Longtion GIF Animator 4.0 - User Guide and FAQ

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How GIF animation works

GIF animation takes advantage of the GIF format's built-in capabilities to store and display more than one image file. Unlike conventional film its speed is defined by the speed of the film, each image has an associated set of controls that dictate how, when, and for how long the image is displayed on the screen.

The animation produced by the GIF file is produced in exactly the same manner as the method used in film: motion is created by rapidly displaying a sequence of similar images. While the production methods in both filmmaking and GIF animation differ greatly in effects, the result is the same - still images are brought to life before your eyes.

Color palettes

Every GIF image file contains within it an index table that defines the number of colors an image contains and the colors each index represents. Every color in the 256-color 'spectrum' has its own unique identification which is stored in the image's color index (the color palette). In GIF files, every color in the index requires 3 or 4 bytes of data to define it (depending on how it was originally stored). An image with a 256-color palette may have a color index up to 1024 bytes long.

There are two kinds of palettes for animated GIFs: a Global Palette, which defines the use of colors in every image of the animation; and a Local Palette, which is unique to each frame in the file. The Global Palette is useful in decreasing the overall file size when the colors used by each frame are all virtually the same. When the colors vary greatly from frame to frame the Local Palette can be used to retain the overall image quality. However, it does increase the file size.



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