A GIF file can only address a maximum of 256 colors for all pixels. So it is crucial to let the essential colors in each frame of the animation very neatly fit into the Color Lookup Table(CLUT) of the complete GIF file.

Some close-ups of your animation show how coarsely dithered the color blends actually are, due to the restricted number of colors:

And this is the CLUT of the whole animated GIF file:

Because of its reduced visual size (the original is 2880 square pixels) these artefacts aren't perceived so quickly. But the large size plus intensity dithered pixels pose another problem: it's a relatively large file size (almost 700 KB), making it slow to download. And these are just a few frames. Imagine how large and/or coarse a smooth video would be...

That's why GIF is a failing file format for decent photorealistic qualities in images, animations, and videos.

But... it's the only animation or video we can create and publish easily, because it goes under the cloak of an "image". Many websites don't allow the uploading of any high-quality animations and videos. But they can't refuse a GIF, so that's why it remains so popular.


Oorspronkelijk geplaatst op Quora: How do I make super high quality GIF's like this one?"