Tutorial: Cheating Imageready to Drastically Lower Av Size (CS2)

Media Outlet Image Mishmash
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NOTE: This apparently only works for CS2

This is pretty simple and straight forward, but very effective if you wanna lower animated av sizes drastically.

Here’s the thing. Imageready is suck. The way it calculates image size is mind bogglingly (:l: yes it’s a word) stupid. There are 2 quick and slightly pain in the ass ways to make your av significantly smaller in size without losing any frames or quality. I’ll use the deadpool av template i just made for AvBrawl as an example. Now the av itself is…well im too lazy to count, but here it is. Count the frames:

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/6252/deadpoolfinal3.gif

Using the normal method, this would easily be over 80kb in size. Using my method, it’s under the 48kb limit.

There are 2 things you need to do, and don’t ask questions cuz i don’t know the fucking answer as to why it works like this…but it does.

First, estimate how many frames you will be using in your av. I estimated roughly 15-20 for my deadpool av. Now before you start making it, take the first frame and fill it with a solid color such as white or black. Duplicate that frame many times to whatever you estimated. (You can do this as you go along, but it takes longer so estimating is less frustrating.) The reason this lowers the size I’m guessing is because IR thinks you are using those frames and they do not cost a lot of kb in the process. Now why when you change the frame to what you want later it doesn’t jack up the kb I do not know…frankly i don’t care. MAKE SURE you save the file after duping all the estimated frames.

Second and most effective method:

After each frame you make, you will save the file (preferably in a new file each time to be safe so you don’t have to start over if you fuck up). I had about 25 saved files for that simple av above.

You will save each time you complete a frame, and then you MUST CLOSE the file and REOPEN it. Again, don’t ask why…but to illustrate the difference when you do this (and I assure you it works every time like this as I have tested with different avs):

This is our av starting out, notice the size:

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/3831/79455479.png

I saved the file, and reopened it to make a new frame. Notice the new size:

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/1721/14850219.png

I saved the file, BUT didn’t reopen it and added a new frame. Notice the size:

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/9234/92320950.png

Now because I already saved it and realized I forgot to reopen it, i simply close it and reopen that file and create the same new frame. Notice the size difference compared to the last pic. That’s an assload of kb you just saved:

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/5505/54737233.png

That’s pretty much it. There may be other ways of saving kb when using IR that I’m not aware of yet, and if you know of any feel free to post and I’ll add it on. This process may be a pain in the ass, but if you are looking to make a big av you need to use this. I’m assuming that you all know about reducing colors on the color table to save kb, but that’s last resort as you don’t wanna fuck up the quality. So this tut is purely based on saving kb without sacrificing anything. Enjoy
**
you fuck!**

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i didnt read through all this but im sure ill get back to this next time i work on an animated av. thanks a lot

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thanks for this. is there a way to apply this to photoshop cs4 extended? i don’t have imageready but I use pcs at my uni and try this out anyways.

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This i am unsure of, sav. Sorry. I still use XP with CS3 and IR

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Good stuff Hatz. I didn’t realize some of the “loopholes” or whatnot.

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ty, now that i think about it though im tryin to remember why i duped a colored bg and not just blank bgs. I’ll have to boot up imageready at work and test er out.

Oh shit, thanks for sticky worthless or quiche

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cheating tutorials are always welcome LOL

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By the by, I’m using ImageReady CS on OSX, and this makes no difference. It might be a glitch in the later version (I assume Hatz is using CS2) or it might be a Mac --> PC thing, but I’ve never had problems with ImageReady artificially inflating filesizes (I once made an avatar with 119 frames that was about than half the SRK filesize max)

Still, this might be useful for whoever uses the same configuration as Hatz.

…seriously.

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I’m using CS2. I should probly clarify that in the op. That pisses me off now that I have to go through all this work and the other versions aren’t suck. Might be time to upgrade.

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Can someone lower an AV for me plz? since Im using CS4 :bluu:\

EDIT: nvm lol