25k is too small for making animated avatars, please consider making them larger.

50k would be a good size without it being too big IMO.

http://market.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=2658383&ebot_calc_page#message_2658383

More about this is in the thread at the link.

My vote is to leave well enough alone.
No need in having huge avatars, animated or not that go over 25k imo....it slows everything down. Some of us have already had to block image signatures that are rediculously large...I myself wouldn't want to have to block everyones avatars as well.

it's cool with me if they allow larger avatars, but I'd be happy either way :lol: if they made 'em only 10 kB, that would still be cool if one has a fab gif-animation, the best place for it is in the galleries IMVHO

jumpstartme2 the actual size of the avatars wouldn`t change.

I've replied to this in the Poser forum, but I'll reply here too.

I think 25K is sufficient for the file size given the dimension size of the avatars.

Even if they increased the file size to 50K or 80K, some people would try so hard to max out the file size only to find out that they are just a "wee bit over" and can't get their avatar to fit under the max limit so they will want it increased "just a little".

It would be never ending.

They have to draw a line at some point and I think 25K is more than sufficient in order to have an avatar. Be grateful that we can use our own. I know sites that only allow you to use whatever is in their avatar bank.

Better yet - Lets dump all the dull unecessary stuff, like avatars and quotes, and have them on a seperate page where anyone who is in the least bit interested in how many posts you have made can go and wallow in trivia!

A serious suggestion.

James

jumpstartme2 the actual size of the avatars wouldn`t change.

No..but the file sizes would eventually get out of hand, and then the PTB would call a halt to them altogether because everyone would then be complaining about site speed...Ditto what Acadia said.

The file size wouldn`t have to keep increasing, it could be made something like 50k then no more increases for any reason.

The avatars could be linked from another site so that they wouldn`t have to be stored at renderosity.

Sorry  Xantor, I just dont see a need for it to be more than 25k....On some boards I help mod, the limits are much smaller...some dont even allow animation...I think we are lucky to have avatars as they help show some personality of the posters :)

If you have a great animation, why not take MissNancy's suggestion and post it in a gallery?

50k avatars on a page with 9 posts would add almost half a meg to a downloaded forum page. It's a forum, not an art gallery. I'm already adblocking look-at-me sig images on a regular basis. I like the avatars, but let's keep things in proportion.

m ;)

The avatar file size will stay as it is, we won't be allowing larger file sizes.  Most of the reasoning has already been stated in some of the posts above:)

Good deal :) Thanks Stac

25 K is more than enough. There is a certain "art" in itself in learning how to make an optimum quality picture with low file size...

There is not a certain art to making an animation that fits in 25k.

I've been thinking about this thread for a while. I understand xantor's concerns very well but I also understand the issue of longer download times because of the larger file size. My best suggestions go to xantor. First of all one can reduce the diminsions of one's animation. One can also reduce the frame rate. Those are obvious - I'm 100% confident you know this. There are several ways to "optimize" files - including simply pressing buttons that say "Optimize for web." I don't know what you know about GIF files so I'll add the following: First of all, you can specify the number of colors that a GIF uses (at least in all the software for making animated GIF's that I know of). The less colors, the smaller the file size. I selected solid black and 100% green for my background so I could use more of my color palette on the Tormented Tot's color. Second, GIFs compress areas of flat color better than areas where there are continuous changes (JPGs handle the latter better). Once again, that impacted my choice of solid black or green. It's very possible that if you changed your background you could reduce your file size. You'd lose some aeshetics, but you may be able to keep the focus on the animation itself. If you had flat colored clouds or trees moving from left to right you may be able to keep the sense of movement but reduce colors and therefore file size. I suppose it would look like a 3d character walking across a Flash background. I'm assuming you've only done one loop of the walk so this probably isn't relevant to this specific animation, but for the sake of anyone else reading this... The timing of individual frames can also be changed in many animated GIF software packages. I made my Tot avatar hold certain frames for extended periods to stretch the animation out without adding frames. I hope I'm not coming across as condescending in any way. You've seen me around long enough to know that I'm a strong supporter of animation so hopefully you know I'm very sympathetic to your plight. I'm trying to be helpful. ;-)

If amusing mini-movie avatars annoy you and you have Firefox with adblock, set it to block

"http://market.renderosity.com/avatars/folder_1/*.gif"

That will block all GIFs, of course, but I'd guess most of the static avatars are JPG.

Bobosaur I already know how to optimize the animation and I did try, for the avatar, I didn`t really want the background to be too few colours, the background is almost as important as the figure with this animation.

No problem. ;-)

"Bobosaur I already know how to optimize the animation and I did try, for the avatar, I didn`t really want the background to be too few colours, the background is almost as important as the figure with this animation." Well, there you go. It's an animation, not an avatar. Why not put it somewhere appropriate for animations and use an avatar where an avatar is wanted? "There is not a certain art to making an animation that fits in 25k." When you're dealing with people on an internet forum board, oh yes, there is - big time. On a website specializing in showing off animations, however, then you'd be right.

Personally I'd like to see the avatar size at at least 130x130 pixels and up too 50k in size.

Then I wouldnt have too use photoshop's save for web feature everytiime I want to make an avatar.

Mikej it is an animated avatar, I called it an animation because it has moving pictures but it is still an avatar.

Putting it somewhere appropriate for animations would waste the point, it is supposed to be an avatar.

You cant always just make an animation fit 25k, the animation I made looked very rough at 4 colours and making the size smaller and less frames didnt help either. 

25k is a very reasonable avatar limit compared to most forums. We have finalized our decision on this issue. Avatars will continue to be restricted to 100x130 pixels and 25k. We will not be changing this at any time in the foreseable future.

Yes, I knew the avatars werent changing, I was just answering mikej`s post.

In any case, animated avatars are irritating and should be discouraged.

I've seen a couple posts where folks have said that animated avatars are "irritating" so I'd like to know whats so "irritating" about an animated avatar?

Personally I really like some of them. Particularly my own :b_grin:

I notice that most of the folks who gripe about the animated avatars have no problem whatsoever though, with animated smiley's.

Go figure......

Quote - The avatar file size will stay as it is, we won't be allowing larger file sizes.  Most of the reasoning has already been stated in some of the posts above:)

Jumps give me my glasses back! Apparently I must be blind, I see posts saying that they won't change the avatar sizes at all, but no reasoning for that decision.

Quote - ...but no reasoning for that decision.

Sure, there's been reasoning, In multiple places. If you have your posts limited to just ten per page (mine are at 20), and each post has a different 50K avatar, that's 500K (half a meg). And that's a lot of ifs. Lots of people have 30 or even 40 per page. We are being very liberal with our avatar size compared to most other sites. We will not be changing it. Nicholas

Quote - ...so I'd like to know whats so "irritating" about an animated avatar?

BDC, if you don't find animated avatars irritating then all the words in all the languages in all the bars in all the world couldn't explain it to you ;-). Just accept that for some people, having flickering things on a screen of otherwise still stuff is irritating (curse that flashing cursor ;-)).

Even though I hate them and boggle as to what makes them attractive, I find it easy to accept that some people really like the novelty avatars, dancing smilies and other stuff like signature marquees and embedded picture links. That's why I always prefer user options rather than site settings. As it is, this page could be full of the bloody things but I've chosen to take advantage of my options to not see them.

The Renderosity forums are more advanced than most in that respect.

.

Quote - [
BDC, if you don't find animated avatars irritating then all the words in all the languages in all the bars in all the world couldn't explain it to you ;-).
.

... but I will try. Animated avatars attract attention (which, of course they are meant to). When I'm trying to read a thoughtful post, I don't like it that my eye is continually being distracted towards a stupid flashing graphic halfway up the page. That is what is irritating.

Remember that you can switch avatars off if they annoy you.

I don't want to switch all avatars off. They are useful for navigating threads. I can scroll a thread rapidly and spot my contributions more easily.

I just dislike having things flashing in the corner of my eye when I'm trying to read something.

As for people putting huge animations in their signature blocks - ugh!

avatars animated or not, just don't distract me, I guess the ability to "tune them out" is not something we all have.

They don`t distract me, either.

What? Is this distracting you?

Well, there can be certain reasons for animated avatars, not just the want to create "flashing novelty"

Personally, I find my animated avatar as little bothering as possible, because I DO agree with the flashy stuff being a distraction. So I opted for a subtle animation on my own. The first version (from when we heard of an avatar size of - I think 150kb - ) was even more subtle because I could ise a fade feature to blend the changing text into each other - almost like a morph. Unfortunately I had to rethink by original idea when the size was finalized at 25kb.

Personally I'd like 100x100, 40 kb avatars. That would mean I could use all my (currently) 86 LiveJournal avatars here

Oh and before anyone balks - on LJ, avatars are ALSO used as smilies, to set the general mood of a post. Which is why you need/want so many :)

heh and.. yes, Mizrael, that dancing robot IS distracting :o)

Animated/blinking gif's are so 20th centaury yawn and annoying.

Now if you had a CSS hover: avatar, it would be up to the used to animate it and annoy their selves.

Better still maybe a static well made avatar that looks cool might be a good idea, 15k would be enough for that.

What can I say? I was a teenager during the Disco Era! :m_toocool: Not to worry, I change my avatars fairly often. I'm sure I'll render something with James or Clark soon that will take my fancy as Avatarable.