Orpington Astronomical Society

Random Rambling Ruminations => PC Helpline => Topic started by: Carole on Jan 18, 2015, 11:53:00

Title: Adding gif files to the forum
Post by: Carole on Jan 18, 2015, 11:53:00
Not sure where to put this.

Before I get accused of hijacking Mark's thread thought I'd better start another one:

This is what he said when i asked how to add a movie to the forum:
QuoteAs for animations, for just a few frames I use animated GIF - the Animation Shop in PaintShopPro creates these.  For longer videos more compression is required so I use VirtualDub and choose one of the available Codecs.  I think some people use a Movie Maker download for Windows Media but I've never experimented with that.

I find uploading them to be a real pain because I get the video looking just as I want it and then YouTube/Vimeo compress it to death.  So now I store in in DropBox and publish the link.  The link again shows a video compressed to death but it does give the option to download the original and play it back on your own machine in the original full quality.

I have now created a Gif file which is much faster than the movie maker one I did on You tube.

But how do I add it to the forum and get it to show up as a working movie (like Mark has done with both the comet and the cone movies:

I can only see "attach an image", or "attach a URL" (which just comes up as the URL address) in the buttons above.
In attachments below there is no option to add a file?

Many thanks.

Carole
Title: Re: Adding gif files to the forum
Post by: Rick on Jan 18, 2015, 11:57:03
Animated GIFs are just GIFs with multiple frames and timing information embedded in them. Use the standard IMG tag.
Title: Re: Adding gif files to the forum
Post by: Carole on Jan 18, 2015, 12:05:25
OK thanks Rick but it's not a URL it's just a file.  Unless I upload it to the gallery first perhaps.  (Hmmm, it says the file is too big).

Really weird as YouTube says it a photo and not a movie when i try to add it to YouTube.  If I try creating the movie in You tube itself is does really weird things and I have the comet flying all over the place!!!!!!

Carole
Title: Re: Adding gif files to the forum
Post by: Rick on Jan 18, 2015, 12:22:19
It's an image like any other and to get it in the forum you'll have to treat it the same way. If it's too big for the gallery then try dropping it into imgur.com or similar...
Title: Re: Adding gif files to the forum
Post by: Carole on Jan 18, 2015, 12:26:46
QuoteIf I try creating the movie in You tube itself is does really weird things and I have the comet flying all over the place!!!!!!
Just look at what YouTube movie maker did to my frames!!!!!!

http://youtu.be/xw4YlRG41RU (http://youtu.be/xw4YlRG41RU)

Title: Re: Adding gif files to the forum
Post by: Carole on Jan 18, 2015, 13:22:50
Duh, it appears despite it saying make a movie, it created a slideshow, but doesn;t account for the comet moving in different directions!!!!

Anyway, thanks for your help Rick, I reduced the size of the individual frames and re-created the gif file and the gallery has now accepted it, and I've successfully uploaded my first gif file - yippee,  Here it is again if any-one has missed it on my comet thread.

(http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10047/Comet_Lovejoy_approx_38_mins_Smaller_file.gif)
Title: Re: Adding gif files to the forum
Post by: Mac on Jan 19, 2015, 09:45:40
nice.

Mac
Title: Re: Adding gif files to the forum
Post by: Carole on Jan 19, 2015, 12:00:33
Thanks Mac, got there in the end with posting it Lol.

Carole