two problems, mainly with animation

okay i have two questions
Edit: I'm using Adobe Photoshop 7 and Adobe ImageReady 7

I just made this icon and it looked just fine in the preview, but now that it's optimized, it looks all grainy and odd.



and this is the still one: which is how it should look

(even though the last word got all weird. probably something with the anti-alias)

Anyway-- the size of the first one is small (only 9.something) so it's not an LJ icon size thing, so i don't get it.

Any suggestions?

Second Question:

anyone know how to do a transition like this?

made by suckagun
thanks :)