How can I make a transparent animated gif?

MM
Posted By
Mike_Maksim
Jul 21, 2008
Views
805
Replies
3
Status
Closed
I’m using CS2. I have an animated gif that I want to take the black background out of so that the animated part of it is all that remains.

Here is a link to the image:

< http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v97/tragicmike/random/Tess eract.gif>

I basically want to remove all of the black background from the image so that the animated tesseract is all that remains. I know how to open the gif to expose the layers using ImaegeReady, then edit them in PhotoShop. But when I made the black areas of each layer transparent (by selecting the RGB channel, inverting the selection, and hitting delete), saved a copy, and tried viewing it, it seems to just display all of the transparent layers constantly instead of cycling through them.

Can someone please help me figure out how to make an animated gif with a transparent background? If I lose some of the black areas of the animated part (since they seem to get deleted when I remove all of the black background) it’s no big deal. I just need to know how to do this so that it plays correctly.

Thank you!!!

Mike
Related Tags
animation how make transparency

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george_dingwall
Jul 21, 2008
You could try exporting the layers as files then running a batch action on them in Photoshop to use the magic wand to select and delete the black background. You can then re-import the folder of images as frames in Imageready.

As there are only 48 layers in the animation, you could just jump the image to Photoshop and select and delete each layer manually. It wont take all that long.

I have to wonder why the black background was included on every frame of the moving shape. It would have been a much simpler thing to remove the background if it had been on its own layer at the bottom of the image.
P
Phosphor
Jul 21, 2008
"I have to wonder why the black background was included on every frame of the moving shape."

Well, George…the only reason I can think of is because it’s an animated GIF, and GIFs only support one layer.

Whatever application it was created in should have been able to render it out with a transparent BG. But I suppose the creator had his/her reasons for going with the black BG.

(Full disclosure: I ran across that same a similar animation back in December, and the version I grabbed only had the black showing through the inside of the tesseract. I opened it in ImageReady and added a black BG so the edges didn’t look jaggedy.)

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1FgHXbj4UpXYtUVrbe ah7sbqQXDR40>
GD
george_dingwall
Jul 21, 2008
Hi Phos,

Quote:

"Well, George…the only reason I can think of is because it’s an animated GIF, and GIFs only support one layer."

If you drag it from the web page direct into Imageready, the file has 48 layers. You can then export the layers and edit them in Photoshop or you could try getting Imageready to render the animation with a transparent background. (I tried this myself, but it didn’t work for me).

Once edited in Photoshop, the files can then be imported into Imageready as frames.

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