how to do a comic book

PJPL

Hello,
I want to make a comic book. I have 350 images 960*640 , 72 dpi, png.
My problem is : the project size is beyond 70 MB.
Do you know how can I make for my project size coming lighter ?
Thanks a lot,
Séverine

(sorry for my bad english I hope you can understand me...)

App Surge

GameSalad is switching out of Lua soon, so they say that should reduce your file to 7MB. My advice to you would be if you're making a comic book, GameSalad is most likely not the right tool. I would try it in Xcode or something (maybe make it a book on the Apple book store) and then come back to GameSalad for your next game.

It's called GAMEsalad for a reason

PJPL

Thanks Redsky,
I wanted to do my comic book with gamesalad because I want to introduce animations with drawings...
You think I can't reduce the project size ?

Clouds

I'd guess that making GS non-Lua will make the coding x10 smaller not the image file sizes (????) - so if your APP is, for example, mostly images this change from Lua won't effect the size of your APP too much ?

(this is just an educated guess)

Clouds

@ PJPL

I want to make a comic book. I have 350 images 960*640 , 72 dpi, png.

Are the images 24 bit or 8 bit - alpha channel or no Alpha channel - black and white or colour ?

Could you upload an example image - and tell us how big this image is when it is inside your Gamesalad file ?

Chobbiface

"I'd guess that making GS non-Lue will make the coding x10 smaller not the image file sizes - so if your APP is, for example, mostly images this change from Lua won't effect the size of your APP too much ?"

+1.

@PJPL - you can try using ImageOptim and ImageAlpha, they're great for shaving down your file sizes, though GS does do its own compression which alters the file sizes sometimes even after using those tools.

Btw are you trying to get your app below 20mb (that might be difficult with your current size) or just down as much as possible.

SlickZero

70mb isn't too big, if that's what you're worried about. Your app can be any size, and 300 images at 70mb isn't bad at all, really. Is there a specific reason you want it smaller than 70?

Clouds

@ Chobbiface

"though GS does do its own compression which alters the file sizes sometimes even after using those tools.

Yes it certainly does, and it often makes your image size larger ! After carefully playing around in ImageAlpha you can reduce your file from say 200kb to 20kb . . . . only to see it go back up to 60kb when inside GS !

Chobbiface

@Tynan, ha I'm glad I'm not the only one to notice that, you dunno how many times I've /facepalmed my chobbiface. Sometimes I want to /faceplant it also when it balloons back up in size. Sometimes I think is it even worth it (no not life, the compression), but as a rule I still run all my images through ImageOptim and ImageAlpha first, any kb is a saving eh? Btw you do realise exporting to Android (other post) is nothing short of sacrilegious IMHO, how could you even mention it ;P

PJPL

Tynan > my images are 8 bit, RGB.
for example :
http://selam.free.fr/gamesalad/1-4.png
when i import this picture inside gamesalad file, my project size is 574 KB.

Chobbiface > thanks, I'll try ImageOptim.

slickzero > My viewer (0.9.89) crashes when I try to preview my comic book on my Ipod so I thought the project size was the problem. You have some APP at 70mb ?

Clouds

Nice illustration style !!

"when i import this picture inside gamesalad file, my project size is 574 KB."

Using something like ImageAlpha you can get that file down to around 41kb without any visible quality loss.

Compare these two:
524kb > http://i40.tinypic.com/5v33c.png
41kb > http://i39.tinypic.com/nlzrbk.png

ImageAlpha (Free) > http://pngmini.com/

SlickZero

"slickzero > My viewer (0.9.89) crashes when I try to preview my comic book on my Ipod so I thought the project size was the problem. You have some APP at 70mb ?"

The 3 games i have don't come near 70mb, but there are plenty of others here that have games that are much higher than 70. Some are in the few hundreds of mb's actually. Do you know the generation of your iPod? If it's an older one, it could be crashing because of the memory usage. Even though file size and memory are 2 different things, it sounds like that may be the issue, since there are a lot of images. How do you have them loading?…Are they all checked for pre-loading? (that would be a bad thing)

PJPL

Tynan > thanks for your test, you're right, the quality is good. I'm going to optimize all my images.
(and thanks for the compliment, the illustrator is Benoît Springer : http://benoitspringer.ultra-book.com/)

SlickZero > I think you found the issue my images are indeed all checked for pre-loading.

Thanks a lot for your help. Our comic book app will exist thanks to you.