GIF quality is too low and is too small, how do I fix?

[arpeggiomax87]

I am about ready to give up on this comic because I have messed up the entirety of it, to where i had to redo it completely because of a fucking screw up with the pages i had mislabeled and miscounted.

i am getting legitimately pissed off about all of this and im gonna start losing my shit because for some frustrating reason, when ever I output the images i have had to work on the entire, ENTIRE two days trying to mark and manually place shitty-looking results just because Paint tool SAI is the worst drawing software ever spawned, it always comes out low-quality and the window is smaller than the jpg files that follow it, which are naturally large and HD quality.

for example, when i test out my images on the comic preview, this is what shows up:

The arrow is pointing to the animated portion of the .gif, while the giant .jpg starts with the image underneath the .gif.

Is there something I'm missing to this entire thing? or is it just because everything is fucking me and against me trying to put in a solid effort to make something watchable and just sulk in the deep pit of amateur laughable depression?

Because either way, it always seems to be the ladder. Please, someone help me figure this nonsense out. I have spent over 5 hours dealing with it today and 4 hours dealing with it yesterday.

[rajillustration]

What's your original file size and DPI? If the DPI is too big (like over 350 isn't really necessary), it can make fuzzy images when downsized to 72.

Either way, try sharpening the edges a couple times on the downsized version to see if that helps.

[nostalgicroxas]

Also make sure you aren't saving a compressed JPG on SAI. I save 99% of my art as PNGs just out of habit and only do jpgs when I'm compressing them down to like 20% for thumbnails.

[arpeggiomax87]

actually, i just gave up. never mind to all of this, i know if i have to re-process the images to .png, that's going to be another confusion party and im not mentally stable to deal with that.

[KizKat]

I can see you gave up, but for future reference, here's some tips for GIFs to help you figure this sort of thing out:

• Never animate higher than 12FPS (frames per second). This is because GIFs only play back as 12FPS, and animating at a higher frame rate is not only a waste of time but increases the file size.
• make sure the animation uses very few colours (you seem good to go here if your comic is just black and white).
• Make sure the animation is short (definately no longer than 5 seconds unless its a very simple animation).
• Make sure you're making a GIF with the highest quality image/video possible (again, you seem to be already doing this so, awesome). The lower the quality/more compressed the original, the higher the GIF file size will be.
• Sounds silly, but make sure you are saving on 100% quality. If you reduce this then some programs might scale down the GIF, and that would be why your image would be coming out smaller (when in doubt, import the saved out GIF into your art software and see what size the canvas is).

Like @rajillustration said, DPI for your other images is important to compare. Your GIF will be 72DPI because its a screen format only, so your other jpegs/pngs need to match.

GIFs can be a real headache, so I understand the frustration. Have a break, then maybe try and figure it out again when you have a moment for future use.

[arpeggiomax87]

thanks, i just wish i could find a guide about these things. Also I decided to give it another shot.

[arpeggiomax87]

Also, do you know a faster way on how to make easier gifs? the way i do it is to make copies of the same comic page, but replace the specific panel in each page, and it is the most annoying method ever. I KNOW there is an easier way to do this, but I don't either have the right software nor the ability to pay for expensive software like Photoshop to achieve it whatsoever.

again, thank you for the guide.

Also i don't know what DPI is nor i know nothing about how to edit it or whatever.

[arpeggiomax87]

no, i got over my frustration, it was just due to me not understanding how all of this works, and it just pissed me off that i was trying to fix this crap for the past 9 hours trying to get it to work properly.

only thing is that i have no idea what DPI is nor how to achieve it for higher quality of my animated gif page.

[KizKat]

DPI stands for Dots Per Inch. It's something that is in all canvas which use pixels, or when you're saving a file that isn't vector friendly. Basically, the higher the DPI the more dots of colour that go into your image, which in turn increase the quality and file size. This is something you really have to worry about when it comes to print. However, digital content - like GIFs and videos - really don't need to go higher than 72. That's the standard screen DPI.

Your software might call this "Resolution". It is the same thing.

When you save out a GIF, your DPI will be 72, because that's the highest a GIF can process. So, if your DPI/resolution is set to 150 or 300 (the usual for print), it may make the GIF look smaller when uploaded depending on how your save settings work. I have never used Paint tool SAI so I can't say for sure, but I suspect it's a good place to start your investigation.

[KizKat]

As for an easier way to make a GIF, I'm not sure I can help without knowledge of the software. It doesn't sound too different to how I would expect to do it in photoshop (only difference is photoshop has video layers which could make that easier/worse). I am a motion designer by trade, and am WELL aquainted with how annoying GIFs are, and animating frame-by-frame. It is a long process and really only speeds up with practice and patience. I would suggest looking up some tutorials on youtube, perferably ones that use the same software you do, to try and pick up some tips and tricks.

[arpeggiomax87]

Thank you so much, everything worked properly! If I wasn't heterosexual and didn't have a girlfriend I would kiss you for it.

im still going to work on the rest of the comic, I am no longer stressed about it.

[KizKat]

Hooray! I'm glad everything is working now