Dimensions and Sizes

Okay, so although you can make changes to your animations when you’re working on them, it’s
always easier and better to get your documents and compositions setup correctly before you
begin.

The biggest question to ask yourself is where you want your animation to end up, and in what
format? A gif? On a 4 or 5k screen? Instagram? YouTube? And then ask what size your gif or
video should be, and perhaps at what frame rate.

File Sizes
Most of the platforms you upload videos to will compress your videos after upload, so video file
size isn’t normally an issue. If you have a slow internet connection or are worried about file size
then render videos as .mp4s, or using the H.264 format.
Gifs are images and should be as small as possible, especially if you’re planning on sharing
them online. Just don’t sacrifice too much quality. The smaller the dimensions the smaller the
file size. Anything under 1mb is great. I try keep mine under 2mb if possible, but lately I’ve been
quite lazy and want to retain as much quality as possible.
Regular Videos
Videos dimensions are flexible, but the 2 most common dimensions are:
● 1280px wide x 720px high
● 1920px wide x 1080px high

Instagram
Instagram has a max width of 1080px and a max height of 1350px, and requires videos to be
between 3 and 60 seconds in length.

Dribbble
Dribbble accepts images (including gifs) in 2 dimensions:
● 400px wide x 300px high
● 800px wide x 600px high
I’d opt for the bigger one, just because 400 x 300 is tiny, especially on Retina displays.

Skillshare
Skillshare project images have a max width of 578px, and I think a max file size of 2.1 mb.
So those are the dimensions and file sizes to consider. Now let’s chat frame rates.

Frame rates
You can animate at whatever frame rate you like, but there are a few that make more sense:
25 fps, 30 fps, 60 fps

There are some pretty hefty technical reasons and a few non-technical ones.
● If you’re worried about file size, use a lower frame rate.
● If you want your animation to appear smoother, use a higher frame-rate.
● I like 30 f/s because it’s easy to divide up into smaller sub-units of animation, isn’t as
crazy big as 60 fps, and still looks pretty smooth.
● Also, in After Effects, you can always opt to use motion blur to give your animations a
more realistic look. But small gifs aren’t big fans of motion blur – just so you know.