File size & Browser Quality

[Jayemcee]

I am an experienced user of graphics software but I am new to Xara 3D, so I am assuming that I am doing something wrong.

I have a single word consisting of 7 characters. The animation is very simple, the word simply rotates in the horizontal axis. Via the "Window" Menu in X3D I have set the quality to "Highest" and in the "Export" dialog box I have set the palette to 256 colours.

When viewed in X3D the graphic is excellent, sharp colours, sharp edges, smooth animation - in fact perfect. But when viewed through a browser the graphic cannot be used professionally for 2 reasons:-

1. The file size is a wopping 4.5meg!! which would take forever to download if the user was connecting via a 56K modem

2. The quality is not of a professional standard principally because the colour rendition is not accurate and the edges are jagged. The animation is a bit off but is probably just acceptable.

Before I waste any more time could a more experience user please tell me if this software can be used professionally or is it just a bit of fun for the home user?

I use Xara X1 and Xara Webstyle both of which produce results which can be used in a professional environment, so I am a little confused as to why the results produced by X3D are so terrible.

I look forward to somebody telling me that I am doing something really dumb and stupid - because if you don't then I have just wasted $50 and about the same number of hours... http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/confused.gif

[Soquili]

Hi Jayemcee,

What frame size are you working with? How many frames in your animation. How many frames per second?


http://btaylor.50megs.com/images/batman.gif

[Jayemcee]

Hi Soquili

Setup is as follows:-

1. Frames per cycle 70 (rotation must be slow)
2. Frames per second 15
3. Animation : Rotate
4. Animation applied to : 7-char word only
5. Size. In the lower info bar at the right the information is 841 x 687 which is 57.8K pixels, however, an actual physical measurement with a pixel ruler in the browser gives 725 x 375 which is 21.1K pixels - less than half. Not sure why there is such a big difference.

Thanks

[Soquili]

Hi Jayemcee,

It looks like your frame size (725 x 375) is the cause of the large animation files. 21.1K pixels per frame X 70 frames = 1,477K not counting bits per pixel for colour. 1,477K X 8 bits per pixel for 256 colours would create a file of 11,816K or 11.8M. Fortunately Xara3D will only use colours actually in the image and reduce the file size a little.

Make your frame size smaller. You can also reduce the number of frames and the frames per second to achieve a slow animation.

[Egg Bramhill]

Hi Jayemcee

What on earth is a pixel ruler?

Whilst the display windows size will obviously effect the eventual file size, it isn't a fixed relation to the file size. If you animation screen has mainly white space say, with the animation being a tiny bit in the middle, then the gif algorithm will say 'hello there's an awful lot of white here, which we can compress'. This animation file will therefore have a lot smaller file size, than one that fills the display window with many different colours. So this type of pixel counting is pretty meaningless.

As Bill's already pointed out, there are many ways of reducing your file size.
1: Create the animated gif at a smaller size.
2: Use less frames per cycle. The animation won't be as smooth, but like all things web-wise it's a compromise between quality and download time.
3: Reduce the number of colours.
4: Use the Crop option whenever possible.
5: Try the animation without dithering.
6: Try it without the Palette options on.
7: Can you use Front Face only?

The Frames per second option has no effect on the file size, just the speed that it runs.

Egg

[Jayemcee]

http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif
Thanks guys, we are getting there! Putting all your suggestions to the test has resulted in a professional-quality graphic with an acceptable file-size.

Have tested in IE, Firefox, Opera et al and all return a good result. Very satisfied. Thanks again.

[Egg Bramhill]

Jayemcee
Good news. Still don't know what a pixel ruler is though?
Egg

[Jayemcee]

Sorry Egg... forgot to mention that in my last post.

A pixel ruler is a measure that will adjust itself automatically to the pixels of your monitor and then you can measure the exact pixel size of a graphic (or anything else) displayed on the monitor.

I use the one that is included in the MioToolbox. MioToolbox is one of those utilities that cost almost nothing and after a few months you wonder what you did without it.

You can find out about it here : http://www.mioplanet.com/products/miotoolbox/

Don't even think about it - just buy it, it really is worth its weight in virtual gold http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Egg Bramhill]

Jayemcee
Thanks for the link. This looks like a handy tool. Can't understand why you where getting different values tho?
Egg