Cannot Import Animated Gif

[Social_Psyence]

Hi all. I have been following the Lynda tutorials for Captivate 5 for Mac, and I'm at the point where they are inserting animated .gif files. When I attempt to insert the image via Insert > Animation, and select the file I receive the message that "The file is not an animated GIF file", and then nothing imports to the stage.

I downloaded an animated .gif from the web and tried to import that, but same result. They both open up on Photoshop fine.

Can anybody help me with this issue?

[Lilybiri]

Hello,

Think you did not get an answer yet because no user on this forum has already had this issue. I just tried to insert an animated GIF without any problem. You said you could open it in Photoshop, can you see the animation there? If yes, try to republish from PS. I always create animations in PS, and they work fine in Captivate.

Lilybiri

[Pan_Ming]

Hi,

In my envirement...

If the animations frames set to "No Delay (0 Sec)" in PhotoShop, once import the GIF file to Captivate will get "The file is not an animated GIF file", if import the GIF file to Media Encoder will have problem too.

Please try set frames to 0.1 seconds at least

Pan Ming

[Ilianka]

I had the same problem. The gif can't be imported into Captivated unless it's generated in Photoshop. Also, Captivate crashes when the gif is too large.

[julmer40]

I just have the same problem with the *gif Animations. And Captivate crashes when I Import the Antimation.

[Lilybiri]

How did you create the GIF? And which version are you using?

[julmer40]

I found a way to open the GIF Animation. Thank you very much.

[Lilybiri]

Since this is a user forum, please post your solution! Maybe it could help some other users.

[christian lee]

I have this problem. I created my animated gif using Microsoft Cliplets. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks Chris

[RodWard]

The earlier posts in this thread explain the need to configure the Frame Delay setting for an animated GIF so that it is compatible with Captivate.

Does your application (Microsoft Cliplets) allow you to do that?

[christian lee]

Rod, many thanks for the advice. Cliplets has no option for export. On this occasion I have converted the GIF to an MP4 and it works fine.

[Just_Anythin]

I'm having a similar issue in Captivate 8 (64 bit - version 8.0.1.242).

I created an animated GIF in Photoshop CC (2014), using the video timeline. Duration is 5 seconds, 30 Frames per second. The animation is essentially 12 layers of text animated to move left and right across the screen, dimensions are 453x280 pixels. Some of the layers change opacity, some change layer effects (drop shadows, etc), I'm using a transparent background. The produced GIF is 1.6M in size. It plays fine when opened in IE 11 (11.0.9600.18015CO) and FF (38.2.0)

I have previously created animated gifs this way before and imported them to Captivate 8. I'm not sure if I have a setting messed up or what, but every time I try to import the gif Captivate crashes. I have several other animated GIFs imported to this Captivate project, some that I created myself, and others that I got from elsewhere.

My Photoshop Save for Web Settings are:

GIF

Perceptual

Diffusion

Tranparency (Checked)

No Tranparency Dither

Interlaced (tried it both checked and unchecked)

256 colors

Dither 100%

Matte: None

Amount: greyed out

Web snap (0%)

Lossy: greyed out

Convert to sRGB: Checked

Preview: Monitor Color

Metadata: Copyright & Contact Info

Image Size: 453 x 280 pixels

Quality: Bicubic

Looping: Tried it both Once and Forever

Some previous entries in other forums suggested to "ensure that Photoshop's frame duration is not at the default setting of 0." However, I don't see how to adjust frame duration in a timeline animation (as opposed to a frame animation). Again, I have a total duration of 5 seconds, and a frame rate of 30 frames per second. So I'm not sure if this is a Photoshop issue or a Captivate issue. Any ideas?

[Just_Anythin]

Ok, I got it to work.

What I did was to import the animation into the project via the Library:

1. Window > LIbrary (if not already open).
2. Select Media from the list under Name.
3. Then go to the Import icon (Above the Name header, but just below the Preview area - It looks like a folder with an arrow pointing into the folder).
4. Navigate to, and select, the animated gif (mine imported successfully).
5. Drag the gif from the library and drop it onto the slide.
6. Position it, set your timing and property settings, and save your work.

Initially, the Preview > Next X Slides did not show the animation working, but after a full publish to my hard drive, it did work in Preview mode, as well as when opening the entire course in the browser from the publish-folder.

My publish settings are (and this is largely due to my company's LMS and specific needs):

Publish as: HTML5/SWF

Project Title: as needed
Location: A folder on my hard drive
Publish to Folder: Selected

Output Format: Both HTML5 and SWF

Flash Player: 10

I always force re-publish all slides (and before I publish, I always delete the previous version). The rest is de-selected for this project.

I never take the option to view the output after publishing. I always navigate out to the publish-folder and open the multiscreen.html file.

[arashmaz]

This didn't work for me...

It just drops the gif into the images folder rather than the media folder.

Did it do the same for you or did it actually appear under 'Media' in the library?

[DaleValet]

I've been going through the same issues, experimenting with all the, well, experiments.

One thing I found for sure:

Give up on importing an animated GIF into Adobe Premier, Media Encoder, Flash, InDesign, Acrobat, or After Effects. (All of which were suggested.) Just import the animated GIF (I created my own with Photoshop) into PowerPoint. Run as a slideshow and then go to sleep because you won't have to worry about it again. Oh, and PPT supports transparencies in GIF animations, too. I would hope this would work in Keynote as well, but I have not tried.