from File go to the ‘save for web’ >click ‘Gif’setting>choose color display amount>click ‘animate’ and # of second interval between frames…click ‘loop’ if you want the animation to repeat itself indefinietly…then click on the ‘e’ browser button to preview your animation.
edit; check transparency
Thank you, Jodi. I was able to run the layers in sequence. However, not without glitches. Upon initially trying to click on animation, I got an error message: no animation as too large and/or too many layers (black and white/786×776/27 layers with setting at GIF 32 No Dither).
I cut the size all the way down to 1% and still got the same error message. I upped the size to 50% as this is the smallest that is viewable (due to small objects within the image). I then deleted two-thirds of the layers. That got rid of the error message. But, still no animation. The preview button read not available. I was able to quickly click through the nine layers (getting my animation that way).
Two questions:
* Is there an absolute limit as to the number of layers PE2.0 will handle?
* Will animation run with my OS 9.2.2 and IE 5.1.7?
Gordon
Gordon, you should not be having these problems with your animation…only thing i can think of is you need to delete the save for web preference file ( this happens on occasion so nothing uncommon)
Mac go to; User>Username>Library>Prefs and delete the Save for Web preferences.
Another thing you can try…with your 27 layers open in Elements do a ‘save as’ and select ‘GIF’ then check ‘gif with layers’..put it somewhere you can easily find it..click ok and the save for web dialogue
box will come up…use all the same settings as before and click OK. Then go to your saved image and watch it.
Hope this helps.
Jodi, my experience (painful) is that my computer problems usually stem from a procedural shortcoming rather than some some dark technical problem.
My second problem, running an animation, was indeed procedural. I did not have the IE logo in the Preview In box. Animation is solved.
My first problem remains. I tried every other frame and I got the error message. For animation to be possible a 66% reduction in number of layers is required. I wonder if the simple explanation is the correct one. Namely, that the 27-frame image size is too large at 3.4 MB. It just needed to be trimmed down. Am I wrong?
Thanks again for your patience and help.
Gordon
No, I don’t think you’re wrong, Gordon. That’s a heck of a big gif. Remember that most people would be viewing animated gifs in their web browser or maybe their mail program and they wouldn’t thank you for making them wait that long.
I’m on dialup and I’d have to wait around half an hour for that gif to load. I’d be away from any website like that long before it showed up.
Most animated gifs are tiny images with only 3 or 4 layers, max. If you want to make more sophisticated animations you should use Flash. You don’t need the whole Flash program to make flash animations, btw. If you search around there are lots of less-expensive ways to make them.
Jodi, I am soooo proud of you for becoming "biligual"! 🙂
Two further items:
* I have saved the image as a 9-layered, 10.9 MB PSD image (that is just the way it came out). It runs fine through the save-for-web animation. Which indicates to me that the limitation of of PE2.0 animation is the number of layers and not (so much) the size of the file. Am I right?
* Is there a way to save the image as a ready-to-go animation?
Barbara, thank you for indicating the boundary markers and doing so with wonderful humor. This is a scientific image and it won’t be adorning any website soon.
Gordon
Is there a way to save the image as a ready-to-go animation?
saving it in the sfw dialogue box with the settings we explained earlier as a gif animation will infact save it as a ‘ready to go’ animation for emailing etc…
Beth, thanks but all i did was copy it from my PE text documents that I had saved from earlier posts. 🙂
Gordon, if you don’t want this image for a website, what are you planning to do with it? Knowing where it’s going would help us give you more sensible advice. SFW is really meant for images for browser viewing.
Jodi, I apologize for being difficult. I had tried earlier with no success the following steps to save a ready-to-go animation (i.e., the animation starts upon doubleclicking the saved icon on my desktop). I have now tried both again with the same result.
First, I tried (after optimization in SFW) clicking OK and then clicking Save. Please note the are no choices for GIF or GIF Layers. However, the saved image is a GIF. Upon doubleclicking the saved icon I get the following error message: The Photoshop document could not be opened, because the application program cannot be found.
Second, I ran the looped animation and clicked on Save As in the IE File pull down menu. This also goes nowhere.
I have now additionally tried opening the saved image file in PE 2.0 and am able to fairly quickly get the animation going. But. it is not really ready-to-go.
I’m afraid that I require baby step instructions. If you could.
Barbara, I have become hooked on the Cassini Saturn probe. The images posted on the NASA website are spectacular. And yes, they are large (up to 12 MB). And yes, my average download
speed is 1.8 Mbps. The subject animation (orbital flight of one of two newly discovered moons) will reside on my desktop.
Gordon
Jodi, I apologize for being difficult. I had tried earlier with no success the following steps to save a ready-to-go animation (i.e., the animation starts upon doubleclicking the saved icon on my desktop). I have now tried both again with the same result.
First, I tried (after optimization in SFW) clicking OK and then clicking Save. Please note the are no choices for GIF or GIF Layers. However, the saved image is a GIF. Upon doubleclicking the saved icon I get the following error message: The Photoshop document could not be opened, because the application program cannot be found.
Second, I ran the looped animation and clicked on Save As in the IE File pull down menu. This also goes nowhere.
I have now additionally tried opening the saved image file in PE 2.0 and am able to fairly quickly get the animation going. But. it is not really ready-to-go.
I’m afraid that I require baby step instructions. If you could.
Barbara, I have become hooked on the Cassini Saturn probe. The images posted on the NASA website are spectacular. And yes, they are large (up to 12 MB). And yes, my average download
speed is 1.8 Mbps. The subject animation (orbital flight of one of two newly discovered moons) will reside on my desktop.
Gordon
Gordon, here goes; with the layers open in Elements click file>’save as’ and then give the file a name …scroll though the format saving options t’il you see ‘ Compuserve GIF(*.GIF)and choose that. Just below are the ‘save options’ where you need to check ‘ layers as frames’, click OK and put it somewhere handy. At this point the sfw dialogue box opens>choose the settings GIF, color amount,check ‘animation’,check transparency,check ‘loop’ if you want your animation to play over and over again, check frame intervals, click save or OK..can’t remember which one becomes the option at this point. Now the image is saved as a Gif Animation where you previously saved it and can be viewed, or sent to your content.
Jodi, thank you for the detailed instructions. I followed them step by step three times and still ended up with a still Layer #1 upon opening the resulting saved image. (Like the original download it has all nine layers.)
I then checked a long unopened, downloaded animated GIF from last year. It had always been ready-to-go, i.e., run (looped) on opening. I even sent it out as an email. Now upon opening, it shows only a still Layer #1.
Thinking back I realize that last year’s animation was originally saved and run only in Quicktime (before I had set GIF file helpers to PE 2.0 or knew anything about layers).
In finder, the original downloaded images for each (this and last year’s) opens in PE 2.0. Also for each, opening the image that comes from optimizing and saving gets the error message.
Have you any suggestions?
Gordon
Gordon,
If you haven’t done so already, I would try deleting the Preferences file for Save For Web. It could very well be corrupted. I will have to search this forum as I don’t remember offhand the keyboard shortcut. I will look or maybe someone with a better memory will step up to the plate.
edit—
Jodi is on the East Coast, doubt you’ll hear more from her tonight
edit-edit–
Looking back to earlier posts I see that Jodi already suggested this to you. Did you do it?
Nancy
I had looked earlier this evening at Preferences for Saving and could see nothing regarding Save for Web. Here too I fear I will need guidance.
Gordon
Gordon,
I’ll search for the simple two-key command.
Gordon,
I use a PC. But in Jodi’s earlier post to you she said…
For Mac go to; User>Username>Library>Prefs and delete the Save for Web preferences
So this would be done not within PSE, but by navigating to this Prefs folder and deleting the file for Save For Web.
edit—preference files often get corrupted, they are rebuilt at next launch of program
Gordon,
Found this on the Adobe site. Since you said you’re using OS 9something, looks like you will find what you’re looking for under the second entry here…
Mac OS X:
Users/[user profile]/Library/Preferences
Mac OS 9.x:
System Folder/Preferences
Nancy
In OS 9, I went to HD>System Folder>Preferences>Photoshop Elements 2.0 Prefs>Photoshop Elements 2.0 Prefs>Error Message: Could not open "Photoshop Elements 2.0 Prefs" because it is not the right kind of document. At the same time, the ap comes up Sunflower and all.
The other eight choices in the first PE Prefs box also yield only error messages, as above or "cannot find ap". In the Preferences box the only other PE choice, Photoshop Elements 2.0 Paths, gets the former error message.
Once again I am stopped.
Gordon
Gordon, at this point hopefully a wise Mac user will figure this out for you. I’m bumping this up so it doesn’t get lost.
by the way, wondering, after you go through the steps we discussed using the ‘save as’ instead of directly launching ‘save for web’…when you go to close your image afterwards in Elements( after the final save for web step)…are you saying ‘no’ to saving changes ? Hope so, otherwise the animation will just be replaced with the layers again and you will not have an animation.
Gordon, at this point I don’t understand exactly what the problem is anymore. Are you saying that SFW won’t let you save or that you can’t play the image after you use SFW?
Gordon,
Just picked up on this thread … it sounds like you are double clicking on the preferences instead of trying to delete them PLUS it also sounds like they are the ordinary preferences and not the "save for web" prefs.
Lets start again first close Elements … the file you are looking for is "Adobe save for web 3.0 prefs" now usually it is in:
XXXX (normally your own name … or the name you used to set up your Mac)>Library>Preferences>Adobe save for web 3.0 prefs.
If you can’t find it then hold down the Apple key and press F … set the search for "everywhere" and "Adobe save for web 3.0 prefs". That isn’t a typing error I do mean 3.0 NOT 2.0. Hopefully you will then be able to track it down.
When you find the file don’t double click on it just drag and drop in into the trash. Then restart Elements and when you use save for web it will create a new "Adobe save for web 3.0 prefs".
Let me know how you go on ..
Wendy
Regarding deleting the SFW prefs: Thanks to Wendy’s telling me what to look for and Nancy’s where to look (OS 9), the SFW prefs were deleted and reformed after using SFW.
Unfortunately that did not get rid of the problem of saving the animation in a ready to use version. I still get as a saved GIF an image that is only a still Layer #1 and is identical to the PSD in that they both show they have nine layers. But as seen in the table below the GIF shows to be much smaller. I can run it (as I can the PSD version) in animation through SFW. But, it will not run as an animation on its own upon opening.
That means the answer for Barbara is I do not know if the problem is that I cannot save GIF (from SFW) as a ready to go animation or it is that I cannot play what I do get saved as an animation. Logic tells me that is the former, as I should not have to do anything to the saved image except open it.
Jodi, your question about saving: I am not sure which "saving" I should be declining. So here is what I have done and maybe you can tell me where I am going wrong. PSD image in Finder opens in PE 2.0 (checked to see all 9 layers are there)>SFW>resize to 50% (already set at 332 GIF No Dither and already checked for transparency)>checked animation>checked loop and set interval>clicked OK (usually nothing happens with one click, a double click is required)>Save Optimized As box (I do not need to rename with GIF as extension)>Save>Layer #1 image comes on (it is a GIF with 9 layers) and is still. To run it as an animation I have to run it through SFW again. When I close the GIF I click Don’t Save.
Almost surely (after eliminating corrupted prefs as a possibity) my problem is a procedural one. Yet, the fact remains that last year’s animated GIF (much smaller in size but 12 layers) ran upon opening in Quicktime but not now in PE 2.0.
Where am I going wrong?
Gordon
PS: A saved GIF (from SFW) for either this or last year will not open in Finder ("not right kind of document" error message). Only after I turn on PE 2.0 will they open.
PPS: This Year’s Last Year’s
GIF (now) 324 K 152 K
PSD (now) 10.9 MB 1.1 MB
Download TIF 3.4 MB GIF (unknown)
Gordon,
I apologize in advance if this has been addressed earlier in the thread… I haven’t read the whole conversation.
In what application are you opening the GIF, expecting it to play on its own? If PSE, then that may be the problem, as PSE does not "play" animated GIFs… it just opens them as a multi-layered file.
You’ll need to use some other app to view the animation – like your web browser, for example.
Again, sorry if my speed-reading of the topic missed this along the way.
Byron
Byron
You are probably on the right track. But, how do I open this GIF in IE? If I open it in Finder I get the error message, whether I click on it directly or open it through the pull down File menu. If I open it in IE (using Open from the File menu), it opens in PE 2.0.
Last year with last year’s GIF (in Quicktime) I simply clicked directly on the icon on my desktop and it played on its own.
Gordon
You probably had Quicktime associated with gif, so clicking on the gif opened Quicktime to play it. It seems you now have PSE associated with gif. Open Quicktime first, then open the gif within it.
Gordon,
Nancy seems to be going the same way that I would… but all I know about a Mac is how to spell it.
I might suggest opening your browser, or Quicktime, and then drag/drop the GIF into the app.
Someone who speaks Mac… HELP!!
Byron
Byron,
I am one of the UNinformed on running a Mac…
After no response from Microsoft and Apple user groups, I tried Graphic Converter (which I also have). I sent them the optimized GIF from PE 2.0.
They told me that the GIF works fine in Safari (they do not use IE). I was also told how to work the GIF in PCS, in which it now is
playing beautifully.
So the PE 2.0 GIF is in fact email and web ready. But, for whatever mysterious reason it will not play in my IE from my desktop (it did play in IE in Preview in SFW).
Thanks again to all of you for your help.
Well Gordon I’m glad you got it sorted…too bad ya went throo so much to get it working. Still puzzled as to why it wont play from your desktop tho.
Jodi
The desktop problem still bothered me too. If it runs on opening in email and web why not the desktop. Well I have come up with an answer (at least for my computer).
I created a blank HTML page (in Pagemaker 7.0) and stuck the optimized PE 2.0 GIF on it. I then placed it on my desktop as a stand-alone. Upon opening it runs perfectly.
An interesting side note is that if I stick that HTML page in my Moons folder, it will not open. I then tried putting the original PE animated GIF on the desktop as a stand-alone and it still will not open.
Gordon
The third from last line is supposed to read: "…coming back out of the…"
It seems these animated GIF’s are particular.
Gordon
Hi
I have read the discussion, but it did not help me-
I’m just trying to make a 2image banner in PhotoShop 5.0 I did:
"with the layers open in Elements click file>’save as’ and then give the file a name"
but I can not choose .GIF (compuserve) extension only
..psd and .pdd
and I do not have "save for web" under "file" What do I do?
Thanks. Anton
Anton, I hate to be a party pooper but I’m thinking PS5 does not have a ‘save for web’ command ?? This is actually the ‘photoshop elements’ forum. It is the name of the software from Adobe…Photoshop’s little brother. Perhaps you could upgrade ? 🙂
Jodi, didn’t know if you were able to see messages 32&33
Gordon
Gordon, yes I’m sorry I’m just not sure anymore of the situation. Could just be a file association problem. If you put the image in ‘My Documents’ and right click ‘open with ‘and select ‘windows picture and fax viewer’ what do you get ?
This is strange! This message shows that it came from me, PeteD but I did not post it. When opened it shows the correct sender but on the newsreader it shows ‘me’ as the sender?
Anton, I hate to be a party pooper but I’m thinking PS5 does not have a
‘save for web’ command ?? This is actually the ‘photoshop elements’ forum. It is the name of the software from Adobe…Photoshop’s little brother. Perhaps you could upgrade ? 🙂
Hi pete…strange happenings indeed !
