Animated Robo Dancer - Page 5

(If you arrived on this page from a search, you should begin the tutorial from page one.)

STEP 5....SAVE AND OPTIMIZE

The goal in optimizing is getting the smallest possible file size (for fast loading) without losing a lot of quality. The first step is cropping the 'canvas size' to the smallest possible dimensions. Select the CROP tool. When you do that, 3 new buttons appear above the tool...they are: OPTIONS - CROP - CLEAR

Select OPTIONS. Select the button in the dialog box that says 'surround animated area'. When you select OK, a crop rectangle should appear around your funky dancer with just 'blank space' outside the rectangle. (In this case, using either button will select the same area...try it!)

Select the CROP button next to OPTIONS and your image will be reduced to a smaller canvas size. It won't otherwise effect the appearance of the animation.

If you want a solid color background instead of transparent, select ANIMATION > REPLACE COLOR. In the dialog box, select ...
....replace color in all frames
...all transparent regions
...with new color (select your background color).

Now SAVE.

First you'll get a dialog box asking for a file name. Select the folder you want to save image in and give it a name.
Next the optimizer dialog box will pop up.
Move the slider on left to the top for 'better image quality'
Look at the box on right, it should contain information similar to the following:

• Optimized output will update the current animation
• Write minimal frames
• Use transparency for better compression
• Collapse identical frames
• Optimized image will contain 255 colors
• No local palettes will be used
• Generate palette by Octree
• Map colors to palette via nearest color.
• Convert pixels less than 1 (0.4%) opacity to fully transparent
• Blend partially transparent pixels with color RGB(216, 204, 184)

If not, select the CUSTOMIZE button and customize your settings.
Under the COLOR tab, select Optimized Octree, Median Cut or Standard Palette. Because this is a simple black & white image, the choice here won't make a big difference in appearance or file size and I just happen to prefer Octree. Make your choice and zoom in to compare image quality. (There's a few other color options, but we'll cover these in another tutorial.) Under the OPTIMIZATION TAB, make sure 'write minimal frames' is checked, this also helps reduce file size!

Select NEXT, NEXT, NEXT, FINISH until you're done! I hope you and your Valentine are entertained by Mr Robo Funk and his happy dance! .....Kate