Animated .gif

 

I'm trying to understand why my animated.gif doesn't work in this forum. Anyone have any suggestions?

If you are speaking of your

If you are speaking of your avatar it is working fine. I see a wolf running.

--
Garmin Nüvi 265WT,Software Ver. 7.00, City Navigator North America NT 2010.30

.

Weird. I see a clown tap dancing.

looks good to me

Looks good to me!

--
Unless you are the lead sled dog, the view never changes. I is retard... every day is Saturday! I still use the Garmin 3590 LMT even tho I upgraded to the Garmin 61 LMT. Bigger screen is not always better in my opinion.

GIFs on most message board

GIFs on most message board websites will stop after a few minutes. Maybe you looked at the GIF after the page had been open for a while.

--
Politicians and Diapers must be changed often for the exact same reason...

Yes, I too see the wolf

weebl wrote:

If you are speaking of your avatar it is working fine. I see a wolf running.

And a fine looking wolf at that:)

--
You can walk a horse to water, but a pencil has to be led.

Hmmm. The concesus is

Hmmm. The concesus is everyone sees my road dog running under the moon. That's good. What's strange is I don't see anything but a static gif. I do see all the animated gifs perfectly from other members though. Well... I'm not going to worry about it. I have to study the POI file formats and figure out what to use for my Nuvi 750 CSV or GPX. Maybe both? BTW, I did find a POI file on the Nuvi 750. It came preloaded with the Mad Maps Route 66 POI. Like an idiot I followed some instructions on the Garmin site and managed to delete the Mad Maps Route 66 POI. Now I just have an empty POI file on my Nuvi. Maybe I can find it here or maybe on the Mad Maps site.

don't blame the forums

koot wrote:

GIFs on most message board websites will stop after a few minutes. Maybe you looked at the GIF after the page had been open for a while.

If this is really true for you (and I'm finding more and more things reported in this forum to be inaccurate), then it is not the doing of "most message boards". The boards don't keep downloading the frames, an animated gif contains all of the frames in one file. It also contain information about how long each frame should be displayed and how many times the sequence should repeat (this last is usually infinitely but could be as low as one). It is extremely unlikely that any board would modify an avatar file to change the number of cycles that an avatar should cycle through, so if you are actually seeing many boards cycle multiple times and then stop you should suspect your display program (browser).

Similarly, if the original poster isn't seeing the animation, he should check the gif in a known good viewer (I suggest the great free image viewer IrfanView) and confirm that the animation works there. You should also be able to right click on the avatar in the browser and save it, then confirm that it still works by looking at it in a viewer. The likely fix for the original poster's problem is to use a different browser (I suggest Firefox) or to check his browser settings to see if animations are disabled.

You fail to realize

Frovingslosh wrote:
koot wrote:

GIFs on most message board websites will stop after a few minutes. Maybe you looked at the GIF after the page had been open for a while.

If this is really true for you (and I'm finding more and more things reported in this forum to be inaccurate), then it is not the doing of "most message boards". The boards don't keep downloading the frames, an animated gif contains all of the frames in one file. It also contain information about how long each frame should be displayed and how many times the sequence should repeat (this last is usually infinitely but could be as low as one). It is extremely unlikely that any board would modify an avatar file to change the number of cycles that an avatar should cycle through, so if you are actually seeing many boards cycle multiple times and then stop you should suspect your display program (browser).

Similarly, if the original poster isn't seeing the animation, he should check the gif in a known good viewer (I suggest the great free image viewer IrfanView) and confirm that the animation works there. You should also be able to right click on the avatar in the browser and save it, then confirm that it still works by looking at it in a viewer. The likely fix for the original poster's problem is to use a different browser (I suggest Firefox) or to check his browser settings to see if animations are disabled.

You fail to realize that some websites have software that controls the number of repetitions animated GIFs are allowed. With such software you can elect to allow the animated GIFs to cycle through each frame just once and then stop, allow it to loop forever...or stop the animation at "x" repetition.

--
Politicians and Diapers must be changed often for the exact same reason...

You fail to realize

koot wrote:

You fail to realize that some websites have software that controls the number of repetitions animated GIFs are allowed. With such software you can elect to allow the animated GIFs to cycle through each frame just once and then stop, allow it to loop forever...or stop the animation at "x" repetition.

Yes, I fail to realize that. In fact I still fail to believe it. Since the website doesn't resend anything to make the animation happen, why would any website modify a gif just so that it stops after X cycles? Can you post the address of any such site?

I'm certainly not saying that some sites don't have gifs of their own where they have set the number of animation cycles to display to a set number, some artist do indeed like to create some gifs that way. And similarly if a user created and uploaded an avatar with a fixed number of cycles of an animation, then the site would certainly download it and the avatar would display for a fixed number of cycles. But if a normal animated avatar set for unlimited animation cycles is uploaded to a site, it should display for an unlimited number of cycles, or the cause of it to stop is the browser, not the website.

Here's one for you

I have 3 computers. All are running Firefox 3.5.3.

The operating systems are Vista Home Premium, XP Pro, and Windows 7 Ultimate RC. All are updated with the latest service packs and security downloads.

On the Vista and Windows 7 machines I see my avatar as an animated GIF of an EYE but see no animation, just the eye.

On the XP machine a see the avatar as an animated GIF of an astronaut holding an American Flag.

Before you ask, all 3 machines have been rebooted and at one time or the other I have uploaded both the gif files to the poi-factory site.

I'm wondering firstly what do you folks see and secondly any ideas about how different machines would show different gifs.

--
Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.

here's the fix

t923347 wrote:

....On the Vista and Windows 7 machines I see my avatar as an animated GIF of an EYE but see no animation, just the eye.

On the XP machine a see the avatar as an animated GIF of an astronaut holding an American Flag.

Before you ask, all 3 machines have been rebooted and at one time or the other I have uploaded both the gif files to the poi-factory site......

I'm seeing the eye. I downloaded the eye and it seems to be a single frame gif, so no animation is seen or expected.

Here's my theory on what may be going wrong for you: While a website can detect the OS and / or browser and download different images based on that information, there would be no reason for POI factory to do that. What is much more likely is that one or two of your systems have the older image in their browser cache and so when you view the image with that browser on that system, you don't download the newer image and the browser just displays the old image. Since you're using firefox, here is how to clear the cache: In the menus select Tools > Options > Advanced > Network - In the Cache section click "Clear Now" . Please let me know if this helps.

If you expect the eye to be animated, why? How did you create it? As far as I can tell it is not an animated gif.

Not to worried

I'm not to worried about the eye. It's suppose to flash so it makes it look like it's blinking. Works fine in Irfanview but not on this site. No biggy but if you have a suggestion I'm all ears or eyes smile.

I'll clear the caches out on all the units and see if that at least gets them all showing the same gif.

Thanks to the suggestions.

UPDATE - clearing the cache has now made all 3 units show the same gif. Thanks.

--
Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.

FYI

At one point in the past your Gif was flashing.

I do recall seeing it flash but not now.

--
Garmin Nüvi 650, 255WT

Here it is

t923347 wrote:

I'm not to worried about the eye. It's suppose to flash so it makes it look like it's blinking. Works fine in Irfanview but not on this site. No biggy but if you have a suggestion I'm all ears or eyes smile.

I'll clear the caches out on all the units and see if that at least gets them all showing the same gif.

Thanks to the suggestions.

UPDATE - clearing the cache has now made all 3 units show the same gif. Thanks.

If you want to check the 'eye out there is one at:

http://www.webdeveloper.com/animations/e.html

--
Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.

Thanks for the feedback

t923347 wrote:

I'm not to worried about the eye. It's suppose to flash so it makes it look like it's blinking. Works fine in Irfanview but not on this site. No biggy but if you have a suggestion I'm all ears or eyes smile......

UPDATE - clearing the cache has now made all 3 units show the same gif. Thanks.

Glad to hear that clearing the caches resolved the issue, although that really was about the only thing that it could be.

The eye that is attached to your post does not seem to be an animated GIF. When I saved it from Firefox I got a 6K gif file named picture-20843.gif. That file does NOT blink in IrfanView. How big is the file that does blink? I suspect that POI factory has the wrong version of the file, and that if you upload the blinking GIF file again, and clear your cache, you will see it start blinking. Other users may have to wait for the cache to expire or clear their cache to see it start blinking after you do a new upload.

"Eyeflash" animated GIF

--
Politicians and Diapers must be changed often for the exact same reason...

That's what wierd

Frovingslosh, the gif I downloaded is the one that Koot notes above. It's called eyeflash.gif. It works fine in Irfanview and in Window's Picture and Fax Viewer.

This is the file I uploaded to POI-Factory:

C:\Documents and Settings\xxxxxxxxx\Desktop\eyeflash.gif

yet here is what it shows as in POI-Factory:

http://www.poi-factory.com/files/pictures/picture-20843.gif

The file I upload is 15KB in size while the one that gets listed is 6KB.

I have no idea what is happening confused

--
Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.

The Eyeflash GIF you want

The Eyeflash GIF you want (and uploaded to POI-Factory) has a frame count of "3", meaning there are three frames in the animation. However, this GIF on the POI-Factory website has a frame count of only "1". Thus, there is no animation on POI-Factory's website.

You can check this yourself by right clicking on the original image ( http://www.webdeveloper.com/animations/bnifiles/eyeflash.gif ) and choosing "Properties", then "Summary". (You'll see the number of "Frames" the GIF has is 3.) To check the GIF on this website; Save As your Eyeflash GIF from the POI-Factory website to your My Pictures folder...and choose "Properties", then "Summary". (You'll see the number of "Frames" the GIF has is only 1.) The original GIF has 3 frames, but only 1 frame on the website.

Note: This is what I was telling "Frovingslosh" (above) - just because an original animated GIF has "x" properties does not mean that after it's loaded on a message board/forum website it will have the same "x" properties.

--
Politicians and Diapers must be changed often for the exact same reason...

stopped animation

Hitting ESC key will make your animated gif stop. Also some addons for firefox and stop animated gifs from playing.

Called Avitars.

This was discussed many months ago, how to do it and the size of it. click on the link and read thru it and it will answer a whole lot.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/16132

--
Jerry...Jacksonville,Fl Nüvi1450,Nuvi650,Nuvi 2495 and Mapsource.

Thanks for the link

Thanks for the link. Turns out my problem was the gif was 95 x 95. When I resized it and uploaded it again it works as advertized.

Now that I see it I don't think I like it flashing but at least I know how to do it now.

Thanks again.

--
Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.

try clearing history

If your browser has an old avatar in cashe that is what you will see...if you clear history you will see what is new...

--
Dave_ Nuvi 660 , 760,1490LMT Wooster, Ohio

keep them coming.

keep them coming.

Hand me the hammer.

I just want to know where all you clever folks get these (usually) animated avatars?

I would love something more interesting than a dumb static tank - perhaps a moving tank.... Is there a library where you can "liberate" a design you like or does it have to be another DYI project?

Check your Email & reply & I'll send you a few

DFSNapa wrote:

I just want to know where all you clever folks get these (usually) animated avatars?

I would love something more interesting than a dumb static tank - perhaps a moving tank.... Is there a library where you can "liberate" a design you like or does it have to be another DYI project?

No need to tank me either...

--
You can walk a horse to water, but a pencil has to be led.

That's not what you were claiming

koot wrote:

...Note: This is what I was telling "Frovingslosh" (above) - just because an original animated GIF has "x" properties does not mean that after it's loaded on a message board/forum website it will have the same "x" properties.

Websites that allow avatars almost always limit the size. This is important to do, as you don't want someone with a 8x10 inch avatar or an animated avatar that takes hundreds of megs of space and shows an entire motion picture. So forums will limit file stpace and many will resize avatars that are larger than what they permit (others may just reject oversized avatars). What is happening here is that the forum is trying to resize the avatar, but it is actually only making a new gif of the first frame. So the new gif is not what was uploaded and is not animated.

I have no doubts that forums may resize a gif and the simple way that is done replaces an animated gif with a satic one. But what I questioned and says does not happen is the claim that an animated gif that is created to cycle infinately is ever replaced by a forum with another animated gif that cycles for a limited number of times and then stops automatically. That was the original claim and that just does not happen.

The animated blink shown above certainly does blink too fast. But there is software that allows for the creation of animated gifs and such software should allow you to set the time that each frame of the animation is displayed. This blink animation could be "fixed" simply by slowing it down and by displaying the open eye image for a much longer time than the other images.

good

Glad to see we're all good now smile

Many animated GIFs on this thread smile

Lots Here

DFSNapa wrote:

I just want to know where all you clever folks get these (usually) animated avatars?

I would love something more interesting than a dumb static tank - perhaps a moving tank.... Is there a library where you can "liberate" a design you like or does it have to be another DYI project?

There are ton of them at http://www.webdeveloper.com/animations/

Also a Google search of "free animated gif" will get you lots more.

As the folks here have been so helpful with the problem I was having, I'll point out the one thing that made all the difference for me - run your gif file through http://www.gifworks.com/image_editor.html and make sure you resize the one you pick to 85 x 85 pixels.

--
Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.

Suggest Software

Frovingslosh wrote:

The animated blink shown above certainly does blink too fast. But there is software that allows for the creation of animated gifs and such software should allow you to set the time that each frame of the animation is displayed. This blink animation could be "fixed" simply by slowing it down and by displaying the open eye image for a much longer time than the other images.

Being new to this, I was wondering if there is a particular software program you'd recommend to create and modify animated gif files?

--
Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.

gif software

t923347 wrote:
Frovingslosh wrote:

The yada yada yada ...

Being new to this, I was wondering if there is a particular software program you'd recommend to create and modify animated gif files?

It has been a very long time since I've had occasion to make animated Gifs. Assuming that you want free software and are using the Windows platform, one of the tools that I used was Animagic. There was another that I can't recall the name of, and I honestly can't remember the benefits of each contrasted to the other. So Animagic might be a place to start, it still seems to exists. But I hardly know what is currently available and their certainly might be better choices that were not even options when I was making animated gif files. Google is your friend, a few searches should turn up a lot.

SPAM...spam...spam...spam

Yo kind and gentile Rayzers,
I have replied (2X), but keep getting bounced by your security settings - yikes! I will try again with another account as I really do want to take advantage of your generosity!

Yours in SPAM protection,
DFSNapa

hummmm, I have looked in my spam folder

and nothing there DFSNapa. What kind of message are you getting? I have the normal spam filters, but nothing special.

Try Emailing Rayzers@Comcast.net
Hope this works for you

tanks a lot:)

--
You can walk a horse to water, but a pencil has to be led.

Another e-missive is on its way...

I will try from another e-mail account.

Nice avatar - I wish I had one like that!

Tanks for hanging in there with me on this.

Cheers,

You have Email DFSNapa...

And a few to select from.

--
You can walk a horse to water, but a pencil has to be led.

Animated Gif's

Send me your email address and I will send you a custom made just for you POI Factory Animated gif.

This holds true for anyone else, just give me a clue to the direction of what you want. They will all be branded to be used on the POI Factory.

--
Using Android Based GPS.The above post and my sig reflects my own opinions, expressed for the purpose of informing or inspiring, not commanding. Naturally, you are free to reject or embrace whatever you read.

Cool Bob

BobDee wrote:

Send me your email address and I will send you a custom made just for you POI Factory Animated gif.

This holds true for anyone else, just give me a clue to the direction of what you want. They will all be branded to be used on the POI Factory.

Bob, you are so awesome;) I always get a kick out of your new avatars.

Miss POI

Ho Ho Ho

miss poi wrote:
BobDee wrote:

Send me your email address and I will send you a custom made just for you POI Factory Animated gif.

This holds true for anyone else, just give me a clue to the direction of what you want. They will all be branded to be used on the POI Factory.

Bob, you are so awesome;) I always get a kick out of your new avatars.

Miss POI

No kidding! I am like a kid at Christmas, waiting for what Santa Bob will send me....

I'm a big boy now!

Thanks Bob... It goes BOOM!!!!

grin grin grin

Comment

Rayzers wrote:
DFSNapa wrote:

I just want to know where all you clever folks get these (usually) animated avatars?

I would love something more interesting than a dumb static tank - perhaps a moving tank.... Is there a library where you can "liberate" a design you like or does it have to be another DYI project?

No need to tank me either...

That's a real sharp comment Rayzers! grin

--
Peter

I nominate BobDee to be honored as "Contributor Of The Week"...

miss poi wrote:

Bob, you are so awesome;) I always get a kick out of your new avatars.

Miss POI

I nominate BobDee to be honored as "Contributor Of The Week"...

--
Politicians and Diapers must be changed often for the exact same reason...

It would appear that you

petlaur wrote:
Rayzers wrote:
DFSNapa wrote:

I just want to know where all you clever folks get these (usually) animated avatars?

I would love something more interesting than a dumb static tank - perhaps a moving tank.... Is there a library where you can "liberate" a design you like or does it have to be another DYI project?

No need to tank me either...

That's a real sharp comment Rayzers! grin

Are doggin' me here with that comment Petlaur:)

--
You can walk a horse to water, but a pencil has to be led.

hahahahahahahaha

Cool breakfast and a little comedy;) Great way to start a Sunday morning.

You guys crack me up.

Miss POI

,

Miss POI, is there any way within the forum software that users can select to not view animated avatars?

Do they drive you crazy too?

Motorcycle Mama wrote:

Miss POI, is there any way within the forum software that users can select to not view animated avatars?

Do they drive you crazy too?

--
Politicians and Diapers must be changed often for the exact same reason...

.

Yes. Can't stand them.

Site Face lift

Motorcycle Mama wrote:

Miss POI, is there any way within the forum software that users can select to not view animated avatars?

We are currently working on a face lift for the site. The forum structure will look much different.

The Avatars will be to the left of the screen, separate from the posts so you will be able to manipulate the size of your screen and scroll them off the page.

That is what I am planning on doing. They do strain the eyes after a while.

Miss POI

.

Thanks, Miss POI. You are awesome! smile

Winking Eye

You mean my winking eye will get a shot of Murine and I will no longer be inflicted.

Gary Hayman

--
Garmin DriveSmart 61 LMT-S, Prev.GPSs: Drive61 LM, nuvi 3790LMT, 755T & 650, GPSIII+, SP 2610, 250W; Magellan 2200T; Originator of GARMIN NUVI TRICKS, TIPS, WORKAROUNDS, HINTS, SECRETS & IDEAS http://bit.ly/GARMIN-TNT

and I can no longer shake my stick

ghayman wrote:

You mean my winking eye will get a shot of Murine and I will no longer be inflicted.

Gary Hayman

"And I can no longer shake my stick" Now that statement can be taken several ways depending on where your mind is.

--
ɐ‾nsǝɹ Just one click away from the end of the Internet

Haha

miss poi wrote:

Cool breakfast and a little comedy;) Great way to start a Sunday morning.

You guys crack me up.

Miss POI

Miss POI, did you have eggs for breakfast yesterday?...and to Rayzers, you're such a "Joker.":) That's it I better stop right there.

--
Peter