the Internet (see first two attachments).

I uploaded my GIFs, one made using Photoshop and the other made using GIMP. The one made using Photoshop appears to be better quality. It has a subtle texture. I don't think I specified any amount of dithering, so I'm not sure where the texture comes from. On the other hand, the GIF made using GIMP has obvious flashing specs.

I examined the number of unique colors for each frame that is part of my GIFs, and regardless of whether I used Photoshop or GIMP, my GIFs average fewer unique colors overall than GIFs I find from the Internet. I am not sure why my GIFs appear to be worse quality overall.

I wonder if anyone over at the Sankaku Complex forums would know how the GIFs posted on their articles are made.

The first attachment looks very good. I have not seen the animation the GIF is from, so I do not know if the author changed the colors. The last attachment also looks very good.

I wonder if it has something to do with the colors of other GIFs being more consistent. My GIFs have more frames and some of the frames have significantly different colors.

I think I may try a new project with frames that have more consistent colors. I will have to use only GIMP for this one since my Photoshop CC trial ended.