New GIF Optimization Operators, and Tutorial

[anthony]

After much work, I have finally completed my new GIF animation Optimization Operators, as well has the tutorial on these new operators and GIF optimization in general on the IM example pages.

Automatic Optimization of GIF Animations
http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~anthony/graph ... /#optimize

Why.. Because -deconstruct was never really designed with GIF optimization in mind. Sure it works, but only if transparency was not involved. The new operator -layers Optimize does work correctly for all forms of transparency, and as a bonus attempts to pick the best GIF dispose method to use for the optimization.

Another operator -layers OptimizePlus is more evasive in that it will add and remove extra frames (without modifying the animation timings) to the animation to try and optimize the animation even better, using a 'frame doubling optimization' technique.

This extra operator will hopefully be available in the next point release of IM,
perhaps this weekend.

There are even more operators that are planned, to help handle animations in general, such as more layer comparision functions, and operators to help merging two or more existing animations. These will be released in a couple of months when I next get time to implement them.

Discussion and Feedback (here) on the above new operators and tutorial is welcome.