Hello & welcome to Lingy's Guide to making .gifs!
*Please note that there are quite a few ways on how to make a .gif & this is the way that I know how to do it. In this tutorial, you will have to have some knowledge on the basics of Photoshop. I'll be using CS5 in the tutorial, but I know it will work in CS3 as well as that was the version of Photoshop I started off with when making .gifs. I'm unsure if it'll translate into earlier versions of Photoshop, you'll probably have to use ImageReady for it. Don't ask me how to use ImageReady, as I have no idea as I've never used it. I'm also not sure if this will work in any Photoshop Elements, but I do recall being able to create animations in it [maybe I'll re-install my version of Elements & create a tutorial if anyone wishes].
Getting Started
First thing you're going to want to do is find a video that you want to animate.
The video must be in .mov format, or it will not work!! There are a lot of video converters out there, though it's actually hard to find one that will convert any video into .mov format [I have yet to find one that's free, if you have one, please share!!]
**Anyone with a .mov format video can skip this next part & go onto the next part**
Have a video off of YouTube you'd like to use? Then simply use zamzar.com to convert it! Just click on the 'Download Videos' tab you see, paste the URL of the video in the field, select '.mov', enter your email, & as soon as they're done converting it, it'll be emailed to you!
*Note: Don't be surprised if it doesn't work the first time you use it, sometimes the first time using Zamzar, your email wont be sent to you. Sometimes you have to wait!!
In this tutorial, I will be using Ayumi Hamasaki's Do It Again PV. After you get your email, download the video with the link given to you.
After having your video downloaded, open Photoshop.
Go to File -> Import -> Video Frames to Layers...
Now locate the video you wish to use for your animation & open it [it's the same as opening a file or image, so I wont screenshot this].
Next, in the new Pop-Up, choose 'Selected Range Only', otherwise it will try to make an animation out of the entire video & as it says in paranthesis, hold down the 'shift' key while choosing the part of the video you wish to animate. Once you have the part chosen, while still holding down the shift key, hit 'OK' or the Enter button on your keyboard.
Now, your workspace should look something like this, with all the frames set into individual layers.
We will need the animation Window open so go up to Window-> Animation & click it. Now your animation window will appear.
Hopefully all of your layers will already appear as frames. If not, it's an easy fix!
If they didn't all translate, just highlight all of your layers [holding down shift & select from 'Layer 1' to your last layer], click the button on the upper right corner of the animation window & select 'Make Frames from Layers'
Now, preview your animation!! Feel free to delete any frames you don't wish to have in it [ie if it is too long or cut at an odd time]. You can also do simple edits to it, like adding a fill layer, adjustment later, level change, etc. Depending on the .gif I made, I'll add a colour layer, which is what I'll do with this one. I just add a Colour Fill Layer set to Exclusion with the colour #010825 set to 78% Opacity.
I also decided to crop some of the black off from the top & bottom, leaving just a bit left, looks cleaner IMO.
I then went ahead & changed the image size, setting the width to 250px [I almost always set my animations around that size].
After you make all the necessary changes you wish to do onto your animation, we are now to save it!!
Go to File -> Save for Web & Devices...
You can preview it one last time before you save it, even can preview it in your browser, just hit 'Preview...' & it'll open your browser to show you how it looks. In my animation, I know the end just jumps from Ayu opening the closet back to her closing it, I would usually go back & redo the entire animation but for the sake of this tutorial, I'm just going to leave it as is.
Now all is left is to click save, & save it whereyou wish to & then upload to share it!
& now we're done! Here is my animation I did for the tutorial
& there are a few glitches in this animation. "orz
& a couple of other animations I have created using this technique.
Hope this helped~
*Please note that there are quite a few ways on how to make a .gif & this is the way that I know how to do it. In this tutorial, you will have to have some knowledge on the basics of Photoshop. I'll be using CS5 in the tutorial, but I know it will work in CS3 as well as that was the version of Photoshop I started off with when making .gifs. I'm unsure if it'll translate into earlier versions of Photoshop, you'll probably have to use ImageReady for it. Don't ask me how to use ImageReady, as I have no idea as I've never used it. I'm also not sure if this will work in any Photoshop Elements, but I do recall being able to create animations in it [maybe I'll re-install my version of Elements & create a tutorial if anyone wishes].
Getting Started
First thing you're going to want to do is find a video that you want to animate.
The video must be in .mov format, or it will not work!! There are a lot of video converters out there, though it's actually hard to find one that will convert any video into .mov format [I have yet to find one that's free, if you have one, please share!!]
**Anyone with a .mov format video can skip this next part & go onto the next part**
Have a video off of YouTube you'd like to use? Then simply use zamzar.com to convert it! Just click on the 'Download Videos' tab you see, paste the URL of the video in the field, select '.mov', enter your email, & as soon as they're done converting it, it'll be emailed to you!
*Note: Don't be surprised if it doesn't work the first time you use it, sometimes the first time using Zamzar, your email wont be sent to you. Sometimes you have to wait!!
In this tutorial, I will be using Ayumi Hamasaki's Do It Again PV. After you get your email, download the video with the link given to you.
After having your video downloaded, open Photoshop.
Go to File -> Import -> Video Frames to Layers...
Now locate the video you wish to use for your animation & open it [it's the same as opening a file or image, so I wont screenshot this].
Next, in the new Pop-Up, choose 'Selected Range Only', otherwise it will try to make an animation out of the entire video & as it says in paranthesis, hold down the 'shift' key while choosing the part of the video you wish to animate. Once you have the part chosen, while still holding down the shift key, hit 'OK' or the Enter button on your keyboard.
Now, your workspace should look something like this, with all the frames set into individual layers.
We will need the animation Window open so go up to Window-> Animation & click it. Now your animation window will appear.
Hopefully all of your layers will already appear as frames. If not, it's an easy fix!
If they didn't all translate, just highlight all of your layers [holding down shift & select from 'Layer 1' to your last layer], click the button on the upper right corner of the animation window & select 'Make Frames from Layers'
Now, preview your animation!! Feel free to delete any frames you don't wish to have in it [ie if it is too long or cut at an odd time]. You can also do simple edits to it, like adding a fill layer, adjustment later, level change, etc. Depending on the .gif I made, I'll add a colour layer, which is what I'll do with this one. I just add a Colour Fill Layer set to Exclusion with the colour #010825 set to 78% Opacity.
I also decided to crop some of the black off from the top & bottom, leaving just a bit left, looks cleaner IMO.
I then went ahead & changed the image size, setting the width to 250px [I almost always set my animations around that size].
After you make all the necessary changes you wish to do onto your animation, we are now to save it!!
Go to File -> Save for Web & Devices...
You can preview it one last time before you save it, even can preview it in your browser, just hit 'Preview...' & it'll open your browser to show you how it looks. In my animation, I know the end just jumps from Ayu opening the closet back to her closing it, I would usually go back & redo the entire animation but for the sake of this tutorial, I'm just going to leave it as is.
Now all is left is to click save, & save it whereyou wish to & then upload to share it!
& now we're done! Here is my animation I did for the tutorial
& there are a few glitches in this animation. "orz
& a couple of other animations I have created using this technique.
Hope this helped~