How to export irregular shaped comp for GIF?

[Deaf_Guy]

I've created a comp in the dimensions of 666x253 (because that size fits my web page perfectly).  The idea is to make the comp then make an animated GIF.

I made all graphics and made the animation and in AE it looks great:

I tried to do that QT rewrap but am getting an error message, so I thought - just export all of the frames as uncompressed PNG's and then bring them into PSD and make the GIF there.

I can't seem to get it to work:

Note the image is pixelly and jagged.  Also when it's in Encoder it keeps wanting to make the dimensions smaller (something like 222x something) so I have to go in and uncheck match and then type in 666x253.  When I do that the result is above PNG's with jaggedy images.

Can someone tell me what I need to do to get this to work?  Thanks.

[Roei Tzoref · Accepted solution]

1. render straight from Ae as Quicktime Animation

2. drag the file to Photoshop

3. save for web (file->export->save for web)

4. choose a GIF preset and tweak to satisfaction

[Deaf_Guy]

This works beautifully Roei.  Thanks so much.

[Warren Heaton]

If you find you need to do this often, check out GifGun (GifGun - aescripts + aeplugins - aescripts.com).  This script lets you do everything from within AE.

Of course, you'll save $30 by doing it though PS.  Although, you might be able to get by with the demo version. (It's fully functional, but limits some options.)

[Rick Gerard]

One advantage to creating a gif in Photoshop is that you can assign a duration to a single frame. GifGun can't do that.

That means that in many gif's for web banners you can have a graphic or some text hold for 15 seconds using just one frame. Then you use the next 10 or 20 frames for a transition. This will reduce the size of your gif's significantly. A 40 second gif could have under fifty frames instead of 300 or more and you couldn't tell the difference when it was playing back. You'll also get a lot better interpolation of the colors in Photoshop. Just my 2¢...