How to minimise the size of an animation
There are various formats of files which range from .avi
for video files and .jpg in terms of image files and each is different in the
size and quality. When creating an animation, lots of layers, frames and images
are utilised it. When finished, the final size usually is quite substantial.
Image quality can be reduced to compress the file but
this does mean there will be a loss in the overall quality. If retaining the
high quality is required then it may be useful to looking into lossless
compression where in some cases can reduce file size, yet keep the high
quality.
Frame disposal – This approach utilises a software such
as Adobe Photoshop to reduce its file size through removing unnecessary frames
which are declared unrequired for the final animation. It removes the current
frame when the next frame is played. This restricts previous frame images from
appearing in repeated frames. If this is initiated, then it will remove the
previous frames after they have been played, thus reducing the time needed to
play the frame as well as the overall file size, as less data needs to be
stored at once. A disadvantage to using this is that it may remove frames that
will be noticeable which means not the ideal method for high quality
animations.
Frame disposal was
utilised here to remove the extra giraffes so that only one giraffe is in each
frame rather than it increasing by one each frame. This will reduce the file
size even though the giraffe is still visibly present.
Auto crop – This method allows
you to remove everything from the frame except the image(s) and allow to keep
that isolated so that it appears more natural and easier on the eyes. This means
arears such as white space can be removed since they are not required. This
allows for the final image size to be reduced as less colours and overall data
is needed to be stored. However, a downside to auto crop is that it may
automatically delete parts of the image which were meant to be kept.
Resolution – The higher the
resolution, the more pixels have to be stored in the file, which leads to increasing
the file size significantly. If you want to keep the file size to a minimum,
then a resolution must be chosen where the quality is good enough for the
animation and its images but at the same time not too high so the file size
drastically rises.
Frame Rate – increasing the
frame rate allows an animation to run much smoother, but this comes at a cost
being a higher file size therefore you have to be conscious of the limit you
can have in terms of file size yet have a good frame rate.
Sound – If your animation is
accompanied with sound then of course this will increase the file size since
there is now more data than without sound and the more sound implemented then
the higher the file size travels. Therefore, you have to consider whether you
can sacrifice more file size for sound within your animation.
