Issue W/ Path Quality

[gi3892564]

Hey All --

I am trying to take a vector .svg and make a simple .gif animation (with a transparent background) out of it in Gimp (attached). As you can see, the lines are quite jagged. I'm not sure why this is as the original .svg is quite smooth when viewed in an illustrator program. My process is as follows:

The attached gif is 4 frames, with each frame associated with a layer in Gimp. I imported each .svg as a set of paths to an active layer using the path dialogue box. For instance, frame 1 of the gif is the first layer with the paths imported into Gimp and then filled with white (using the "edit path" tool). Frame 2 is the second layer, with paths imported into Gimp, duplicative paths deleted, and the remaining path (the first light beam in this case) filled with white. Etc.

I only have a very surface-level understanding of this stuff, so I'm probably making a mistake somewhere along the way. But since this image is made up of paths that are quite smooth, I'm not sure why the final product is displaying as so jagged.

Any thoughts or help would be much appreciated! Thank you.

[rich2005]

Gimp is a raster (bitmap) editor where the image is composed of rectangular pixels. Any non-vertical / horizontal line is 'smoothed' using anti-aliasing, semi-transparent pixels giving a smoother impression. (look up anti-aliasing).

When an SVG is opened in Gimp it is converted from vector to raster (RGB mode)  (1)  anti-aliasing is added (2) (bg layer added for viewing). Display the svg in some other viewer (as your Illustrator) and the viewer gives its own interpretation of anti-aliasing (3).

   

 That is fine as long as the image remains RGB, however gif format is an indexed (4) colour mode (look it up) and transparency is either on or off. With a little white image as shown the anti-aliasing is reduced to OFF. (5)

   

Not much you can do with the animation as presented. Working in RGB mode a solid background needs incorporating so the anti aliasing is not lost. There goes the transparency you want.

   

   

Note: I show the gif export with a timing of 800 ms (as original) Very few browsers will display that timing, 300 ms maybe. If you need a slower display, double up each layer.

[Ofnuts]

(05-06-2021, 10:14 AM)rich2005 Wrote: If you need a slower display, double up each layer.

Didn't try, but adding an completely empty layer in "combine" mode could take less space.

[gi3892564]

Appreciate the help @Rich2005 and @Ofnuts -- thanks!