How to make a GIF the easy way. Creating gif images from several photos

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Have you ever wondered how animated GIFs are created? The author of the lesson invites you to master some animation secrets in one night with the help of this lesson. You will also learn how to use the Timeline, which is available in Photoshop versions CS6. Now let's begin!

Lesson result.

Step 1

Create new document (Ctrl + N) with file dimensions of 800 x 500 pixels. Fill the background with any color you want. Now let's go to the menu Layers- Stylelayer- Overlaygradient(Layer > Layer Styles > Gradient Overlay). Apply following settings: Style Radial(Radial), colors from black (#000000) to blue (#54799b), which will be used in the center.

Step 2

Create a new layer and name it Noise Layer. Select a tool Fill(Paint Bucket Tool) and fill the created layer with a dark color (#231f20). Leave the layer active Noise Layer and go to the menu Filter - Noise - Add Noise(Filter>Noise>Add Noise). In the filter settings dialog box, set the following values: Effect(Amount) 3%, distribution Uniform(Uniform) and click OK.

Step 3

Press the key combination (Ctrl +U) and in the correction settings dialog box that appears, enter the values Saturation(Saturation) 100%: Change the blending mode of this layer to Soft light (Soft Light).

Translator's note: in order to achieve the same color as the author in the screenshot, you can adjust the Hue/Saturation value Color tone(Hue) put on - 140.

Step 4

Add any text you want. Here we will use the text of the 123RF website logo. In layer styles use Stroke(Stroke). Select stroke size values according to your preferences.

Translator's note: On the author's screenshot there is already rasterized text along with the Stroke style. To get the same result, after applying the stroke, remove the Fill (Fill) of the 0% text layer, convert this layer to a smart object, and then rasterize it.

Step 5

In this step we will create a glowing effect for the text using layer styles. Double-click on the layer to bring up the Style Options window. To customize layer styles, use the screenshots below.

Embossing(Bevel & Emboss)

Inner shadow(Inner Shadow)

Inner glow(Inner Glow)

Color overlay(Color Overlay)

External glow(Outer Glow)

Shadow(Drop Shadow)

Step 6

Once you're done creating lighting effects using layer styles, go to the layers palette and reduce the value of this layer Fills(Fill) by 0%.

Step 7

Duplicate the layer you created in step 5 and turn off all layer styles on this copy. Now set the styles like this:

Inner shadow(Inner Shadow)

Inner glow(Inner Glow)

Step 8

Below is the result after you applied the layer styles.

Step 9

Now we will create moving spots of light. Create 5 layers on top of the existing ones, and rename them as 1,2,3, R and F. If you have your own text, create layers according to your letters. Group these layers into a folder and give it a name Light Spots and change the blending mode to Lightening the base(Color Dodge).

Activate the tool Brush (Brush Tool), select a soft brush, set Opacity(Opacity) to 95% and draw spots on top of the text with white color. For each letter there is a separate light spot on its own layer. Below in the screenshot you can see how the author’s layers look in the layers palette.

Step 10

Now let's go to the menu Window - Timeline(Window > Timeline). You will notice that your layers are already built in this palette on the left side of it. Select each of the five highlight layers that are in the group. Light Spots and make sure that the current time indicator (blue slider) is at frame zero. Now on each layer in the group, when it is active, click on the option Position(Position) to create a keyframe.

Translator's note: To activate the time scale, click the button Create a timeline for a video(Create Video Timeline) and all your layers will load into the timeline. The same layer or group will be selected as in the layers palette.

Step 11

Set the current time indicator (blue slider) to 01:00 F and move the layers with light spots along the trajectory of their movement relative to the outline of the letter.

Step 12

This is what the initial position of the light spot on the letters will look like. Move the current time indicator along the scale and move layers with light spots, creating key frames. Continue moving them until you've finished moving the speck across the entire letter of each text layer. For instructions, see a few screenshots below.

Essentially, a “gif” is an image that combines animation and drawing. Main feature GIF is that it is very easy to create. Today we will tell you about such an Internet phenomenon as gifs and tell you how to make them.

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How to make a GIF from a photo?

As we wrote, creating a “gif” is a simple process. Today they use special online services to create gifs. We will tell you how to make a “GIF” from a photo using the online service:

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Find online “gif” animation services on the Internet (for example: gifovina.ru or minimultik.ru).
find the pictures that you will use to create a “gif”
copy these files to your computer
select the desired size of the future animation (“large”, “avatar”, etc.)
select the speed at which frames will change
Click the “continue” (or “continue”) button.

Today VKontakte is the most popular social network in the vastness of the CIS countries. The opportunities provided by VKontakte have long gone beyond ordinary communication using the Internet: you can play games, watch videos, listen to music and much more. Now you will learn how to carry out various manipulations with VKontakte gifs.

If there is a ready-made “gif”

“Gifs” can be found on the Internet. If you have a ready-made gif, or one that you have created, you can insert it into Vkontakte. You will need:

copy or remember the link to the “gif”
insert or enter a link to the “gif” in the window on your wall.
then click on the “Submit” button

Save the “gif”

If you find interesting gifs on the Internet or on the pages of friends on Vkontakte, you can save them for yourself and use them in right time. You will need:

create a “Documents” section on your page
if the section has already been created, go to it and click on the “add document” button.
if this is a “GIF” from the user’s VKontakte page, click on the “plus sign” that is located on the “GIF” and follow further instructions.
If you want to use a GIF, you will need to find it in your documents and attach it to a post or wall.

Video lessons

Making a GIF is actually not that difficult if you have the Photoshop graphics editor installed. With this program we can make a GIF from a photo or video by converting it.

Don't despair if you don't have Photoshop programs. At the end of the article, we will look at another method that will allow you to make a GIF from photos (it won’t work with a video) in the free PhotoScape program.

How to make a GIF from a photo in Photoshop?

Open Photoshop. In the “File” tab, select “Scripts”, and then “Load files into stack...”. In the window that appears, select the images (photos, pictures) that will make up the animation.

After the layers appear in the list on the right, click on the top “Window” tab, then “Timeline”. In the center of the panel that appears, select “Create Frame Animation.”

Make the first layer visible, hide the rest by clicking on the “eye”. You will receive the first frame of the GIF with the desired image.

Next, copy this layer in the panel as many times as you have in total photos that you want to insert into the animation. After copying the layers, you will notice that they will all be the same (logical), because... The first layer is still visible, and the rest are also hidden.

Now we do the following: click on the second layer in the animation panel - make ONLY the second layer visible in the main work list of layers. Third frame of animation - make ONLY the third layer visible, the rest are hidden.

Where "about sec." set any desired time for playback opposite each frame.

To display frames continuously, we need to select the “Continuous” value. Just below where we selected the playback time for each layer, there is a window for selecting loop parameters.

We can say that the gif from the photo is ready. All that remains is to save it correctly. To do this, in the “File” tab, click “Export”, then select “Save for Web ( old version)...". A window will open, at the top of which select the desired format - GIF. You can edit below original size, if you do less (in percentage terms), the weight will also decrease.

How to make a GIF from a video in Photoshop?

Open Photoshop, in the “Files” tab, select “Import”, then “Video Stills”. In the window that opens, select the range of video that we want to convert into GIF. If you want to convert the entire video, select “From start to end”; if you want to convert a certain part, select “Selected range only.” In the second case, to the right you need to select a video segment that will be converted into layers.

If the video is heavy, it is better to set the value 2 in the “Leave each...” column. If it is more than 2, then the smoothness of frame transitions will suffer. If it’s not important, then 4 can be used, as in my case.

Next, in the “Window” tab, select “Timeline”. All layers for future animation will appear in the pop-up panel. It is noteworthy that in this case we do not separate layers into visible/invisible, as was the case when creating GIFs from photos. Those. immediately the layers in the animation panel should be different and, of course, in the correct order. We simply set the frame playback time (if necessary) and the cycle parameters time to “Constant”. Click “Play”. The GIF from the preview video in Photoshop will already work as it should.

Now we save it in the same way as a regular gif from a photo: To do this, in the “File” tab, click “Export”, then select “Save for Web (old version) ...”. A window will open, at the top of which select the desired format - GIF. Below you can edit the number of colors (the more, the better quality), the original size... If you make it smaller (as a percentage), the weight will also decrease. Don’t forget to click “Save” and select a location to store the file. All is ready!

How to make a GIF from a photo easily and simply?

If the option with Photoshop doesn’t suit you: something doesn’t work out or it’s simply not installed, then you can go the other way. In one of our old articles we discussed. The PhotoScape program was just mentioned there. I can't help but repeat myself, but she is truly one of the best of her kind. In addition to photo editing, you can make a GIF from a photo (you can’t make a GIF from a video). And I can say that the process of creating animation in this editor will take much less time than in Photoshop.

PhotoScape – free program, you can easily download it on the official website. Installation is quick and does not require any activation keys. When you launch the program, find “Gif animation” in the top tabs. Add a photo, and then you can easily figure it out additional settings, for example, transition parameters. And save your finished file.

In this way, you can very quickly and easily make a GIF from a photo, without looking for any services on the Internet for this matter. Moreover, the editor may come in handy in the future; it is very versatile. I wholeheartedly advise you to try it.

This concludes our article. In general, making a GIF from a photo and video is not as difficult as it turned out. If you have any questions about the article or the process itself, write in the comments. We'll be happy to help. Good luck!

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GIF animation - a series of cyclically changing images and video frames - is one of the popular formats Internet content. This format is especially loved by Internet marketers for its ability to attract the attention of the audience. The GIF format is used to create advertising banners, presentation materials for products and services in a commercial environment, entertaining content on social networks. GIF animation is more effective than static images, and it beats video content due to its light weight and ability to convey the essence of information, like an image, almost instantly. And creating “gifs” is a process that is many times simpler than filming and editing a video.

Of course, the process of creating GIF animation has its own levels of skill. At a professional level, GIFs are created using powerful graphic editors like Adobe Photoshop. A simpler method is to use functional, highly targeted programs designed specifically for creating GIF animation. They are not as complex as professional-level graphic editors, but still not everyone will be able to master them in one evening.

Programs for gif animation are EximiousSoft GIF Creator, FotoMorph, Ulead Gif Animator and their analogues are notable for the presence of special effects. To create a simple GIF animation you don’t need any special skills. Amateur “gifs” can be created simply, quickly and for free. There are special web services for this on the Internet. They can complement the functionality of simple graphic editors or image managers that cannot export to GIF format, but have the necessary options for correcting pictures, interesting effects and are easy to use. How to make a gif animation from a picture? Let's look at three simple web services and the ways they offer to create GIF animation online below.

Programs for creating GIF animation

1. ToolsOn web service

The ToolsOn web service is a kind of philistine portal that offers free, simple tools for solving various kinds of problems: creating ringtones, logos, icons, photo collages, GIF animations. GIFs can be created from images and videos. To bring static pictures to life, click on the “Create GIF Animation” section of the service, add images stored on your computer (their total weight should not exceed 15 MB), give the animation a name, set the frame delay time and the loop playback option (if necessary).

If the starting materials have various sizes, you can set your own frame width and height in pixels to get away from automatic selection. ToolsOn even offers several effects to add to your original images. However, apart from the black-and-white retro-style filter, the design style of the other filters leaves much to be desired. Finally, click “Create”.

After processing the task, the created animation is downloaded to the computer.

The advantage of the ToolsOn service is that it does not work by type free photo hosting sites with the mandatory placement of user content on your server. In the process of creating GIF animation, the user is only invited to exhibit his work in the site gallery. The “Allow access” option responsible for this matter is inactive by default. By the way, in the gallery you can see the works of users who wish to post their “gifs” on ToolsOn. The transition to the GIF gallery is implemented in the footer of the site.

Creating GIF animation from videos is as easy as using pictures. In the ToolsOn section “Convert video to GIF”, click the button labeled “Video to GIF converter”.

To the site form, add a video file located on your computer in MP4, OGV, OGG, WEBM formats supported by the service. Next, in the preview player of the downloaded video, select the starting point for the animation. Set the frame rate value and click “Start Recording”. Upon completion of the desired segment of the video, press the “Stop Recording” button. We save the GIF animation as output to a file.

2. Gif creator web service

The Gif creator web service offers a larger list of source materials for creating output GIF animation than the previous participant in the review. “Gifs” can be created not only from pictures and videos stored on disk, but also from photos created during the process using a computer camera. GIF animation created using tools in the browser window is hosted on the web service server, from where the files can be downloaded to your computer. Buttons for sharing the link on social networks will help you avoid losing the web address of the created “masterpiece.” But Gif creator can also work locally, for this you just need to use a free client application for iOS, Android or Windows 10. Due to the availability of client applications, their simplicity and convenience, the Gif creator web service was chosen for this review from a considerable number of web resources offering free creation GIF animations online.

Gif creator client applications only support the creation of GIF animations from images - either existing on the computer or created along the way using the camera. In the application window, select the “Gif from pictures” section.

Using the corresponding buttons below, we either activate the camera to take pictures, or add existing images. Finally, click the check mark button.

Then we set the animation frame delay value, add some kind of caption if desired, and click the “Apply” button. If you only need local save GIF, then use the “Save” button, and the file will be saved in a special place on the device. For Windows 10, for example, this is the "Gif creator" folder inside the user profile's "Images" folder.

All GIFs created using the app appear in the local My Gifs gallery. Any of them can later be deleted both from the computer and from the Gif creator server.

3. Google Photos web service

Web service Google Photos– photo hosting from the largest Internet search engine – a clear winner in the “Easiest way to create GIF” category. But that's it for now. The fact is that photo hosting from Google is actively developing, but it can already be assumed that the search giant intends to make a kind of unique product with a minimum of tools for users, but with a maximum of declared capabilities. Plus, Google Photos is designed to be a smart product. The service itself catalogs uploaded images by tags of shooting location and subject matter, and can create spectacular videos from photos like slide shows. And after installation client application for iOS, Android or Windows and leaving it running in background, Google company will also invisibly guard the safety of user media libraries, automatically sending copies of created photos and videos to the Google Photos online storage. Among the options available to users within the service are simple image editing, applying effects, creating collages and GIF animations.

To create a “gif” in Google web interface Photo select the first section “Assistant”, and in it click the “Animation” button.

Select the desired images from those pre-loaded into Google Photos and click the “Create” button.

The GIF animation will open in a browser window, with options for downloading it to your computer, adding it to previously created albums, receiving a public link, and sharing it on social networks.

All GIF animations created in this way are stored in the Google Photos “Albums” section, in the “Animations” subsection.

Having no customization options when creating GIFs, Google Photos outperforms other services by uploading more weight source images. For free storage media content in Google Photos, each registered user is allocated 15 GB of cloud space. You can include up to 50 images in the animation.

Have a great day!

08/23/17 55.4K

The term GIF ( Graphics Interchange Format listen)) was introduced in the late 80s by one of the leading American companies called CompuServe, which was later bought by AOL.

Why use a GIF image?

The GIF editor can express everything from emotions to commercial and marketing ideas. GIFs catch your eye potential clients when viewing the site.

Use a GIF to express your style. And also used to create a brand of a company, service or product. There are many resources available on the Internet to help you create GIFs.

Top 10 Best Tools for Making GIFs

First, let's list the best software products.

The first program on the list is Wondershare Filmora. She is considered one of best programs to create videos and GIFs. It is easy to use and provides many functions and more than 100 visual effects. And full control over audio and video settings.

Easy to use;
Allows you to create GIFs from static images;
Allows you to create GIF from videos of any format, for example, AVI, MPEG, WAV, DAT, EVO, MKV, MP4, WMV, etc.;
Allows you to edit GIF using commands such as crop, combine, rotate, speed up, slow down, color correction;
Allows you to edit GIFs with amazing effects, text and subtitles.

2.Photoscape

You can create a lot of cool effects in your videos using Photoscape. The GIF editor includes the following tools and features:

Editor;
View;
Animated GIFs;
Color selection;
Framing;
Filters.

Pros: easy to use.
Cons: a little slow.

3.Gifted Motion

Uses Java and can work in all operating systems. No installation required.

Allows you to edit images;
Supports PNG, JPEG, BMP, GIF;
No license required.

Files compatible with all Windows editions, including 32 and 64-bit versions. This is one of the few programs designed using green information technologies (Green Software) .

Create movies, slideshows, animated GIFs and more.

Pros: consumes little device power, easy to use.
Cons: Incomplete control over the editing process.

Online services for creating GIFs

Exists a large number of online services that allow you to create GIF images. One of the problems with such resources is privacy and watermarking. Therefore, please pay attention to the terms of service before downloading images.

5.Picasion

Picasion allows you to import photos or videos from Picasa, Flickr or any other gallery. This service Available in multiple languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian. You can adjust the size of images, create and add your own avatar.

Pros: easy to use free GIF editor, supports many formats.
Cons: displays a large number of advertisements.

6. GifPal

An easy-to-use GIF maker.

Frame speed adjustment.
Editing the timeline.
30 effects.
Up to 20 frames.
No watermarks on photos.

Pros : free tool with beneficial effects.
Cons: Animated GIF editor requires internet access to use.

7. Gickr

Gickr makes it easy to create your own GIF images by downloading them from an image gallery or from a Flicker, YouTube, Picasa account. The service provides safe browsing and is effective.

Pros: free.
Cons: Internet access required.

8. MakeAGif

Create your own GIFs and enjoy fantastic features in a safe environment.