How Do I Make Flat Art Look Like Its on Clothing?
A GIF, or "Graphics Interchange Format", is a compressed image file format that allows for animation. There are many ways to create a GIF, just Photoshop is fast and easy, with born tools for epitome manipulation and animating.
Just like classic blitheness, an animated GIF is made upward of a series of still images played sequentially to create the illusion of movement. Observe a GIF off the internet and drag it into Photoshop, and you will come across the dissever frames that make up the animation. These frames are what we're going to build in this tutorial in gild to animate a killer banner ad GIF.
Without further ado, hither's how to make an animated GIF in Photoshop.
Step 1: Set upward the dimensions and resolution of your Photoshop document
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Set upward your document alee of fourth dimension. Even if your only ambition is to create a shareable GIF for your friends on social media, letting the size of your photos or video dictate the size of your document might make the file larger than y'all need it to be, which translates into a poor quality GIF. In general, somewhere in the region of 600px-800px is fine for a square image.
Dimensions
For this project, we are working with a imprint advertisement GIF, which has standard sizing guidelines. I chose the 720×300 layout. Make sure your units are in pixels.
Resolution
To go on the file size every bit depression as possible, a resolution of 150 is fine. I went with 300 since I know my GIF isn't going to be that large. Make certain your units are in Pixels/inch.
Color fashion
Finally, animated GIFs are made for the screen, and then set your color way to RGB color. Press Create to open up your new certificate.
Step 2: Import your epitome files into Photoshop
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Making a GIF from still images
Go to File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack and select the Browse button in the Load Layers window that comes upward. This brings up the Finder/Explorer window where yous can browse for your files and select all of the ones you demand. When y'all're finished, click Open and so OK in the side by side window. The files will be imported into a split document, from which you can select all layers and drag them into your working document.
Making a GIF from video
If you lot are converting a video into a GIF, go to File > Import > Video Frames to Layers.
Step 3: Open the timeline window
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Become to Window > Timeline. This will open a panel in the lower third of the sheet. In the center of the console, click on the pointer to open the dropdown bill of fare, and select Create Frame Animation.
Step 4: Convert your layers into frames
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Your kickoff frame volition already be ready up, made of all of the visible layers (meaning the layer visibility, or centre icon, is switched on) in your document. Now all you have to practice is fill the Timeline with multiple frames to simulate movement. There are 2 ways to do this: import frames yous have already prepared or create your animation from scratch in Photoshop. This section will cover the kickoff scenario.
If you take already set upward still, sequential images ahead of fourth dimension (or are working from imported video frames, encounter Step 2), click on the hamburger card icon in the upper right corner of the Timeline panel. Select Make Frames From Layers. You will see the timeline populate with frames from your layers.
Step v: Indistinguishable frames to create your animation
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If you lot have not fix up the notwithstanding images alee of time or demand to arrange parts of the blitheness y'all created in Step iv, you lot can create the blitheness manually frame by frame (which is how I fabricated my animation). To exercise this, indistinguishable the final frame in the timeline (click on the earmarked folio icon in the tools panel below the timeline), brand the changes you need to make on your paradigm, and repeat.
For case, my animation is a pair of sunglasses sliding downwards over the subject'due south eyes. To do this, I duplicated the frame, moved the sunglasses down a few pixels (how many pixels was a matter of trial and fault—more than on that afterward), and repeated this procedure until I had nigh fifteen frames and the sunglasses were where I wanted them, resulting in smooth downward glide blitheness.
Footstep 6: Set up the delay time of each frame
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Y'all tin can find the filibuster timer at the lesser of each frame (the time in seconds with a dropdown pointer next to it).
Click the pointer to bring upward the menu and choose the amount of time you want the frame to brandish on screen.
You lot can prepare the duration of individual frames or multiple frames at once by selecting all of the frames you need and using the dropdown menu for i of them.
Tip: Many frames with short delays is the key to polish animations whereas few frames with long delays creates a jerky, stop-motility effect.
Step 7: Set the number of times the animation will loop
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As well located in the tools console below the timeline is the loop setting. You can set your blitheness to loop Forever, Once, or a specific number of times.
Pace 8: Preview and iterate on your blitheness
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The play button in the timeline window's tool console allows you to preview your blitheness. Use this to make sure that your animation is conceivable and behaving as information technology should. If it isn't, try tinkering around with delay or adding more frames until you get the results that y'all desire. Conversely, this is as well a great time to experiment with removing equally many frames as you lot can without breaking the illusion of move in social club to get the lowest file size possible.
Footstep 9: Export your Photoshop document as a GIF
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Showtime of all, don't forget to relieve your working PSD!
Once you lot're ready to consign your final GIF, go to File > Export > Salvage for Web (Legacy). (Note: if yous are working with an older version of Photoshop, it will likely be File > Save for Web & Devices). This will bring up the export window.
At that place are a lot of options here, just we only need a handful for our purposes. First, make sure you set the file type to GIF in the dropdown box in the upper right. The rest of the options I've highlighted in the image below are optional but helpful for producing a lightweight file. Allow's walk through them at present.
Trim the file size
Your main goal with the remaining options is to keep your file size low by decreasing the amount of details in your GIF without sacrificing image quality. Remember that a large file size ways a slow load time, which can be especially punishing for marketing purposes similar imprint ads, where the viewer wasn't looking for your content and won't be waiting around for it to load. Aim to stay beneath 1MB. Up to 5MB is doable on most websites but pushing it. You lot can run across your GIF's file size in the lesser left corner of console containing the preview prototype.
Reduce the color information
Unnecessary colour information is the biggest culprit when it comes to a large file size. To cut it downward, adjust the total number of colors in the dropdown box labeled "Colors:" and reduce the dither (the blending of pixels to create seamless shading) setting beneath it. Equally yous make changes, keep an middle on the preview image of your GIF on the left side to come across how the resolution is being affected.
Convert to sRGB
sRGB, or "Standard RGB," has a narrower range of colors than the default "Adobe RGB," and then brand sure to bank check that box.
Save
One time you're happy with your resolution and file size, hit the save button at the bottom of the window. To make sure that everything came out alright, you lot can preview the finished GIF file by dragging it into a browser's URL box.
Step x: Share your finished Photoshop GIF!
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And there you have information technology—your finished GIF, set to exist shared all across the earth wide web. Now that you have the skills to create basic Photoshop animations from videos and yet images, you can gifify almost annihilation!
While this method is useful for quick, fun GIFs, GIFs for professional purposes should be a lot more robust than my silly sunglasses advertising. Learning the software is straightforward, only animation itself is a tricky art course that takes practice and expertise. When you lot're ready to up your GIF game, brand certain y'all're working with a professional.
Looking for professional person aid creating an animation?
Work with one of our talented designers!
This commodity was originally written by Rebecca Creger and published in 2013. It's been updated with new information and examples.
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Source: https://99designs.com/blog/design-tutorials/create-a-gif-in-photoshop/