Can't change frames per second (fps) in timeline (GIF) animation

[Drudru]

Hello!
I am new to this forum, please don't kill me if this is the wrong place to post this question

I am using CS6 to make an animated gif. I exported a sequence from AE as a png sequence, and then in PS I used File>Scripts>Load Files into Stack. I had all my frames open as different layers and then I went to the drop down menu and clicked "make frames from layers". I then clicked File>Save for Web and everything seemed alright but when I view the Gif it seems twice as slow as normal. In AE I worked on a sequence set to 25fps. In the drop down menu in the timeline in PS6 I couldn't find a way to change the fps. I can't see anything saying: "Set Timeline Frame Rate" and no "Document Settings". What is the problem and how can I change my frame rate?


I do not have CS6 Extended, and could not find an explanation for my problem anywhere.

Thanks in advance!

 

[MrToM]

GIF animations work in a slightly different way to video in that they don't have an FPS as such but instead each 'frame' has its own individual 'duration' (confusingly called 'delay')...



You can change the 'duration' of each frame one by one if you need to or if you select all the frames then changing one will change them all....and it doesn't matter which one you change neither.

Regards.
MrToM.

 

[Drudru]

Thanks very much for your reply MrToM.
I understand what you mean, thanks for explaining. I have another problem which is very annoying. When I try to export my Gif by clicking Save For Web, photoshop gets an error and shuts down. I later found a solution, I just reduced image size. but even then, the Gif weighed over 50 MB. The image is set at 1180 X 480 pixels. There are over a hundred layers/frames in my timeline, because i exported a "jpeg sequence" from AE, ( which makes the action in the Gif very fluid)/
1) Do you know a way that I can shrink the file size without losing too much quality? Idealy it should weigh under 15MB but is that even possible?
2) My Gif plays back at a very slow speed, about 2 times slower than the AE animation I exported my sequence JPEGS from. Do you have any idea why? Even when I set the PS image size to an extremely small number and even reduced the height/width, after saving the Gif it still turned out to be too slow. I thought it might be an issue with my computer, but I stuck the Gif on my site and it was still too slow. That is what led me to ask my initial question about FPS, because I thought that my sequence settings in PS did not match my sequence settings on AE in terms of FPS.

Once again, thank you for the help, Very much appreciated.

 

[MrToM]

Let me put it this way...

50MB....................
Over 100 frames.....
1180x480px...........

50MB:
The 'gif' format was never ever intended to be used for anything but small, web based animated images....50MB is still HUGE for a single image let alone one which is animated...even with the best internet speeds that's going to take a while to download and start playing.

100+ frames:
Way, WAY too many for a simple animated gif image. Yeah by all means it could be done but again, the 'gif' format was never intended for anything overly complex.

1180x480px:
This is getting into 'video' territory here. Again, 'gif' was intended for small animated images not full size video quality animation. This is just WAY too big for 'gif'.

It appears that what you are trying to do is substitute a 'video' for an animated 'gif'.....and to be honest whilst its technically possible when uploaded to a web page it'll be almost UN-viewable by anyone who isn't hard-wired directly into the server.

When the 'gif' is first loaded into a page it has to 'load' each frame before the animation can begin. During this process the animation may appear to be playing...albeit missing frames and very 'jumpy' but in fact this is just the 'loading' of the frames.

Once all the frames are loaded the animation will start but it all very much depend on the 'viewers' system as to how smooth that animation will be....and the browser they are using.....and if they use IE then it probably wont animate anyway....no matter what you do.

In short you are using completely the wrong file type for the job you need to do.

Yes you could compress the frames till they bleed but its not going to look good.
Yes you could decrease the number of frames and use 'tween' to make some of the frames smaller.
Yes you could transform the whole thing down to a reasonable size (sub 400px)....

...but...

Its still just trying to make 'gif' do something it was never designed to do.

Why not have a 'video' clip instead?
Most 'modern' browsers now support mp4 / WebM and will have an inbuilt player.

In all honesty as it stands there is little you can do to improve it without compromising somewhere.

Regards.
MrToM.