How to make a gif in Photoshop. How to Make a Gif - Animation in Photoshop: The Complete Guide

How to make GIF animation in Photoshop?

With the help of the editor "Adobe Photoshop" you can easily make gif animation using standard tools. In this tutorial, we'll show you how to do this.

First, let's create a ten by ten px document. To do this, go to the "File" tab and select the "New" command.

In the New dialog box that appears, size the new document by entering ten pixels in the Width and Height boxes.

After entering the size of the image, click "OK".

Zoom the image to the size required for comfortable viewing.

Then you need to create three more copies of this layer. To create duplicates, hold down the left mouse button on the layer thumbnail and drag it to the "Create a new layer" icon located at the bottom of the layers palette.

These four layers will be the four frames of our future animation. Now the most important thing that we need to create "GIF-animations" is a workspace with the right tools. Go to the Window tab and select the Motion command from the Workspace list.

This workspace is a set of versatile tools for creating animation. Leave only the bottom layer visible and active by clicking on the eye icons next to the layers.

Select the Pencil tool, and in the Attributes bar, set the size to three pixels.

Now, using a pencil, draw a square in the lower left corner of the image.

Then make visible and active only the layer next above, and draw a square in the upper left corner of the image.

Likewise, draw squares on each of the layers, going around their corners clockwise.

This will give us four frames for our future animation. Now let's move on to creating the animation. To do this, on the panel "Animation" click on the button Convert to Frame-by-Frame Animation.

One frame will appear in the "Animation" panel, now click on the frame with the right mouse button and in the appeared context menu select an interval equal to one second.

Now click three times on the button "Create a copy of selected frames" located at the bottom of the same panel to add three more frames to the animation.

Select the first frame in the Animation panel and make only the first image layer in the layers palette visible and active. As you can see, the first frame has been assigned the attributes of the first layer.

Likewise, select frames one at a time and assign them one image layer at a time, making only the required layer active and visible.

We now have an animation consisting of four different frames. To view the resulting result, click on the button "Start animation playback" located at the bottom of the Animation panel.

Thus, using the tools of the Photoshop editor, you can easily make "Gif-animation".

I decided to write this lesson in connection with the frequent requests of friends to draw a userbar on the forum. In this tutorial, we will look at the techniques for creating animation in Photoshop using the example of a userbar.

So let's get started!

I must say right away that the lesson is aimed at beginners. Photoshop gurus can stand, smoke and catch a glimpse (what if they missed something interesting =))

Creating a userbar

First, you need to create a blank for creating animation.

Step 1. Create a document

Create a new document. I took dimensions 350x20.

Step 2. Gradient.

We take Gradient Tool (G) and fill our future userbar with a gradient.

Result:

Step 3. Texture

How to paint the carbon texture

To do this, let's draw a carbon texture that we can use in the future.

Create a new document of 8 × 8 pixels and paint over it as follows. You can take arbitrary shades of gray. The main thing here is order.

Result:

Step 4. Text.

It remains to add some text. For this we need a font.

Take Visitor TT1 BRK and set the size to 10 points. I wrote “Adobe Photoshop CS4 User”.

Step 5. Frame.

Let's add a frame. To do this, select the entire userbar using Rectangular Marquee Tool. Go to Edit -> Stroke and put there:

Result:

Userbar animation in Photoshop

Step 1. Adding an icon to the animation.

Now let's add an icon and move on to animation.

Step 2. Understanding the animation palette.

Let's make her move.

To do this, first set up our workplace by selecting Window> Workspace> Video or simply by turning on the Animation palette.

Let's switch to the frame-by-frame animation mode.

Let's figure out the animation palette.

Step 3. Animate the userbar.

In case of errors, you can delete the frame you did not like with the delete button (basket).

We will also set the desired delay. I set 0.1 second on all frames except the last one. He has a delay of 2 seconds.

Step 4. Saving to Gif - animation.

If the forum rules do not allow loading a userbar more than a certain weight or resolution, then you can use the article about that.

Conclusion

So, we have created a stylish userbar. Then, based on it, we created a gif - animation. And all this by means of the great and powerful Photoshop. Isn't that cool?

3. We look for our folder with prepared photos and left-click on the first photo, hold down the Shift key, and click on the last one, then all of them are selected. We press OPEN.

4. All photos are opened in your photoshop. We start to create the layers that we need for animation, or create gif pictures... I opened a specially wide photo. And it will be the 1st layer.

To convert a photo into a layer, double-click on it with the left mouse button.

5. To create the second layer, we need to click on the icon that the arrow points to. On the second layer we will place another photo.

6. We stomp into our photos, which are open next to the first, and choose a narrow photo. I remind you that this is not necessary ... It is easier to work with the same photos. So, we find the desired photo, go to the menu - selection - select ALL.

7. After that, small dashes will start running around the picture, this is the selection. Now go to the menu - edit - copy.

8. Return to our first photo, which is already with layers, go to the menu - edit - insert. And our narrow photo is inserted on a new layer. But it cannot remain so narrow. We need to add a background underneath it. To do this, click on the icon (1), drag the layer under the narrow photo, then with the eyedropper (2) select any color you like by clicking on the photo. I chose light green. And fill a new layer, for which we activate the fill tool (3) and then left-click on the working field of the photo. Note that a new transparent background should be active at this point. Active layers are highlighted in blue. After your actions, the transparent layer will be colored.

9. Now we need to merge two layers (narrow photo and background). We step with the left mouse button on the first layer. Hold down the Shift key and click on the second layer. They are highlighted in blue. Go to the menu - layers - merge layers.

10. We get such a picture.

11. Repeat steps 6 - 10 of my lesson to create a layer with another narrow photo. I have it on layer 2. And create another new transparent layer to place the last wide photo there (layer 3).

12. To do this, follow the points of lesson 6, 7, 8. That's it. Ready. Layers for our gif pictures we created.

13. You can start animating with your layers, but I decided to create a background for our picture. To do this, we stomp in the menu - image - canvas size. Increase our canvas 50px in width and height. Click OK.

14. We got it like this.

15. Create a new layer (I have layer 4), drag it to the very bottom under all the photos, you can make the background the same color as the background in your narrow photos. I chose a slightly darker matte color.

Decorate your substrate in any way you want. Hope you know how to set layer parameters, but if not, it's easy. Step on the desired layer and double-click on it with the left mouse button and you will see a window with the parameters of your layer, and there you open each individual parameter separately and you apply or change its settings. I applied the effect in the Inner Shadow and Inner Glow layer parameters with the Multiply layer parameter ... The color of the shadow is slightly darker than the matte tone. But here I am not going to impose my opinion on you. You have your own vision. Try it, change the settings. It's not scary. You can always return to the original result, for which you go to the menu - editing - go back.

By the way, in my last photo there is a wisteria bush, there is a lot of it in France and the time of its flowering is the end of April - the beginning of May. I photographed this bush in the garden of my friend's parents. In my Bulgarian yard there are also wisteria bushes and I think that soon she will delight us with her flowers that look like lilac clouds.

16. Now is the time to put your logo, this is especially important if your picture will be located on your site. For ordinary users, this may not apply. Let me remind you that I did a Photoshop lesson about. I'll go over in brief: go to the menu - file - place. We are looking for our PSD file with a logo prepared in advance, step on it and click on the Place button.

17. Drag the logo layer to the very top, like mine. If necessary, we enlarge the logo to the required size, for which we go to the menu - editing - scaling. Hold down the Shift key and stretch or reduce the logo. Activate the "move" tool (the topmost tool with an arrow and + in the toolbar) and move the logo to the desired location.

Everything is prepared with animation creation.

17. In the very first frame of the animation, you should have visibility open with the background layer, the first layer with your photo (in my case, layer 0) and the logo (position 1). For a good view of your photo, set the delay time 5 sec(position 2). After determining the delay time and setting it in the first frame, all subsequent frames will be with the specified time of 1 frame, i.e. 5 sec in my case. To create the second frame, click on the icon shown at position 3.

18. In the second frame, change the visibility of the layer from the first image to the second, just as shown in my screenshot.

Very often there are funny or sad video clippings on the Internet. They circulate from comment to comment, complementing an interesting post or briefly describing the situation. Any moment that interests you in a movie, TV series or YouTube video can be converted into Gif-animation. All you need to do is to have Photoshop CS3 or newer. Older versions do not support animation. For the most comfortable work, it is recommended to use Photoshop CS5, CS6, CC 2014 or newer.

First of all, you need to download the video, a fragment of which you need to make animation. It would be better if you cut out the required few seconds from the entire recording beforehand. However, this can be done by means of Photoshop itself. It is important to remember that the program only supports certain video formats: * .mov, * .mpeg, * .mpg, * .avi and * .mp4.

So, in order to make an animation from the desired segment of the video, you need to load it into Photoshop. How to do it:

• In the top menu, find the "File" section.
• Click on it and in the drop-down menu move the cursor to the line "Import".
• In the menu section that appears on the right, click on "Video frames to layers ...".
• The program may freeze a little. Don't rush her. A new window should open in which you need to find a file with a video fragment and select it.

After that, the video will load and a new window will appear in which you will need to select which part of the recording you will process. If the fragment is already pre-cut, you can select the "From beginning to end" item, and if the full video is loaded, you will have to select the desired range yourself. To do this, use the sliders immediately below the loaded record. After completing the selection, press "OK" and wait a little - the program processes the fragment and puts each frame into a separate layer.

The program can import only 500 frames at a time. If your fragment is longer than this amount, you will have to split it into several files and download it one by one.

A check mark in the "keep every * frames" box will remove from the recording every frame, the sequence number of which will be specified. This will make the animation "lighter", but at the expense of discontinuity.

When Photoshop processes the video, frames from it will appear in the Layers panel. By default, only one will be shown, the very first. He will also be the lowest of all.

Now each layer can be processed separately - add text, some kind of addition or effect. If you apply any effect to the topmost layer, it will be displayed throughout the entire video. Likewise, all non-frame layers will be displayed. If you need any object to disappear at the right moment, place a layer with it above the frame, after which it should disappear. And if you need it to appear only on some separate frames, just duplicate this object several times and merge the layer with it and each necessary video layer separately (one copy - one layer).

To duplicate any layers, you need to right-click on them and find the line "Duplicate layer".

And now a little about animation editing. On the timeline that appears at the bottom of the workspace, there is a drop-down menu in the upper-right corner. It is advisable to look there and check some settings. In particular, we may be particularly interested in:

After editing the loaded frames and adding something of your own, if desired, you can set the number of repetitions. If you want the fragment to be completely looped, then under the timeline find the drop-down menu with the number of repetitions and select the "Continuous" item.

The next four buttons after the drop-down menu allow you to preview the animation with all the edits made. Then there is the button "Add intermediate layers" (the same function as in a similar section in the menu), and the button "Create a copy of the selected layers". This can greatly simplify the creation of any repetitive actions. It is enough to select several frames on the timeline (hold down the Ctrl key and click on each frame with the mouse), and then click on this button.

Separately, under each frame, there are numbers and an arrow. If you click on the arrow, a drop-down menu will appear, in which you can set the delay for a particular frame. Thus, you can slow down or slightly speed up individual fragments of the resulting Gif. And to select the entire animation at once, select its very first frame, move to the last one and hold down the Shift key and click on it. Without releasing Shift, change the speed of the last frame. After him, this parameter will change for all the previous ones.

After the final setting of all the animation parameters, it must be saved. Select the "File" section of the menu, and in it find "Save for Web ...".

A new window will open in which you need to configure the settings for saving the Gif you created. Be sure to set the save format to "Gif", otherwise it will no longer be an animation.

Here you can also adjust the final dimensions of the animation (width and height), the number of colors used in it and see what the result is. If everything suits you, you need to click on the "Save ..." button. After that, it remains only to choose where and under what name to save the finished file.

And the Internet is full of gifs, these living pictures somehow magically attract people. Such animations are taking up more and more space on virtual walls, forums, in the memory of computers, gadgets and hearts. The fashion for creating gif animation will never pass.

Want to create gif animation yourself? It is not so difficult if you have a graphics editor and at least an initial understanding of how it works. Right now, you will learn how to make a GIF from a video in Photoshop CS5.

Step 1: selecting and preparing a video

If you want to get a decent result, it is better to choose a good quality video. For a start, it is advisable to take a short video, it will be easier to work this way. Although this is an optional condition. To make a gif-animation, for example, from a frame of a film or cartoon, it is advisable to first cut out the desired fragment using special programs. For instance, Windows Move Maker... But this is not necessary, you can only use Photoshop.

Step 2: upload video and select frames

1. Open Photoshop.

2. In the menu " File" choose "Import" and .

3. Download the video.

4. A window will open where you need to configure the parameters for import. If you previously cut out a fragment for a gif, then check the box next to "From the beginning to the end", and if you are going to select frames in Photoshop, then on the contrary. To select it, first mark the starting point on the scale under the preview of the movie, then, holding SHIFT, mark the end of the fragment.

After the highlighted dark gray area appears on the scale, you can press Play and check which frames will be included in the animation. Do not select too large a range, otherwise there will be a lot of layers and the GIF will be "Heavy"... It is best to make a set of 5-20 layers.

The next important setting is the number of frames to keep. The figure depends on the speed of movement of objects in the video: the lower it is, the more frames you can skip. We will use a video with a lemur, it moves slowly, so we will put Leave every 3rd frame, otherwise there may be many identical frames.

Make sure opposite "Create frame-by-frame animation" there is a check mark. Now you can press "OK".

5. Looking out the window

6. If, nevertheless, there are a lot of frames, then some of them can be deleted. To destroy several layers at once, press SHIFT and click on unnecessary layers with the mouse, then move them to the trash can in the lower right corner of the window. If there are several dozen layers, then it is easier to close the file and start all over again by selecting a smaller segment on the video. It will be faster this way.

Step 3: making the animation

1. Make sure that all layers except the first (bottom) are invisible - the eye next to the layer preview is inactive.

2. Open the menu "Window" and select

3. After that, a scale with frames will appear on the work area.

4. Click on Play and see what happens. You can already delete frames in the finished animation (select with the mouse and move to the trash icon) or swap them with the same mouse.

5. If you need to change the frame playback time, click on the arrow next to the number under the preview and specify the required time interval in seconds. To make the spacing for all frames the same, click the settings icon in the upper right corner of the animation window and select Select All Frames, then change the time on one of them - this setting will be applied to all frames.

6. If you are not satisfied with the result, go to the settings and click Remove Animation... To create a new one, you need to click there. Create Frames From Layers... Now you know how to make GIFs from videos, but that's not all. It is important to save it correctly so that it opens in browsers.

Step 4: save the gif animation

You do not need to do this through a tab. "Save as", and choosing from the menu "File"- a window with settings will open. It is better to leave the default settings, changing only the size of the image, making it smaller, as is customary for gifs. We set the width to 350, the height is calculated automatically.

The animation was saved in gif format. To open it and see how it will look in the browser, right-click "To open with" and select a browser.