Who doesn’t love a good GIF? Making your own is more straightforward than you might think. Read on to learn how to make a GIF.
Did you know that GIF, which stands for Graphics Interchange Format, goes as far back as 1987? It was Steve Wilhite who brought GIFs to life. Formerly black and white images, the GIF transfers with 256 colors.
With the Graphics Control Extension (GCE), people were able to use animations as GIFs through timed delays. GIFs use a compressed format that allows slow modems to load with ease. GIFs gained popularity over the years on digital platforms like Tumblr.
If you want to know how to make a GIF by yourself, we got you! Read on for an easy guide and start making original GIFs today!
How to Make a GIF With Giphy
If you’re learning how to make a GIF for the first time, start with Giphy! Giphy is a reputable and well-known database for GIFs. Giphy also offers a simple and free GIF-making tool.
How to Make a GIF From a YouTube Video
Giphy is the easiest and fastest way to turn a YouTube video into a GIF. Provided that the YouTube video is shorter than 15 minutes and adheres to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, you can turn it into a GIF. If you want to know how to make a GIF from a video, follow these steps.
- Open Giphy on your browser and go to Giphy’s GIF-making service.
- You may also use this link: https://giphy.com/create/gifmaker.
- Find the YouTube video you want to turn into a GIF and copy its link address.
- Paste it into Giphy’s input bar.
- Use Giphy’s GIF-tools to edit the duration of your GIF.
- Choose the length of your video and adjust accordingly.
When you’re done editing the length of your GIF, you can add decorations to it. With Giphy, you can decorate your GIF with text, stickers, filters, or even hand-drawn animations. Upload your GIF to Giphy when you’re done.
How to Make a GIF From Your Tablet or Smartphone
If you want to make a GIF from your tablet or smartphone, Giphy has a free app available on the app store. This application is available on both the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. Here’s how to make a GIF using the Giphy app on your tablet or smartphone.
- Download the Giphy app from your device’s app store. Launch the app.
- Select the Create+ button in the upper right corner of your screen.
- Select the library icon and select video footage from your tablet or phone’s camera roll. Select the camera button if you want to record a new video.
Like Giphy’s main website, you can add stickers or text to your GIF. Drag and drop your desired stickers, filters, or texts to add them to your GIF. Select Share GIF to share your new GIF with your friends or to save it to your device.
How to Make a GIF From a Slideshow
Giphy allows you to select images from your device and merge them into a slideshow GIF. If you want to turn a group of pictures into an animated GIF, here’s how. Follow these steps.
- Open Giphy on your browser and go to Giphy’s GIF-making service.
- On their main page, select Choose Photo Or GIF. This will open a file upload window.
- On Giphy’s Slideshow Settings page, adjust the duration of your selected images.
- You can reorder your existing images or add more if you want.
If you want, you can add decorations to your Slideshow GIF. Share it with your friends or save it to your device when done.
How to Make a GIF in Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop offers a variety of digital editing tools. Adobe Photoshop’s services range from editing pictures to making animations. If you’re familiar with using Adobe Photoshop’s tools, here’s how to make a GIF in Photoshop.
How to Make a Slideshow GIF With Photoshop
You can use Photoshop to make a GIF out of a slideshow animation. You can also use this method if you want to make a GIF out of a frame animation. Here’s how to make an animated gif with Photoshop.
- Launch Adobe Photoshop. Select File and navigate Scripts.
- Select Load Files Into Stack. Upload the images you want to use for your GIF. Click OK.
- On the toolbar, navigate and select Window. Click Timeline. This will open a timeline window at the bottom of your screen.
- Use the drop-down tool in the middle of the timeline window.
- Select Create Frame Animation then click the same button again.
- At the top right corner of the timeline window, select the hamburger button.
- Click Make Frame From Layers.
- Preview your animation by pressing on the spacebar or clicking on the play button.
- Reverse the order of your frames by opening the hamburger window and select Reverse Frames.
- Set the duration for each frame by clicking on the tiny arrow located at the bottom of each frame.
- Set your GIF into a looping animation by selecting Forever at the bottom left corner of the timeline window.
- To finalize your GIF, select Files at your Photoshop toolbar. Select Export, then Export As.
Finish exporting your GIF by setting the format to GIF. Select Export All.
How to Make a GIF From a Video Using Photoshop
Photoshop allows you to import videos and turn them into GIFs. If you want to use Photoshop to turn a video into a GIF, here’s how.
- Launch Adobe Photoshop. Select File and select Import > Video Frames To Layers.
- Locate and import your desired video from your device.
- Trim your video or use the entire clip.
- Open the hamburger window on the top right corner of your timeline window. Select Make Frames From Layers.
- Set your GIF into a looping animation by selecting Forever at the bottom corner of the timeline window.
Follow the steps above to finalize and export your GIF.
Now You Know How to Make a GIF!
Learning how to make a GIF using Giphy or Photoshop isn’t difficult as long you follow these steps above. GIFs offer online users a fun way to convey expressions. Make your own GIFs today and share them with your friends.
But why stop with GIFs? If you want to learn more graphic tricks or how to make other kinds of file types, continue reading our content! We offer all sorts of tech guides right here!
