Recipe 2.7. Exporting Animated GIF Files

Problem

You want to use Flash to export an animated GIF.

Solution

Create your animation in the main timeline and then export the file as an animated GIF.

Discussion

Flash allows you to export your animations not only in SWF format, but in several other formats, including animated GIF files. As with single-frame GIF content, you can publish your animated GIFs in two ways. One way is to use the File Export Export Movie option. We'll call this method the export movie technique. The other way is using the publish settings techniquealmost identical to the publish settings technique described in Recipe 2.6.

The single advantage that the export movie technique offers over the publish settings technique is that it allows you to export an animated GIF from a timeline other than the main timeline. Otherwise, the publish settings technique is typically more advantageous. In order to export an animated GIF using the export movie technique, choose File Export Export Movie. The Export Movie dialog box opens. Choose the Animated GIF option from the "Save as type" menu. After you've entered the name (exp 3pod.com) of the file you want to export and clicked OK, you will be presented with the Export GIF dialog box. This dialog box is almost identical to the one you get when exporting a single-frame GIF file (see Recipe 2.5), but it also allows you to specify the number of times the animation sequence should run. A value of 0 causes the GIF to animate repeatedly until unloaded from the viewer. Otherwise, you can specify a positive integer value, to loop the animation a specific number of times.

You can export an animated GIF using the publish settings technique as well. The publish settings technique offers the advantage of allowing you to export the image file repeatedly with only the press of a key on the keyboard rather than having to navigate menu systems and so forth. It also allows you to export the animated GIF from a subrange of frames (though only from the main timeline) rather than the entire timeline. In order to export an animated GIF using the publish settings technique, first configure the publish settings appropriately. Choose File Publish Settings to open the Publish Settings dialog box. From the Format tab, select the GIF option. Select the GIF tab, and from the options for playback, choose the Animated radio button. When you select the Animated option, the additional suboptions are activated so that you can choose from them. By default, the animated GIF will loop playback continuously. You can, however, select the Repeat option and specify a number of times for the animation to repeat until it stops. After you've configured the GIF settings, you can press OK to close the Publish Settings dialog box, or select Publish to publish the GIF file. After you've set the publish settings, you can later publish the content at any point by simply pressing F12.

When you use the publish settings technique to publish your animated GIF, you can specify a subrange of frames on the main timeline for which to export the animation. By default, the entire timeline is used. However, if you add #First and #Last frame labels to the appropriate frames (on the main timeline only), Flash will export the animation between those frames, inclusive.

See Also

Recipe 2.6