Good Windows GIF Editor?

[Smores]

Is there a good special-purpose GIF animation file editor, written for Windows OS, that can create and edit GIF files? Lots of image editors and animation products claim GIF support, but it is almost always not very useful. They do not support frame by frame editing. Many do not support compression or adjustments to frame sizes. I realize that I could use Photoshop for this, but Photoshop is a massive tool and really overkill. There are many web-based GIF editors, but I would really prefer to find something that is a fast native Windows app. That lets me easily save the state of the file and work on it over time, as I continue to optimize it for very size-constrained environments like CB.

Are there any good options?

 

[SaffronBurke]

I just cut my gifs in my editing program after saving my videos, then use an online converter. No need for a special program just for gifs.

 

[Lintilla]

You didn't explain what your source material is (or where you're exporting it from, etc), or what sort of frame-by-frame edits you're hoping to make. Photo/video editing is certainly different from animation, depending how you use the word "animation".

I don't think Photoshop is overkill. Personally, I use Photoshop, or occasionally export directly from Premiere. I stick to those precisely because they have the ability to do what you're asking and more. Are you implying that you don't want to pay Adobe? Because you want some fairly non-basic functions, at least from what I can tell.

BTW, when can we expect to see you on cam? You must have the know-how to get started by now.

 

[Deleted member 37064]

Photoshop, or GIMP isn't overkill. it's better to have one big "Swiss Army Knife" that does many things well, than to have to learn many multiple programs for just one or two tasks as it's Inefficient, and useless practice to do it that way.

Agreed about the camming aspect. Not that I personally want to see. But, given the number of questions you've asked, one would venture a guess at you'd have quite the knowledge to do a good startup. Or, you're making bank on the side charging models for services

 

[NotYou]

You didn't explain what your source material is (or where you're exporting it from, etc), or what sort of frame-by-frame edits you're hoping to make. Photo/video editing is certainly different from animation, depending how you use the word "animation".

I don't think Photoshop is overkill. Personally, I use Photoshop, or occasionally export directly from Premiere. I stick to those precisely because they have the ability to do what you're asking and more. Are you implying that you don't want to pay Adobe? Because you want some fairly non-basic functions, at least from what I can tell.

BTW, when can we expect to see you on cam? You must have the know-how to get started by now.

I agree with this. It all boils down to the "what are you aiming to do?".and what your source material is...
There are plenty of free sites available that give you limited options for editing GIFs or creating them from still images (jpg, png etc) or cutting/cropping from videos.
As one can expect though, even the free sites will limit to XX mb upload per image etc

 

[Deleted member 37064]

I agree with this. It all boils down to the "what are you aiming to do?".and what your source material is...
There are plenty of free sites available that give you limited options for editing GIFs or creating them from still images (jpg, png etc) or cutting/cropping from videos.
As one can expect though, even the free sites will limit to XX mb upload per image etc

Not to mention any EULA issues if you're using free sites.

 

[Smores]

You didn't explain what your source material is (or where you're exporting it from, etc), or what sort of frame-by-frame edits you're hoping to make. Photo/video editing is certainly different from animation, depending how you use the word "animation".

Source material is usually going to be an MP4 video with H.264. I should not have talked about animation, that was misdirection sorry. The issue is optimization. A site like CB wants GIFs to be under 250x80, and the size under 1 mb. My skills are these things are not so good that I can just take a video and downscale and have it look high quality. It can take me a while to figure out how to balance all the elements to have a decent GIF.

I can certainly do the transformations on a web site, but then how do I preserve *state* of the file? Optimizing the GIF might take me a week if I am just tinkering with it on and off. And what happens next month when I need to put it on a different site that has 800x600 and 3 mb limits? I want to be able to open up my previous work and regenerate new output easily.

I don't think Photoshop is overkill. Personally, I use Photoshop, or occasionally export directly from Premiere. I stick to those precisely because they have the ability to do what you're asking and more. Are you implying that you don't want to pay Adobe? Because you want some fairly non-basic functions, at least from what I can tell.

Okay, in my case the computer that is most convenient for this work has Photoshop Elements on it. That has significant limitations versus the full Photoshop for GIF files specifically.

In addition, Photoshop really overwhelms me. I am not living in this tool, and it has so many darn options that you pretty much have to immerse yourself in it to really be able to do everything you might want to do quickly.

I could upgrade the Photoshop license. That might end up being my least worst option.

BTW, when can we expect to see you on cam? You must have the know-how to get started by now.

I cannot see it being more than a hobby. If the world was not so anti-sexual then some form of alternative porn would be interesting to explore. But it feels like the sexually conservative elements in the West still want to treat porn as one level away from terrorism. The world is just a little bit too messed up on these issues for me to see it being a career.

 

[Smores]

Photoshop, or GIMP isn't overkill. it's better to have one big "Swiss Army Knife" that does many things well, than to have to learn many multiple programs for just one or two tasks as it's Inefficient, and useless practice to do it that way.

Have you used GIMP for GIF edits and transformations? How easy is it to use for that function? Give me an opinion.

Agreed about the camming aspect. Not that I personally want to see. But, given the number of questions you've asked, one would venture a guess at you'd have quite the knowledge to do a good startup. Or, you're making bank on the side charging models for services

It's a hobby. Seriously.

I do not think webcam performance is an interesting target market to sell myself as a consultant. The kind of women I am helping are not sitting on a pile of cash. And it's honestly something I want to have fun doing, not something I want a professional obligation to do.

What's in it for me is that I get to know some remarkably beautiful women much better as a result of helping them out. In a few cases I have managed to make a person completely financially self-reliant, which is also really nice to see when you can have a permanent impact on someone's life. But I have also discovered the hard way that helping people is quite difficult. Unless the person is very smart and very motivated, there is not much you can do for her.

 

[Shutterbuck]

Photoshop>Everything Else

 

[SaffronBurke]

Source material is usually going to be an MP4 video with H.264. I should not have talked about animation, that was misdirection sorry. The issue is optimization. A site like CB wants GIFs to be under 250x80, and the size under 1 mb. My skills are these things are not so good that I can just take a video and downscale and have it look high quality.

Unless it's a REALLY short gif, it's not going to look high quality compressed down that much.

 

[Smores]

Unless it's a REALLY short gif, it's not going to look high quality compressed down that much.

Right, which is why the whole optimization issue is not as trivial as many people think.

 

[SaffronBurke]

Right, which is why the whole optimization issue is not as trivial as many people think.

Less trivial and more "why worry, it's going to be hot garbage anyway". With limits like that, I'd say fuck it to gifs entirely and stick with stills, it's not worth the effort to me to make a gif that small and somehow make it pretty.

 

[Lintilla]

Optimizing the GIF might take me a week if I am just tinkering with it on and off.

If it's taking you a week to optimize a single gif, you really need to optimize your optimizing (and it also sounds like you might be overly nitpicky).

And what happens next month when I need to put it on a different site that has 800x600 and 3 mb limits? I want to be able to open up my previous work and regenerate new output easily.

The previous work is the original video, is it not? You start from that and generate a new gif from scratch. Unless I'm missing something here... Are you at some point re-editing gif files you previously exported from the video source?

But this is why I use Premiere. I open up my project file, and the section I've selected to use as a gif is already preset from last time. I just export with different settings. If I need to tweak from there (I often change the first frame, for instance) I use Photoshop.

In addition, Photoshop really overwhelms me. I am not living in this tool, and it has so many darn options that you pretty much have to immerse yourself in it to really be able to do everything you might want to do quickly.

If you're wanting to do things as specific as it seems you are, then yes, learning more powerful tools is pretty much what you'll have to do. Basic tools do basic things. But it really does seem like you're making things overly difficult here.

 

[Smores]

If it's taking you a week to optimize a single gif, you really need to optimize your optimizing (and it also sounds like you might be overly nitpicky).

It is more of an issue of I do not know how to get something to be small enough and sometimes need to consult others with questions, or I just have to test an idea as it comes to me. Since I am not doing this for a living, I spend 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there. It's not a priority for me.

The previous work is the original video, is it not? You start from that and generate a new gif from scratch. Unless I'm missing something here... Are you at some point re-editing gif files you previously exported from the video source?

In a perfect world, a tool that focused on GIFs would let you do things like remove frames, remove every other frame, whatever, to reduce the file size, and then regenerate frame sizes from the original frames as needed.

If you're wanting to do things as specific as it seems you are, then yes, learning more powerful tools is pretty much what you'll have to do. Basic tools do basic things. But it really does seem like you're making things overly difficult here.

I make things complicated more often than not, but in this particular case I would disagree. If I am looking for a tool that makes this process less complex than Photoshop, then almost by definition I am trying to make the job easier. A specialized GIF tool could really reduce the amount of time you spend creating the GIF.

I am willing to accept your point that Photoshop is the best solution.

 

[SaffronBurke]

In a perfect world, a tool that focused on GIFs would let you do things like remove frames, remove every other frame,

You're severely overthinking things. I literally lower the FPS of my gifs in moviemaker, all the way down to 8. Then I upload to http://image.online-convert.com/convert-to-gif, select my output size, boom, gif. I typically save them as 400 pixels wide and whatever it auto-sizes for height because that's the minimum for preview images on Extralunchmoney, and a 5-second gif at those dimensions and FPS is around 2mb typically. There are other settings you can lower when saving in Moviemaker that can make the file even smaller, I need to play around with it more.

 

[Deleted member 37064]

Have you used GIMP for GIF edits and transformations? How easy is it to use for that function? Give me an opinion.

I've only used it for a couple of simple GIFs, and it was okay. But, I am by no means interested in graphical work so it wasn't something I want to explore much. I do use GIMP on a daily basis for various photos, etc. on a personal level and it is comparable to the full version of Photoshop. Albeit, slightly different.

It's a hobby. Seriously.

I do not think webcam performance is an interesting target market to sell myself as a consultant. The kind of women I am helping are not sitting on a pile of cash. And it's honestly something I want to have fun doing, not something I want a professional obligation to do.

What's in it for me is that I get to know some remarkably beautiful women much better as a result of helping them out. In a few cases I have managed to make a person completely financially self-reliant, which is also really nice to see when you can have a permanent impact on someone's life. But I have also discovered the hard way that helping people is quite difficult. Unless the person is very smart and very motivated, there is not much you can do for her.

I get this. At the same time, you're also setting yourself up for being on the hook for support. It's been my experience that people keep coming back to you expecting help, whether it be they are trying to figure it out and want to succeed. Or, more often than not, why learn when they've got someone to do it for them for free? I had to cut most people off, including family because I was spending too much time helping them and it interfered with my personal life.

 

[AmberCutie]

This may be way off base and too basic, but would http://gifbrewery.com/ work for you? You can save a project and resize it, I believe.

It's what I've been using for my video preview gifs for Twitter.

 

[Smores]

I get this. At the same time, you're also setting yourself up for being on the hook for support. It's been my experience that people keep coming back to you expecting help, whether it be they are trying to figure it out and want to succeed. Or, more often than not, why learn when they've got someone to do it for them for free? I had to cut most people off, including family because I was spending too much time helping them and it interfered with my personal life.

I definitely get used - in a bad way - more than I would like. Again, I tolerate that as long as I feel I am learning more about someone I want to learn more about. When I reach a point where I do not want to know the person better I am good about self preservation.

What has been a real surprise to me is how truly unmotivated some of the models have been. Sometimes that reflects being a student and having too many priorities. But at some point they have to be invested in their own outcome. I cannot carry them forever, and sometimes it feels like I am doing that. The ones who are driven and smart do not need me or anyone else, and they find some path forward without much support at all.

 

[Smores]

This may be way off base and too basic, but would http://gifbrewery.com/ work for you? You can save a project and resize it, I believe.

It's what I've been using for my video preview gifs for Twitter.

This tools looks good, but this is Mac only? I am using Windows.

 

[LaceyRoyce]

I used to make most of my gifs in photoshop but I started using premiere recently and its cut down my time a little. Basically I edit my video, create the preview..then cut the preview down to about 10 seconds or less of footage and then use pre-saved settings (A premiere "Preset") to render it. This means I don't have to changet the settings each time. It's producing pretty good gifs.. (though not as amazing if i take the time to edit frame by frame in photoshop)

 

[AmberCutie]

This tools looks good, but this is Mac only? I am using Windows.

Woops, sorry. Didn't even realize it was only for Mac.

 

[Deleted member 37064]

I definitely get used - in a bad way - more than I would like. Again, I tolerate that as long as I feel I am learning more about someone I want to learn more about. When I reach a point where I do not want to know the person better I am good about self preservation.

What has been a real surprise to me is how truly unmotivated some of the models have been. Sometimes that reflects being a student and having too many priorities. But at some point they have to be invested in their own outcome. I cannot carry them forever, and sometimes it feels like I am doing that. The ones who are driven and smart do not need me or anyone else, and they find some path forward without much support at all.

I get wanting to help. Wanting to have the feeling of being wanted, and doing good for others. But, I can say I know all too well about being used and manipulated by others. Friends, family, etc. all have done it. It can be a hard thing to step out of, especially when you don't want to hurt someone. But, you have to do it. Your time is precious to you, and I will say that the amount of time and effort you're putting in to "helping" these models is probably more than some professionals are willing to do. The questions you've asked are things the models should be figuring out, or one would generally do when being paid.

This post shows you have difficulties saying no because you want to help and want to get to know them. But, as you've stated, you're used and carrying them far longer than you should. I get it that it can be fun to learn technology, and learn about other people. But, is it worth it to feel manipulated and used? No.

 

[Smores]

I used to make most of my gifs in photoshop but I started using premiere recently and its cut down my time a little. Basically I edit my video, create the preview..then cut the preview down to about 10 seconds or less of footage and then use pre-saved settings (A premiere "Preset") to render it. This means I don't have to changet the settings each time. It's producing pretty good gifs.. (though not as amazing if i take the time to edit frame by frame in photoshop)

What FPS are you using on your Render in premiere? Saffron suggested 8 FPS.

 

[Smores]

I get wanting to help. Wanting to have the feeling of being wanted, and doing good for others. But, I can say I know all too well about being used and manipulated by others. Friends, family, etc. all have done it. It can be a hard thing to step out of, especially when you don't want to hurt someone. But, you have to do it. Your time is precious to you, and I will say that the amount of time and effort you're putting in to "helping" these models is probably more than some professionals are willing to do. The questions you've asked are things the models should be figuring out, or one would generally do when being paid.

Just to be clear, my level of interest reflects a genuine curiosity about how things work in the webcam world. As I said, it's a hobby, and yes hobbies can take time.

This post shows you have difficulties saying no because you want to help and want to get to know them. But, as you've stated, you're used and carrying them far longer than you should. I get it that it can be fun to learn technology, and learn about other people. But, is it worth it to feel manipulated and used? No.

I have no problems saying no. But there is a different problem which maybe gets me to the same place. The bigger problem is when you help a person who is not in general aware of their own goals and is not committed to accomplishing those goals. You try to suggest goals to them, but the sad truth is that some people are incapable of forming goals. I want to believe that I can hand them goals on a silver plate and they can understand those and eventually modify them and make them their own.

So it is not about my inability to say no. It is more about my stubbornness and wanting to believe that eventually a given person is going to come around and get some specific goals and become committed to accomplishing them. You might be right I should develop a life skill to give up on people sooner. Or in some cases maybe I should just give up on improving someone's situation, and instead just enjoy them as a person.

 

[justjoinedtopost]

There is a program called Easy Gif Animator.

I used it a while back, one thing I like is it made it easier to preview and get loops just right. For stuff like overlaying text, I had to go to Gimp or PS, and things like optimization were easier and better online. Still maybe worth checking out the trial though, it's like 30 bucks now.

https://www.easygifanimator.net/

 

[LaceyRoyce]

What FPS are you using on your Render in premiere? Saffron suggested 8 FPS.

for a 320x180p gif I'm using a FPS rate of 10. Square pixels, field rate is progressive.

 

[Smores]

There is a program called Easy Gif Animator.

I used it a while back, one thing I like is it made it easier to preview and get loops just right. For stuff like overlaying text, I had to go to Gimp or PS, and things like optimization were easier and better online. Still maybe worth checking out the trial though, it's like 30 bucks now.

https://www.easygifanimator.net/

Oh, baby come to daddy (I am talking to that software, not to you. )

That's pretty much exactly the kind of dumbed-down and special-purpose functionality I wanted. I will investigate this in the next few weeks and report back.

What kinds of optimization were missing from this software that you found easier to do online?

 

[Smores]

for a 320x180p gif I'm using a FPS rate of 10. Square pixels, field rate is progressive.

For those of us who do not live in video tools, maybe you could talk about the value of using square pixels and progressive field rates, relative to GIF as the output?

 

[LaceyRoyce]

For those of us who do not live in video tools, maybe you could talk about the value of using square pixels and progressive field rates, relative to GIF as the output?

Nope.

Dude I was dating who did video editing professionally set it up... and I dont fix what ain't broke. I'd ask him, but hes blocked.

 

[justjoinedtopost]

What kinds of optimization were missing from this software that you found easier to do online?

Well first off I was using an older cracked version, not sure about this new one but it looks better.

As far as optimizing, I don't remember it coming close to the options available online. https://ezgif.com/optimize for that...

Then there was overlaying static text on an animated gif; had to use Gimp for that.