this one is a triangle because anon asked :o
so you have your standard gif
make a new layer over the other layers of your gif and make sure to check all of the little boxes highlighted in the image
draw the shape you want your gif to show in with whatever you want — i used pen tool for this one
look at that gorgeous triangle
okay now select your triangle and cut out the area in the middle of it
if you save your gif now it should just play as your gif but in triangle form :o simple as that!
note: this is how to make it so your text only shows up in parts of the animation
Select your text layer, select the frames you want the text to appear on, hit the green circled visibility eye thing (make sure the red circle is not checked for the layer)
now choose the part of your gif you don’t want the text to appear on and uncheck the visibility eye
your text should only appear on the frames where the layer is set to visible :o
Warning: Doing this with tumblr pretty much eats up whatever KB limit you thought you had in like 5 frames, depending on what size photo and what size gifs you put on said photo. Also, this takes a while. Be prepared. Also, this has sort of been rendered obsolete with the invention of photosets, which allow for much more flexibility with multiple gif sets so.
Step 1: The Setup
First you need to cap your gif. If you don’t know how to do this, see my setting up a basic gif pt. 1 tutorial. The tutorial also goes over how to load your files as a stack. After the capping is complete, you have a couple of options.
For photos with more than 4 or 5 gifs stuck on them, I’d personally open each separately into a different file to size/color them as you want, and then copy them back to the original photo file when you’re done. For 4 or less gifs though, it’s probably easier to keep them all in one file.
Open up your caps into one file, crop away the caps you don’t want (as discussed in my first tutorial). I’m going to keep this very basic so I’m going to make all of the gifs one size.
Figure out what size you want your photo to be (width 500px, whatever height). Make sure each of your 4 gifs are the same size for a more consistent look in your photo (by size here, I mean length — frame length. Each of mine are 14 frames. The shorter each of your gifs are the most leeway you’ll have with your kb limit at the end.
You can do multiple gifs in one photo a few different ways. I’m going to show how to have them all playing simultaneously. Since each is 14 frames, your final photo should be 14 frames long.
Step 2: Resizing and Shit
Resize your entire set of frames/layers by using the crop tool and setting it to a particular size. I set mine to 250px by 150px. Each of your individual gifs will be this size. Now since you don’t want your canvas to actually be that size, you’ll have to expand your canvas size to what you want your final photo to be.
Go to Image > Canvas Size (Alt + Ctrl + C). Set it to whatever you want your final photo size to be.
Just keep the box in the middle. You should now have a nice space around your gif like so:
Step 3: Adding Background Stuff
I usually do the background first in the gif-making process. I’m just gonna keep this one simple. Go to the bottom of your layer stack and add a new layer. Put your background shit on this one. Make sure you have the boxes checked like so when you’re done with it:
Step 4: Moving That Shit Around
Alright time to move your gif around how you want it. This step can be a nightmare if you don’t do it right, so pay attention! :p
Select ALL of the layers that make up your first gif, as well as ALL of the frames of your first gif — should be 14 of each if you are doing it the same size that I am. When they are all selected, move them to where you want in the gif. Then keep the SAME 14 FRAMES selected and select the next set of 14 layers (should be your 2nd gif) and drag it to where you want it in the gif. You should need to make one of the layers you’re moving visible so you can see where the fuck you’re moving it to. Once you do that too all of your 4 gifs it should look like this:
Delete the excess frames now. Should be everything past the 14th frame.
Step 5: Making Them All Play At Le Same Time
Alright now it gets a bit tricky. In order to get them to all play at the same time you need to spend some time merging layers and shit. This takes a while depending on how large your gif is, so put some music on or something.
You’re basically going to be selecting (while making visible) every layer that you want visible on each individual frame (hit ctrl + click on the layer to select multiple). While having only the first animation frame selected, select the first layer of each gif, and merge the layers like so:
Now you get to do this for each frame! So much fun! :p Select the 2nd animation frame, and select the 2nd layer of each gif (make them visible) and merge those. Repeat repeat repeat until you’ve merged all 14 layers. Your gif should look like this if you save it as it is:
There you go! They’re all playing at the same time. Now you can fuck with the colors or whatever. I have a more detailed explanation of how to color your shit and add text and whatever in my gif coloring tutorial. Here’s the finished product:
I had to make it like 3 colors because this eats up your KB so fast lol.
If you have any questions let me know in an ask I’ll be happy to help \o/
if you don’t want your gif looking stretched or funky (disregarding funky loading times which just ruin everybody’s day)
don’t just take a 500px gif, cut it in thirds, save
this will cause your gif to stretch and people’s faces to look disproportionate
think of how it will look when you put it in the photoset
it should be:
160px width gif | 10 px of space | 160px width gif | 10 px of space | 160px width gif
so if you save it without taking the space that occurs in between the gifs and it’s in the middle of someone’s face or something their face will be stretched 10px out of proportion when you upload it
the easiest way that I’ve found is to make your 500px width gif, set crop tool width to 160px and crop from the left side of your gif, save for web and devices, and then undo so your gif is at 500px again. Repeat this on the right side of your gif and save (undo it so it’s at 500px again). Now for the middle part of the gif (there’s probably a more derp way to do this) I hit alt+ctrl+c to open up the Canvas Size preferences, click on the box so it’s highlighted on the middle row on the left side, and set the width to ‘330px’, which will crop away 170px from the right side of the gif. Now set the highlighted box to the middle row on the right side, and set the width to 160px, which will crop 170px from the left side of the image. Save your last gif and you’re good to go.
Wha-la, your gif is now spliced so that there will be no stretching when you upload it in a set of 3 :’)
For a set of 2 use the same method of cropping; when you upload your image it’s going to be
245px width gif | 10 px of space | 245px width gif
so crop accordingly using the same method above (disregarding the 3rd step for the middle gif) and it should be good to go.
(if you are confused on how it will look when you upload, I sometimes use the guide you can pull out from the ruler tool (ctrl+r) to mark off where the spaces will be when I upload it. this is particularly useful on 6-gif photosets of a split gif or more)
uhh! here let me show you— I’ve gotten asks about dis for my blurry text ones, too:
basically I go back 3 frames and make a duplicate of the text layer, set it so the duplicate is only showing on that frame, and then motion blur it to whatever angle you want @ 15 distance; the next frame has a duplicate of the text layer blurred @ 10 distance; the next layer has a duplicate of the text layer blurred @ 5 distance; and then the rest of the frames have just the normal text. :0 takes a while but I get bored easily.
you can do the same with gaussian blur @ steadily decreasing radii to the non-blurred text to get the effect I use in my like 4x03 photoset with the you’re a loyal friend and I love you scene.
I’m too lazy to make a proper tutorial, but I’ll tell you how I do it. There’s a few ways you can go about this:
Method 1: Open up the files for ALL of your gifs into one stack. Make the first gif and delete the rest of the frames in your animation window but not the layers associated with them. When you’ve saved that first gif, right click on the menu for Animation and hit ‘make frames from layers’ again. Your other gif files should be in the animation window for you to crop accordingly. If you have any coloring layers or what not in your layer palette you can just highlight the new gif and make them visible on the new gif for continuity of color.
Method 2: After you save your first gif, don’t close it — drag it so it’s a floating window in your screen. Load the files into a stack for your 2nd gif and when the layers are there drag the coloring/levels/whatever adjustment layers from your 1st gif that is still open on the the canvas of your 2nd gif, on top of all the other layers. It should just copy the exact specifications on to your 2nd gif.
I find the first method easier but it’s sometimes unreasonable to load that many files into the same psd. Takes forever to load/edit anything with too many layers to edit. Any files over like 200 you should probably use method 2.
If you need images to go along with it I could make a more in depth tutorial just not atm, too tired.
Continued from part 1~
Step 11: Your gif should be okay at this point, but it will probably look like shit. Time to make it look pretty. This is where having some experience with photoshop layers helps a lot. The first thing I do with a gif is sharpen it. THERE IS NO LAZY WAY TO DO THIS THAT I HAVE DISCOVERED. IF THERE IS LET ME KNOW HOLY JESUS. I’ve made it as lazy as possible and it still takes some time. Select the first frame of your animation. While it is selected, go to your layers panel and select the layer that currently has an eyeball lit up to it’s left. Go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen. Select the next frame in your animation. Select the layer that has an eyeball next to it now. Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen. Repeat this for every layer on every animation frame.
The most lazy way to do this is to change your keyboard shortcuts in your Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts menu. The way I have it set up is that ‘select next animation frame’ is f1 and ‘last filter’ is f2. I hit f2, manually click on the layer that is visible (has the eyeball) and then hit f2. And then I do it furiously in a pattern to the song I’m listening to until every layer is nice and sharp.
Here’s what my gif looks like after sharpening:
Step 12: Your gif probably looks like shit still. Don’t worry! Time to change the levels to increase it’s awesome. Make sure your ‘adjustment layer’ window is open and click on the ‘Levels’ icon. Make sure the resulting layer created is at the top of your layers and move the sliders until the lighting in your gif looks better. Note if you have a larger gif and have to worry about gif size limitations, the lighter your gif is the bigger it’s size. This new adjustment layer will adjust all of the layer beneath it.
Gif update: Getting a bit better. Ho ho look at my drunken gay bbs.
Step 13: Looking less like shit but almost there! Time to change around the colors depending on where you want to go with the gif. I don’t really have a theme going with this gif because it’s not in a photoset but I still want to alter the colors a bit. Click on the arrow on the bottom left of your adjustments panel to go back to the main menu and hit the ‘color balance’ layer. Move the slider around on shadows, midtones, and highlights until you get it how you want it to look.
Gif update:
Step 14: Adding extra layers of color or gradients requires some creative judgement. I’ll just show you how I’ve been adding some colors to my gifs recently. Open up a new layer above all your other layers (including adjustments, in my case) and click on the brush tool. Change the hardness to 0 and the size to 300px or larger. Choose a color and paint on some colors or whatever you want. Switch the layer style to whatever you feel like in the layer palette and make sure to hit the the ‘Unify Layer Style’ icon if you want the layer style to persist on all of your frames. Hit the ‘Unify Layer Position’ to be safe, as well.
Gif update: Colors are pretty much how I want them.
Step 15: Time to add some text. Text can be a bit tricky sometimes. I decided on this gif I would like to have the text flashing for maximum heterosexual effect. Select your type tool and type whateva you want in a new layer above all your other layers. At least have it above your levels layer or else the text will get all choppy and ugly. Move it to where you want it on the gif and make sure to check the boxes above the layer to unify the text’s position and style. You normally want to hit ‘unify visibility’ as well but this one is flashing so it’s a bit different. Put any text effects you want on it by double clicking and fucking around with the menu until it’s how you want it. For a “blinking” text effect, select every other 2 frames in your animation window and uncheck the eyeball to the left of your text layer.
And we’re done! There’s a bunch of other shit you can do to gifs like transitioning between layers or adding pretty text effects or some shit but it takes some time and a deeper understanding of photoshop. If you want specifics on how I do something in one of my gifs or something feel free to send me a message and I’ll explain as best as I can!
Final gif:
Oh Arthur, you so silly.
Required programs:
Photoshop CS5 (Very Legal Version™)
KMPlayer (any player that can cap videos will do)
Step 1: Open up your video file in KMPlayer. We will be giffing a very heterosexual scene for quality purposes. Once the video is open, right click on the player and go to Capture > Frame: Extract.
Step 2: Set up your file location (where the caps will save to) and the rest of your preferences like so. When you hit “specified size” hit the little “G” next to it so it will automatically shrink your photos by an optimal amount to avoid huge file sizes and stretching and what not.
Step 3: Go to the scene you wish to cap. Hit start on the frame extract, hit play on the player, and hit stop on the frame extract when you are finished with your very heterosexual scene.
Step 4: Open up Photoshop CS5 or whatever version you’re using and open up your files. Go to File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack. There’s a few ways you can do this, depending on how many gifs you want in your photoset and how many files you have. If you can’t open them all up in one stack due to having too many, doing 2 won’t harm anything. If you’re just making one gif like I am here, it should all fit into one stack fine.
Step 5: Your files should all be in individual layers on your screen. Make sure the Animation window is showing (Window > Animation). Right click on the menu icon on the top right of your animation window (should be at the bottom of your screen) and hit “Make Frames from Layers”. If you want to speed up future gif-making you can also start a new Action before you do this step and record until I mention it in a few more steps.
Step 6: Your gif frames should now be in your animation window. Hit the ‘play’ button on your animation window to see if it’s backwards or not (happens with file names sometimes). If it’s backwards, right click on the animation window menu and hit ‘select all frames’ and then hit ‘reverse frames’. You’ll note that your animation is very fast at the moment. ‘Select all frames’ again and click on the ‘0 sec.’ at the bottom of any of the frames. I usually type in a custom “0.1” seconds for my Merlin gifs. For some shows “0.08” looks better. Fiddle around with the speed until it looks how you want it to.
Step 7: You can stop your action here if you were using one, or keep going if you want the gifs in that action to always be the same size. You’ll note that your gif is probably quite large. Select the crop tool and enter in the dimensions you want in the top. Note for tumblr, you want a gif no wider than 500px or you’ll have to click through to see the full thing. For photosets, the largest images are 500px in width, the medium are 245px in width, and the smallest are 160px in width. The height doesn’t matter. I’m just making a general reaction gif for everyone’s use so I’m making it 245px width 150px height.
Step 8: All of your layers in your animation frames should be cropped to the proper size. Now it’s time to crop your animation. Play your animation a few times and see what length you want it. Delete frames off the end/beginning to optimize file size. If you want no color/style restrictions at the size gif that I’m making I generally go for around 22-24 frames. Once you have selected the frames you want to delete hit the trash can icon on the bottom of your animation window.
Step 9: That’s it for your basic gif! Hit file > Save for Web and Devices. In the top right hand corner there is a menu icon. Hit ‘Optimize to File Size’ and type in ‘498kb’ for your size. Putting in 500kb will sometimes fuck it up on tumblr when you go to upload. Your settings on the right should look like this; the only thing that should change is the number of colors per gif. The fewer the colors, the smaller the file size. When you ‘Optimize to File Size’ the colors will adjust automatically. Hit save as a gif and wha-la!
See part 2 for coloring and stuff.
