I’m not sure you can view animations in the 2-up / 4-up windows. I hit the play triangle in the animation window.
I only have ps7, but if you can do it in "IR3", I’d guess your IR-CS is not working right. I haven’t heard anybody else complain that IR animations aren’t working. (reinstall / reset Prefs)
-Mike
There are several posts on this forum with the same or similar problem. And also posts that IR CS is extremely buggy when trying to optimize, in general, or to create roll overs, or it just simply corrupts a PSD file so that the file can’t be tweaked or even, in some instances, opened again in Photoshop.
In some cases, for inexplicable reasons, I can initially optimize a file in IRCS, but then when I change the setting, or return the file to Photoshop then back to IR CS, the errors appear. Usually the problem occurs with files having more than 10 layers. But, If I am able to initially see optimized versions of my PSD (a big if) reducing the dither or the number of colors will initially show an INCREASE in file size…not a decrease, until the dither is set to zero or the number of colors is further reduced. Before the appearance of the errors, however, the optimization settings show gif files that are generally twice as big as those optimized files adjusted to the same settings in IR3. In any case, it isn’t possible to save multilayered gif optimized animations in IR CS…only in IR3.
There are several posts about many problems in IR CS. A few of them claim that IR CS is the most buggy, useless program Adobe has ever released. Based on my limited experiences thus far, I am inclined to agree. This PS-IR CS advertised combo was a rip off to we consumers. IR CS is a horrible piece of crap that clearly wasn’t debugged before release.
Forgot to add…I uninstalled then reinstalled the program to no avail. Also threw away the prefs and started over. Also no help.
Well, I honestly can’t add much to the discussion – I was going to suggest reset prefs and reinstall – but I can confirm that PS/IR CS does not error out when saving out animations on my installation.
My guess is that it’s something file specific. Does this happen on all GIFs? I would try a sample file with only 2 frames that is pretty small (60px or so) and see if it errors out on that
I would suggest trying to optimize an animation from a PSD file that contains 10+ layers, and 10+ frames. Also…try changing the opimization settings (colors, lossyness, dither) and see how you fare. IR3 handles everything predictably; IR CS handles nothing predictably.
Thanks for the feedback.
I’ve done some fairly complex animations <
http://www.jonbalza.com/portfolio/experimental/3.gif> with IR CS. (The one linked to has 18 frames, originally 12 layers, and 256 colors.) And they worked out just fine. And both PS and IR still open the PSD just fine as well.
When you say "IR CS handles nothing predictably," what do you mean? Could you explain it just a little bit more?
Certainly.
The optimizations…if I can get to actually setting a gif optimization on a single -layered PSD file without any animation…the file size for comparable settings is usually 2 or 3 times the file size obtained when the same file is imported into IR 3, and adjusted to provide the same color number, amount of dither, and lossyness (i.e the same optimization settings). In CS, sometimes the files actually get bigger as you increase lossyness or decrease the dither or color number. That’s absurd.
I have had the animation problem with a couple of files. The same PSD files handle perfectly in IR3, so I must assume there is something wrong with IR CS. After uninstalling and reinstalling, and trashing prefs, I can not seem to make IR CS behave as it should…like IR 3 does.
I have tried to get help from Adobe, but Adobe does nothing without my credit card number. They only support installation problems, not bugs. I notice there are several other posts in which there are problems with IR CS on this forum. For example, here: voldy, "I can’t save my animation as a gif. HELP!" #7, 16 May 2005 4:42 pm </cgi-bin/webx?50/6>!login=true
Thanks for offering to help me. I very much appreciate whatever you might be able to offer. Chick
I’m pretty sure the thread you linked to has nothing to do with the problems you are experiencing.
Moving on…
I no longer have IR 3 installed on any computers – which means I can’t do any comparitive testing on the file size differences you are seeing.
As to changing the "lossy" setting getting a larger file, I was able to only get a .03KB (barely noticable, at worst) larger file when increasing lossiness from 0% to 3%. And that was only in certain files.
Past 3%, the files get noticibly smaller, usually on an order of 2-4 times smaller.
In regards to the dither/number of colors, no matter what type of GIF I was saving, I could not get a lower dither percentage or a lower number of colors to result in a higher file size. Do you have an example file where you are experiencing those symptoms?
This is a VERY long shot, but have you installed the Adjusted Refresh Plugin <
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2552> for CS?
When you get the error messages that "An unspecified error was encountered," does anything show up in your event log on your computer? (Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Event Viewer/System) If so, it may be a symptom of some conflict with another program on your computer.
I notice there are several other posts <snip> For example, here: voldy,
I am pretty sure voldy <
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@@.3bba3031/6> is just making learning mistakes. He (or she) will get it soon.
Heck, it took me a while to figure it out and I’m 40 years older than he or she is.
The only "event" in the event viewer/systems that occurred at the time when IRCS "failed" (when I tried to view 4-up) said this:
Your computer was not able to renew its address from the network (from the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address 009096CEDD9C. The following error occurred:
The semaphore timeout period has expired. . Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server".
I don’t see how this message can relate to the problem with IR CS. Do you??
Once more…thanks for your input.
Chick
Forgot to add that I already installed the updated refresh plugin.
You aren’t working with these files over a network, are you?
If you are, then I can see how that error message might cause (or becaused by) an error in IR. But other than that, it should be unrelated.
Is your IR "activated"? (That’s "AdobeSpeak" for working properly.) Adobe CS programs stop working if they think they are being illegally copied. Random things like network addresses changing could make an Adobe CS program decide to crash. (Disclaimer: I don’t own CS or CS2)
"Is your IR "activated?"
I don’t know how to check that. I bought and activated the program legally…I don’t know why it would think otherwise. What could have changed to challenge that? And how could I tell if there was a question about it?
(I think I misundertood your post #10.) It won’t work if it’s not activated. If it is turning on, it is fine.
Lets see if I understand:
Can you view your animation in IR’s animation window by clicking on the bottom "play" triangle?
(I.e: you have added a sequence of frames to your first image using the little triangle on the top right of the animation window.)
Have you used "Save optimized as" to output your animation? -Mike
Yes to both. I can view the animation (the ordered sequence of frames in the animation palette) of the original PSD. However, the problem arises with I either 1) desire to view the optimization options (2-up or 4-up) OR 2) I "save optimized" OR "save optimized as". There is always a message stating "…an unknown error has occurred".
Chick
Chick, it’s looking like it’s definitely an issue specific to your computer somehow. That means I’m not going to be able to reproduce what you are getting unless you have some example files that always cause this error that you can share.
At this point, my suggestion would be to format your hard drive and reinstall everything, however painful that might be.
Or if you aren’t feeling quite that adventurous, you might want to uninstall all adobe products, remove all adobe-related folders on your hard drive, empty the recycle bin, restart, and then reinstall them in order of release date, starting with the earliest.
Then if that fails, do the reformat.
If you are willing to examine an offending file, I would be most happy to send it to you…to see what it does on your system. If there is a problem with the file itself in CS (but not in PS 6.01), then I would like to know that first before becoming overly aggressive with my computer.
Please let me know where to send an example file, I will be happy to pass it your way. And…I would be extremely grateful for your input. well.
Thanks so much…
Chick
If I import the exact same PSD file into Image Ready 3 (not CS) on the exact same computer (I also have Photoshop 6.01 installed), I encounter NO problems at all.
I am not sure what we are trying to accomplish here.
Is it a file that is bad or the program that is not working. I thought the above remark meant it could be output in "IR3"?
The file CAN be outputted in IR3 without any problem That is why I think the problem is with IR CS.
I have shared an animation created in IR CS with another user with PS CS and IR CS and he also gets the same error message that I get trying to optimize that file in IR CS on a different computer. His computer is completely different than mine…it’s a WIN 2k with a different configuration and different apps running. So…I doubt that my computer is at the root of the problem. I believe it’s an IR CS problem…for the moment, anyway.
What I would like to determine is if there is something wrong with IR CS or something wrong with my PSD files such that IR CS can’t read them (but IR3 has no trouble reading them). I would, therefore like to send an example file to you or anyone else willing to look at this anomaly…if you are willing or are just curious to see the problem. This could be useful to determine if there is a bug in the program or a bug (buggy to IR CS, anyway) in the original file created by Photoshop CS.
Please let me know…
If you have an example file available, I’d be happy to take a look at it. The email address you can use is "jonbalza[a]gmail[dot]com"
I sent it to Jonathan today (5/19/05)…hopefully he’ll have a look when he gets a chance.
Chick
OK, I checked out the file, here’s some observations:
CS2 opened the file just fine, with a warning about converting from your custom profile. I was able to save it out from CS2 no problems at all, using 2up/4up to display it.
CS was a different story. I opened it up, and CS actually gave me a warning that your embedded profile was corrupt, and automatically closed the file. I opened it again to try and reproduce the error, and all I got was the convert to profile dialog, just like in CS2. This time I chose to convert the profile to sRGB, and then jumped over to IR.
Here’s where the fun started. Every time I went to the optimized, 2up or 4 up previews, I received the same "an unspecified error was encountered" error, that is, until I turned the "Lossy" setting all the way down to 0. With that set at zero, I could not produce the error no matter what I tried, what profile I used, anything. Turn it on, and BAM! I get the error again.
So I then go back over to some of my test files, and I can’t get that "an unspecified error was encountered" error message to happen with my files, no matter what "lossy" is set at.
So, basically, my completely unprofessional opinion is that something in your embedded profile is causing something strange to happen with that file. Why I couldn’t get rid of the error when I changed profiles, I don’t know, but that is my best guess.
Other than recreating the image using the sRGB profile and then seeing what happens there, I’m completely at a loss as to what to do.
Thank you so much for all that hard work. I very much appreciate it.
IR3 and apparently CS2 don’t have any problem with this file, so I am still wondering if there is some bug in IR3 that this particular file somehow "tweeked". If I eliminate ALL layers except one and then just save the file with "Save Optimized", there isn’t a problem in IRCS. So, I am still at a loss to explain al of this as the color profile isn’t changed then, just the complexity of the image.
Because the file opens and optimizes is IRCS2 and IR3…are you of the opinion there is some problem in the IRCS application?
At least I don’t feel any need to reformat the computer and reinstall the software.
Again, many thanks!
Chick
One more thing. When I converted the color profile embedded in file I sent to you to the Adobe 1998 profile, ALL layers but the first layer were completely discarded (in Photoshop). I am not sure if that is typical of any layered image…if one changes the embedded profile are the layers then discarded, usually? From your description, it sounds like I should have been able to convert to the newer profile without a file structure problem.
Thanks once more.
Chick Newman
No, I don’t think there’s a problem in IR CS. I think there is something specific to the files that you are using (probably the color profile) that is causing IR to choke.
As to the automatic flattening of layers, you should be getting a dialog box asking what you like to do – flatten or keep the layers intact. If you aren’t getting that dialog, you may need to reset all dialogs, which is an option under preferences. This will allow you to change the profile without flattening.
Thank you.
Why isn’t the color profile a problem in other versions of IR (3 or CS2)? That’s why I think there is something peculiar with the program. I have been using this color profile for the last 8 months and have even created optimized animations in IR CS with that profile before, though the PSD files then may have been small and had fewer layers.
I will check the preferences re: the flattening without asking problem.
Again…your help has been much appreciated.
Chick
Here’s a link to another post with describing some IR CS bugs. Alan Sigus, "ImageReady CS bug-list" #, 23 May 2004 7:28 am </cgi-bin/webx?50>
Any comments?
Chick
Chick, I’m not really sure what that link has to do with your questions here at all. (As an FYI, I’m not seeing ANY of those errors in my copy of IR CS.)
As to why the other versions of IR work with it, and CS doesn’t, I couldn’t tell you. Like I said, I don’t have 6 installed anymore, and I’m not an Adobe programmer, so I don’t really know what’s different between the versions. (Especially between CS and CS2, which are almost exactly the same program, from what I can tell.)
Thanks Jon. I posted only to give credibility that IR CS has bugs (apparently not, from what you’re saying, though). It’s all moot now. I won’t be using IR CS for anything anymore, since IR 3 does the basics more than satisfactorily.
Take care…
Chick
