apngasm - a kickstarter project

cecilia · **Posted:** Sat Aug 17, 2013 10:32 am **(#1)**

I was looking through kickstarter and found this: apngasm

Since this may become available for GIMP I figured everyone here would like to keep track of the progress. It's already funded. :jumpclap

lylejk · **Joined:** Sep 24, 2010 **Posts:** 12845

I believe GIMP already can create aPNG files but you have to download a plugin as I recall. Since I use IE (I know; don't spiel on me; lol), I cannot see aPNG animations unfortunately.

GnuTux · **Posted:** Sat Aug 17, 2013 10:57 am **(#3)**

Thanks for the info, cecila. That looks like an interesting project. The problem that I have with APNG is that the file sizes grow quickly, the more complex the animation. Maybe they will come up with some better compression techniques, which will help out in that area.

I remember that MaxST was working on the APNG plugin for GIMP and started a thread about compiling it for windows. He hasn't been around in awhile so I'm not sure what the current status of the plug-in might be.

I created a little tutorial on how to compile it for Linux but I haven't added it to my Fedora 19 + GIMP 2.8 just yet. The tutorial should still be valid. Although, it might require a few tweaks to compile clean on a given distro.

K1TesseraEna · **Joined:** Sep 22, 2012 **Posts:** 2089 **Location:** US

Primary goal seems like reinventing the wheel. APNG Anime Maker already has it all - frame-rate editor, optimization tool, control over
compression level [the last two decrease apng file size significantly].
'Stretch goals' seems more promising though.

@Lyle apng plugin for GIMP simply does not cut it. Can't even make variable frame delay, not to mention giant file size.

I've read and done everything about APNG. I'm afraid, I can't share author's enthusiasm.
APNG does not have an official status (read support), it has lots of limitation, and I'm not talking about browser support here.
For security purposes the majority of user-defined content websites don't allow apng's as they can see only first or last frame.
Thank goodness, GC not one of them :bigthup

What the author says about WepB isn't correct at all. If I had to make my bet I'd put all my money on animated WebP.

cecilia · **Posted:** Sat Aug 17, 2013 11:26 am **(#5)**

As I understand it from my brief reading they wish to encourage PNG and PNG animation use on the web. I think we are mostly good with that.

As we know only two browsers at present support PNG animation by default - Opera and FF

Chrome seems to be getting a plug-in soon.
In any case I'll be interested to see how far this project goes.

GnuTux · **Posted:** Sat Aug 17, 2013 11:35 am **(#6)**

K1TesseraEna wrote:

Primary goal seems like reinventing the wheel. APNG Anime Maker already has it all

Is this open source? Cross platform? Are they keeping the "wheel" hidden? :mrgreen:

K1TesseraEna · **Joined:** Sep 22, 2012 **Posts:** 2089 **Location:** US

cecilia wrote:

As I understand it from my brief reading they wish to encourage PNG and PNG animation use on the web. I think we are mostly good with that.

As we know only two browsers at present support PNG animation by default - Opera and FF

Chrome seems to be getting a plug-in soon.
In any case I'll be interested to see how far this project goes.

Chrome has apng extension for 2 years now.
Can't force web sites to accept file formats that they consider 'not safe',
project guys don't/can't change apng specs to make it completely transparent (read safe) like gifs.
Porting to C++ and Java libs, SVG conversion, cross platform authoring tool are all good but don't get you past this issue.
Web apps to assemble/disassemble apng on android devices? Priority class for this is very low. Maybe just yet.

K1TesseraEna · **Joined:** Sep 22, 2012 **Posts:** 2089 **Location:** US

GnuTux wrote:

K1TesseraEna wrote:

Primary goal seems like reinventing the wheel. APNG Anime Maker already has it all

Is this open source? Cross platform? Are they keeping the "wheel" hidden? :mrgreen:

I can't find any license information, Softpedia defines it as Freeware, which of course, doesn't mean it's OpenSource.
As for cross platform applicability I want to refer to Wine and other apps to run windows programs on other OS's. At least that's what I hear as an argument from Linux users when I say I can't use 3ds MAX on Linux. And we are talking about 1MB apng maker here.

Rod · **Joined:** May 16, 2010 **Posts:** 16173

You can find an older windows ( no GUI) and Linux versions here.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/apngasm/

And the home page.
http://apngasm.sourceforge.net/

Windows version of APNG Anime Maker can be found here.
http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=2367

There is also JAPNG Editor (Java based)
http://www.softsea.com/review/JapngEditor.html

GnuTux · **Posted:** Sat Aug 17, 2013 12:19 pm **(#10)**

That's not the "APNG Anime Maker" K1 was referring to, Rod. I was wondering if that app was open source but I don't think it is.

YAFU · **Joined:** Nov 09, 2011 **Posts:** 726

K1TesseraEna wrote:

What the author says about WepB isn't correct at all. If I had to make my bet I'd put all my money on animated WebP.

I agree.
I think the animations for the web should be able to use a lossy compressed format. GIF and APNG are heavy to load. Sometimes you may lose your patience waiting for one of those animations completely load.
K1TesseraEna already know. But for those who have not seen the thread, here I had made a size comparison you can save with WebP, with a very good quality:
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=6889

GnuTux · **Posted:** Sat Aug 17, 2013 1:18 pm **(#12)**

I'm in the camp that whatever produces the highest quality images, with the smallest file sizes, should be the standard. I really don't care what the format is, as long as it is efficient and a fully open format. We certainly don't want anything that's as bloated and proprietary as Flash/SWF animations.

YAFU, I'd be surprised if they can create a hi-res/hi-color format with a smaller footprint that GIF, due the fact that the color depth of a GIF is effectively limited to 256 colors (although the format actually supports more colors). A format at 24 bit color depth is, more often than not, going to generate a file 2-3 times larger than an 8 bit color format, even with compression, and a minimum of 24 bit is really what is needed for smooth gradients.