GIFs from photographs. How to quickly create GIF animation in Photoshop. How to easily make a GIF image for advertising, banners and teasers

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 are eye-catching 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 the 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

There are many things you can do with Photoscape interesting effects in your videos. 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 uploading them from your image gallery or Flicker, YouTube, Picasa account. The service provides Safe Browsing, and it's effective.

Pros: free.
Cons: Internet access required.

8. MakeAGif

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

The world is going crazy over GIFs. They are everywhere. And not only on social networks and forums, they began to illustrate scientific articles, they are used by the media, and even companies post gif animations on Landing Pages. To attract attention, of course. Our brain is designed in such a way that it is more likely to be interested in what moves than in a static picture. If you also need a GIF, then come here – we’ll learn how to make them.

The search engine returns a bunch of sites where you can create GIF animation online, but not all of them work correctly. Here are verified resources.

1.Toolson.net. Fit and free service, to create gif online. If you want more opportunities, register. The only thing is that the video needs to be downloaded first. Select the required segment of the video and click save - the gif is ready. Add captions, play with fonts and styles. Here is a gif animation created on this resource.

2.Giphy. You don't even need to download videos here. GIFs are created from videos taken from YouTube. Just copy the link to the video, paste it into the search bar and go automatic download. When the video loads, select the episode you want.

3.Photoshop. An assistant for all times. It can be used to remove logos from videos. third party resources, add inscriptions, special effects. The video must already be downloaded and, importantly, not exceed five seconds. Open the video ( File – Import – Frames to layers) and let's go. Create!

How to create a GIF from photos, pictures

Ezgif. Easy to use service. Upload pictures, add captions and you're done! You can select the “delay” range, the default is 20 milliseconds, so that it doesn’t flicker very quickly, make it 50.

How to create a GIF on iPhone

GifsArt. Cool free application. Here are the instructions.

1. Open the application and select a photo or image to create a GIF animation.

2. Now click on “Stickers” and look for something worthwhile. There are a lot of banal stickers, but there are also some cute ones.

3. If nothing works, insert an animation of snow or raindrops. To do this, select the “Masks” tab. You'll find effects there.

4. When you add the animation, click “Apply” and adjust the speed of movement.

How to create a GIF on Android

PicsArt Animator. Comfortable and free program. Instead of stickers, there are stickers here. Choose a background (for example, a city) and characters (people, animals, birds, planes, cars). Create funny pictures. Try it!

So, to summarize, there are many services for creating GIFs, mostly they work online. Choose the one you like best. If you don’t have time to create GIF animation, keep a couple of sites where you can download ready-made GIFs:

GIFs are everywhere. The once humble animated images are now the unofficial language of the internet. GIF animation is the most quick way express emotions on Twitter, and we can also spend hours watching it, scrolling through the news feed on VK, Facebook or Odnoklassniki.

There are quite a large number of sites where you can find ready-made gifs on a variety of topics. But nothing beats GIF animation made by your own with my own hands. Do you think this is difficult process? You're wrong, it's quite simple. Quickly create GIF animation possible in the graphic editor Photoshop, converting already existing video, or using a series of static images. Let's take a closer look at how this is done.

Note: In all the examples in this article, I'm using Photoshop CC 2017.

How to create GIF animation from video

First, you need to launch Photoshop, go to “File” > “Import” > “Video Frames to Layers” and select the desired video recording.

In the dialog box that opens, you can import the entire video recording, or select only a certain part of it. If you choose the second option, drag the handles below the window preview to set the start and end points. The portion of the video between these handles will be imported.

Note: Keep in mind that what more videos, which you import, the larger your GIF will be. Also, if you're importing a video that's too long, choosing Keep Every 2 Frames (or more) is an easy way to reduce the size without affecting the quality too much.

Make sure the Create frame-by-frame animation checkbox is checked, then click OK. The video import process will begin. This may take some time, depending on the size of the clip. After the import is complete, it will open Workspace, in which each video frame will be placed on its own layer.

At the bottom of the screen there is a time scale palette. It shows all the frames that will make up your GIF animation.

You can add and remove frames as you wish, or edit any of the existing layers just as you would edit layers in any other image. To preview your GIF animation, simply click the Play button at the bottom of the timeline.

The end result should be something like this:

Creating GIF animation from a series of static images

If you don't have video footage to use as the basis for your GIF animation, you can create one manually from a series of static images. It's a little more complicated, especially if you want to make something cool, but the basic process is simple.

You create your GIF from a single image file containing multiple layers. Each layer is a separate frame of your future animation. There are two ways to get started:

  1. If you've already created images for your animation, import them by choosing File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack.... Click Browse and select your images, then click OK. Each image will be placed on a separate layer within the same file.
  2. If you haven't created images yet, do so now. Remember that every separate image- this is part of future animation.

Now you are ready to start creating animation.

Animating static images

Here's how it works. When you manually create an animation frame, every visible layer is included in it. Layers that are disabled will not be included in the generated frame.

To create the first frame, make the very first layer visible and turn off all the others. Then, when creating the second frame, make the second layer visible, and then the third layer on the third frame, and so on. Once you start, everything will become clearer.

To start creating an animation, open the timeline if it does not open automatically for you. To do this in top panel Click "Window" and select "Timeline" from the menu that opens. In the center of the panel that opens, click “Create frame animation.” This action will create the first frame of your animation. In the Layers palette, hide layers that you don't want to be part of the frame.

Now click the "New Frame" button, which will duplicate the previous frame. Once again, hide the extra layers, and make those that should be included in the frame visible.

Repeat this process until you have added all the frames needed for the animation.

Completion

Finally, set the display time for each frame. Select the first frame, and then Shift-click on the last one to select them all. Now click the down arrow below one of the frames and select a delay. No delay means the animation will run quickly, while the set number of seconds will cause the frames to remain on screen for specified period time.

Finally, set the loop options, which you'll find at the bottom of the Timeline panel. This parameter controls how many times your animation will play. In most cases, you will select the "Always" option.

Now click the Play button at the bottom of the screen to view the resulting animation. You should see something like this:

You can edit frames by simply selecting them and changing the visibility of the layers (you can also change the opacity or make other more complex settings). Add additional layers if you need them, or click the trash can icon to delete them.

When you're happy with the result, you can move on to the "Saving Animation" section, or read on to improve the resulting animation.

Enhancing animation by adding intermediate frames

Photoshop supports a powerful animation tween feature. This allows you to create more smooth animations, automatically generating transition frames between two existing frames. In this example, I'm going to go over all the frames to give the starry sky a twinkling effect.

To begin, select the first frame and click the Create Tweaks button in the toolbar at the bottom of the timeline.

In the dialog box that opens, set the “Intermediate frames” item to the “Next frame” value, and for the “Add frames” item, specify the value at your discretion. More high value means a smoother but slower transition. Click "OK" to create the intermediate frames.

Now repeat this process for the other source frames you added. When you get to the last one, set "Inbetween Frames" to "First Frame". This will help create smooth transition to the beginning of your animation loop.

Click the play button to preview the effect.

Saving Animation

When you're done, first save the file as a ".PSD" file. This will save all the layer and animation information so you can edit your animation later if needed. After this, you can proceed directly to saving.

To save the created animation, go to File > Export > Save for Web ( old version)...". In the window that opens, select GIF format, and in the “Colors” field enter 256. In order to reduce overall size file, reduce the size in the “Image Size” field.

You can see the size of the animation in the lower left corner of the preview window. If it's too big, drag the Waste slider to the right. This will affect the quality, but will significantly reduce the file size.

Gif animation is well known to those who deal with the creation of banners and various moving elements. Almost every Internet user has at least once encountered an animated moving picture in the form of an advertisement or part of a website. Benefits of GIF animation are obvious: a movable bright element can attract much more attention and embody almost any designer’s idea. But what is Gif animation, and what does it consist of? How to make a GIF? What program can you use to create Gif animation? What are the advantages of our free Gif programs Animator?

Gif format: features and benefits

Gif file combines several images that are displayed on the screen in a certain sequence and ultimately form an animated element. Therefore, to create a Gif animation, do not rush to immediately turn to our free Gif Animator program - first prepare a set of pictures from which your moving image will be created, and clearly think through the essence of what you want to get in the end.

So, you've used Gif Animator to create a free animation and now you've decided to post the result on your website. And here many pleasant discoveries await you:
  • The procedure for posting Gif animation on the web is no different from posting a non-animated image - a regular Gif.
  • The free animated image that you decide to create using the Gif Animator program on our website does not require any additional plugins to view.
  • Due to compression when creating Gifs, the animation ends up being small in size.
  • After creating Gifs animation can be cached. There is no need to contact the server again. The same as for working with Animated Gif the image does not require re-connection with the server.
  • Having decided using our free online programs Gif Animator creates an animated image, then you can simply place it on the page - you do not need to use any programming techniques to do this.

How to make free animation in Gif Animator?

Unfortunately, specialized programs There are not many that allow you to quickly, efficiently, and most importantly - create GIF animation online for free. That's why we offer you our unique product– Gif Animator program, with which you can minimal costs time to create any moving picture.

Our free program Gif Animator to create animated images online is easy to use. All that is required of you is perform several simple actions:
  • choose required images for creating free Gif animations;
  • download them in the sequence in which you want to see them as a result;
  • Click “Create Gif”.
A few seconds of work in the online Gif Animator program - and your free animated image is ready! Now you can download your Gif file to your computer and install it wherever you want!

To get much more opportunities to work with the free online program for creating animated images Gif Animator - just register on our website!


You can continue creating Gif animation, even if you had to interrupt your work during your previous visit to the resource. After all, you can always find all your creations on the site! A best Gifs the animations that you were able to create using our free online program Gif Animator will end up in the site gallery and will be able to become a source of your personal pride.

Making a GIF is actually not that difficult if you have the graphics editor Photoshop. 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." install any right time to play 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 required format– GIF. You can edit below original size, if you do less (in percentage), then 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. It was just mentioned there PhotoScape program. 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– a free program, you can easily download it from 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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