for sure, no problem!! here's a tutorial for how to make the coloring and moving film strip for this gif (original post)
(this is assuming you already know how to make gifs, i'm just going to grab a bunch of screenshots of the psd lol)
starting with the main gif coloring:
this is what it looks like with only lighting and contrast layers applied. there's a lot of similar tones in Shane's face and the background, which meant that i had to use layer masks to make sure the background coloring didn't also affect Shane's face
here's it with my usual coloring layers applied to neutralize the yellow tones in the gif:
next i used a bunch of hue/saturation layers to start to make the background blue. here's the first layer. the red arrows on this pic are pointing out a key part of this process: drag these guides back and forth to include more colors in your saturation change
this first group has four layers in that change the background from neutral yellow to cyan. i put them all in a layer group and added a mask to the group, then painted out Shane's face.
now that the background and Shane's hoodie are all blue and cyan tones, i can use adjustment layers that won't affect Shane's face. i used a bunch of hue/saturation and selective color layers to achieve this warm blue color:
this is pretty good, but for this gifset, i wanted the background to be as consistent and cohesive looking as possible. i want it all to be all shades of the same color of blue, essentially. there are several ways to accomplish this in photoshop. the way i like to do this is using hue/saturation layers. the first of the H/S layers below applies to all the cyan tones, increasing the hue to be more blue. the second layer applies to all the more purpley tones, decreasing the hue value. adjusting the guides on layers like this and stacking them on top of each other will reduce the spectrum of colors in your gif, make it more cohesive looking, and improve the overall image quality of your gif when you export it!
i added a bunch more hue/saturation and selective color layers after this to refine the color i wanted.
the other technique i recommend is using the Black setting in the selective color adjustment layer. this example is more dramatic than what i actually used in my original gifset, but i want to show how much this can change the tone of your gif. it looks best if the blending mode is set to Color.
NOW FOR THE FILM STRIP!!!
you can use this image which is already resized to fit on a 540px gif: film strip image
the goal is to create one giant smart object that contains the film strip outline and all of the smaller gifs within it. the size of the boxes is 184px by 130px. when you load the frames for each of your small gifs, crop them to that ratio, and then resize them to that size exactly. then, line them all up inside your film strip like this:
the first gif repeats at the bottom just to give that scene some more screentime lol, since it will disppear really quickly at the start and then reappear very briefly at the end. also, there's more spots in the film strip that i didn't use. you can add more gifs into it, but the more you add, the faster the film strip will have to move in order to see them all.
then i added a bunch of brightness and exposure layers to make all the scenes visible, and Levels to add more contrast.
then i picked a color from my main gif, and added a Gradient Map layer (black on one end, white on the other, color in the middle)
(i added a bunch of random extra effects like making an outline of the film strip and offsetting it, adding distressed texture to the gifs and the black background, etc.)
once your film strip is ready, select all the layers, right click, and Convert to Smart Object. add that on top of your main gif:
(i also blended the film strip by changing the blend mode to Screen, but since my main gif is pretty light, it was hard to see the film strip, so i painted a black shadow over the left side of the gif to make the film strip more visible. you could also just leave it as Normal blend mode and it would look really similar LOL)
now to rotate the film strip, go to Edit > Free Transform (or hit ctrl+T). type -20 in the angle box on the top row, and click the checkmark to save your changes.
now i used the Timeline to animate the movement of the film strip. with the time marker at the start of my gif, i positioned the film strip in the starting position i wanted. within the timeline window, click the right arrow next to the name of your smart object to expand the keyframes menu. after your gif is in the right position, click on the stopwatch next to 'Transform'. that will make a keyframe with your current time & position
move the time marker to the last frame, then drag the film strip to the ending position you want (up and to the left, to make it look like it's scrolling)
if you want to change anything about the small gifs (timing, coloring, brightness, etc), you can do that by right clicking the smart object and going to Edit Contents, which will open a new window with just your film strip. after you make your changes, make sure to save that window, and then it will update the changes in your main psd file.
once everything is ready, i do Save for Web and export as a gif. then i open the .gif file in photoshop. using keyframes usually makes all your gif frames duplicate, so i delete every other frame, fix the frame speed (0.05 or 0.06 seconds) and then export it again.
and here's the final result!
i hope this was easy to follow and everything - please don't hesitate to send me any questions about this tutorial, or giffing in general!! i'm always happy to help :)
i learned a lot making this set so i wanted to document how i made it :-)
this tutorial assumes you know how to use photoshop and how to make gifs. i dont explain how to do basic things or where to find tools in what views. intermediate level!
if you have any requests or questions, im very willing to help <3
1. grid
tumblr pics are seperated by 4px white barriers (on desktop. on mobile it's a few px larger, which is ridiculous...). so i make a grid with 4px barriers to make it look seamless gif to gif. for this set, i made a 5x5 grid.
a) make 6 horizonal rectangles, 6 vertical rectangles
b) align the top and bottom/leftmost and rightmost rectangles to be on the edge of the outside of the canvas
c) select all the horizontal rectangles and evenly distribute; then vertical
d) check it's all proper by making a grid layout (under view tab) with settings in pic below
e) you've got a grid!
2. import clip
this tutorial assumes you know how to make gifs. my method for this set was:
mp4 -> video frames to layers -> trim to frames -> frame delay to 0.05 -> change size to width 800px -> change from frame to video timeline -> convert to smart object -> smart sharpen (~ amount 150 at 0.06px radius) -> width to 200px -> drag to grid.
i use a TON of actions. speeds up the process a lot.
3. alignment and colour grading
once ive dragged in the gif, you can either make a bunch of other gifs and then edit them into the grid OR make and edit them one by one.
my process for editing the individual gifs:
resize to fit desired boxes -> rectangle select within borders (doesnt have to be exact) -> mask -> colour grade
my colour grading is messyyy as you can see. my process is generally colour grade the individual gifs to have similar lighting (brightness, curves, levels) and colours (hue & sat, vibrance, selective colour, colour balance). then make adjustments that alter all the gifs at once
(there are a lot of particularities here that you only figure out while making the gfs -- like for this set, a lot of scenes looked so different that i had to make different colouring groups for the diff scenes)
ALSO i edit the grid by masking out the lines i dont want individually -- for ease, you can use rectangle select orrr the pencil tool with a square brush. i erase the grid at the end when i have all the gifs
4. export
tumblr only lets you upload gifs that are 10mb in size or less, but in my experience gifs btwn 9.8-10mb have issues so i shoot for <9.8mb. if i dont get within that range, i mess around a few settings. i almost never change 1) number of colours or 2) lossy levels. im more likely to change 3) img size or 4) number of frames (cancel export, trim clip). sometimesss recoloring the gif or adding effects to simplify the colors and pixel content decreases size.
5. final notes
and nowww you have a gif gridddd. these gifs are hard to make so i have some tips:
you can do this in frame animation w/o vid timeline
trim and resize the clips before you convert to smart object so you get smaller file sizes
stick to 80 frames (4secs at 30fps) or less. doing this almost always got me gifs that were less than 9.8mb
choose clips that fit the box shapes: long bodies or faces for vertical boxes, landscapes for horizontal boxes
use consistent box shapes. for that set, i only used 1x1, 1x2, 2x1, 2x2, and 3x2
my comp is totally overwhelmed when i make gifs. so other tips related to the program and your computer:
only have photoshop open when making gifs (including chrome & firefox, they use sooo much ram)
consistently use task manager to see how much memory ps is using
regularly restart photoshop -- i notice this makes the program faster
when youre done, shut off your computer rather than make it go to sleep
check your photoshop preferences on startup -- make sure settings like performance & scratch drive are up to your standards (i let ps use 75% of my ram, which is why it gets overwhelmed :P)
be aware of how hot your computer gets, if you use a laptop like meee
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