Yeah, I need a good program for making animated GIFs... any opinions?

I use Adobe Imageready, comes with Photoshop.

Image ready with photoshop seconded

is it good for converting avi clips to gif?

Thanks for that, imageready is good! I'll have to start testing out!

I tend to use Fireworks rather than ImageReady but depends on what you're used to, I just got used to the animation controls on Flash making Fireworks easier to use for me.

is it good for converting avi clips to gif?

virtualdub -> save image sequence
imageready -> import folder as frames

You'll prolly need to remove some frames though, cos I'm not 100% sure, but I think animated gifs run at about 12fps? And a movie clip might be running at 25 or so, so it'd look like its running at half speed as a gif.

But then I'm pretty noob when it comes to animation, so I could very well be completely wrong!

Animated gifs run at whatever speed you set them to. The animator that comes with Paint Shop Pro is pretty cool.

ps. Adobe products are not the be all and end all.

ps. Adobe products are not the be all and end all.

and Jasc products are?

Only reason I use Adobe products is cos thats what I was taught to use. I dont have any great preference for Adobe stuff, it all just stems from laziness and not wanting to learn new software packages.

I tend to use Fireworks rather than ImageReady but depends on what you're used to, I just got used to the animation controls on Flash making Fireworks easier to use for me.

Yeah same, although Adobe has aquired Macromedia now if I'm not mistaken?

i use jasc animation shop. but i am usually just using it to put pre-rendered frames in order & setting a frame speed. i've never done a mpg/mov convertion to gif.

Hashy nup. But for the price its far more reasonable to believe someone on this forum legaly owns a JASC product then an Adobe/Macromedia one. And everyone was only mentioning Adobe ie.giving alternatives.

I also have a particular bent against Adobe and Macromedia, becuase every Multimedia course in town seems intent on teaching these products. Alot of the graduates seem to come out knowing how to use the product rather then understanding the concepts and being able to apply them to any product.

I actually prefer animation shop from jasc but I cbf finding it on the plethora of cd's I have laying around here. Damn mountain of magazine cover cd's.

I'm an idiot.

last edited by stinky at 13:29:23 30/Jun/05

You're absolutely correct man, there's no conceivable way anyone would pay a mere $200 more for good software over the clearly inferior alternatives

I also have a particular bent against Adobe and Macromedia, becuase every Multimedia course in town seems intent on teaching these products. Alot of the graduates seem to come out knowing how to use the product rather then understanding the concepts and being able to apply them to any product.

Why would they want to apply them to other products? Adobe and Macromedia products are industry standard (and for a reason).

They aren't the industry standard becuase of functionality, they are the industry standard becuase of marketing ... and even when you say that its not true...

I believe Avid was used for Lord of the rings for instance ...

Infact due to the cost of the software per licence less companies will be using it in the future. A few magazines got busted for incorrect licencing last year from memory.

I've used paintshop pro quite extensively and it's a right arse to use. You won't be finding any job openings for competance in PSP, not because of clever marketing from adobe but because the program just isn't suitable for typical graphic design purposes in business.

Video editing is an exception. Premiere IS an industry standard but sits alongside equal (and even superior) software such as Final Cut Pro & Avid. To my knowledge, Final Cut Pro is the most popular.

It might be great for graphic designers.... I wouldn't know .. the people here at work aren't graphic designers and they don't need all the s*** thats in Photoshop. Horses for courses. But again having the fundementals and being able to apply it will work in any package, which is better then remembering a bunch of key strokes and menu paths ... I don't care if you believe me or not, I just remember how many wp5.1 experts were unemployable becuase their uber duber word perfect skills didn't translate in to the latest and great MS Word for windows.

Its like the whinging they do about Pagemaker, Quark and Publisher... They use hardly any of the functionality of the products and half the stuff they produce could done more easily using Word. But they saw a magazine article that told them they should be using whatever is flavour of the month.

But whatever hashy keep on suggesting people need a more expensive product for their home usage. Need to open a nut, quick grab the sledge hammer.