[updated] gif tutorial
Hey guys~! So, I decided to make another/newer gif tutorial mainly because my old gif tutorial, I actually don’t use/follow that way anymore? I guess I do use it sometimes, but I go a different route now and some people are curious so I’m just going to make a newer one about how I gif now. Here I go..
It’s going to be long (step-by-step), so just read more if you are curious.
Program(s): Photoshop CS3, KM Player
Difficulty: Relatively easy, just tedious at times
1. First, have KM Player downloaded. You can get it here. Unfortunately, if you are using a mac, this software won’t be compatible. But I hear you are able to use VLC Player (I have never used this) but I heard it has similar functions. When KM Player is installed, you just pick the video you want to gif and play it on there.
2. So you opened your video on the player, just skip the the time you want (I prefer going a little earlier bc you can delete unwanted frames later). It should look something like this (I think the newer KM Player looks slightly diff):
3. On the player right click anywhere and a menu should pop up. Go all the way down and go capture > frame: extract (shortcut is CTRL+G; click for bigger img)
4. A window should pop up. It looks like this:
You can change the location of where it will be saving the caps. (If you don’t want to it will save right into the KM Player capture folder, which you can find in documents.) Right next to open there is a folder looking icon
Just click on that and choose the folder you want. I usually make a new folder on my desktop and delete it after I’m done. So after, just click the KM Player window again and let the capture sit behind it.
5. Now, just click “Start” and play the video. Stop it where you want it to. Just go to your folder now where you saved it, and there should just be a bunch of continuous caps~ Okay, now onto Photoshop!
6. Open Photoshop and go File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack
Another window should appear it’ll look like this:
Click Browse and select the caps. I usually just hold down the SHIFT key and click all the frames. So here:
Press OK once you’re done. Then all the file names should be stacked on the previous window, and just press OK once again on the Load Layers window. Then it will begin to stack the frames (depending on how many there were, it might take awhile so just be patient!)
7. Have you animation window open once it’s all loaded. All the layers on the layer window should be stacked on top of each other.
8. On your animation window, under the [x] there are three lines and a little arrow pointing down. Just click it and another menu should appear. Click Make Frames from Layers
It will automatically make the frames for you. However, it will be backwards!! So, all you need to do is click the menu again (the three lines w/ the arrow) and click Reverse Frames and it will reverse it for you.
9. Now, you need to change the delay, because there is no delay. On your animation window, there is this triangle looking thing next to 0 sec. Just click that, another menu will appear and select the delay you one. I usually set mine to 0.02 seconds.
10. Okay, now you can start deleting the frames you want or you think that is unnecessary. Just go thru and hit the trashcan to delete them. So once you delete the doubles or unnecessary frames, resize your gif to width 500px because it won’t move if it’s bigger.. Then, you can just edit if you want to. I’ll just adjust it a bit. (You can also add text by using the text tool.)
11. If you’re curious what colouring I did, I’ll just upload the psd. You can download it (here). I’m too lazy to explain the steps.
12. Next, you should be done. Now all you need to do is to save it. Go to File > Save for Web & Devices. I’ve already explained how to save in my older gif tutorial, so please look at that instead (I’m too lazy to rewrite it all!) Since tumblr gif limit is now 1mb, you can get the gif to 999kb, which is good and bad, haha. After that you should be done! :) Just upload etc etc. I hope this helps!
