i was wondering if you had some sources for getting started giffing or if you just winged it. cause i'm used to professional editing programs but giffing is different and i'm just a bit lost. i don't know who to ask or if giffing is some kind of big secret people don't want to share but i guess it cannot hurt to ask someone right
It’s definitely not a secret!! I think every gifmaker I know is more than happy to share their knowledge and we love it when people get into it! I have to say I’m still a baby in terms of gifmaking (though I’ve edited pics with gimp for a long time), so I don’t know that much myself - especially the right terms lmao. Mostly I’ve done a lot of trial and error and went with what looks good! And generally from my experience, once you know the basics, it is mostly about winging it. I don’t know what your level of knowledge is so I’m going to put a very rambley explanation on the basics and some sources & tips under the cut!
Personally I started by buying Photoshop, I unfortunately don’t know how to get it the old yo-ho way (if anyone knows feel free to share in the comments or something). Some people use other programs and I jensen salute dot jpg them but I don’t know anything about those. Originally I wanted to try gifmaking with good old Gimp but for that I would’ve needed video frames ready as pictures instead of just the video, whereas PS can automatically convert the video to frames. To learn how to do that I watched a few videos, this one on youtube was probably the first one. It gives a basic look into how it all happens in practice. For my first gifs I kind of followed along to that.
Getting the footage can be different for people - some people download it, especially to get the HD footage, but I unfortunately can’t give advice on how to do that as I always just do screencapture with QuickTime on my Mac. I think for PC some people use KMPlayer for the capture?
To my understanding there’s two ways to edit gifs, frames and video timeline. Because I basically learned by that vid, I only know about editing on timeline (on the video, the frames are converted to video timeline at about 3:18). I think everything about this is explained pretty well in the vid but hit me up with questions if something’s unclear! After the gif looks like a gif on the timeline, there’s sharpening and colouring: I’ve mostly looked for tutorials and tips in the tumblr tags: gif tutorial, colouring tutorial, etc. Mostly it’s just about trying stuff!
Here’s an assortment of random tips! If something’s unclear, it’ll probably make more sense after you get a grip on the basics. For example I didn’t try anything flashy for my first gifs and even the colouring is pretty nonexistent, but it’s easiest to learn by just doing and trying. So:
Here’s a few links to places with resources: itsphotoshop, allresources, clubgif. If you find a gif maker you like, there’s a possibility they might have a tutorial too on their page. Otherwise, look for tutorials in the tags: here’s a great tutorial for colouring and here’s another one!
If you convert a video to frames, always check that there are no doubled or tripled frames before converting the frames to the video timeline. That way the gif is smoother.
Using a gradient map is great when you have a colourful gif: usually it preserves detail but reduces the file size (there’s an example of this on the video). I think 10MB is the max gif size for tumblr gifs so reducing the number of colours reduces the file size. Sometimes it’s a struggle, figuring out what to do so that the gif size is small enough for tumblr, but that’s just part of the life.
Apparently editing with video timeline instead of frames also makes the gif size bigger which is news to me and skejbgske idk maybe it’d be a good thing for me too to learn the frame method. Can’t help you with that though.
If you have a gradient map or a saturation layer for that purpose, remember to put it above the other colouring layers.
Photoshop brushes are great and from what I hear, deviantart is the best place to find cute brushes! There’s tutorials on youtube and for example in the ”photoshop brush tutorial” tag to get a sense of what brushes are etc.
Gifs on tumblr always look worse on mobile, which is why sharper gifs also look better on mobile. So sharpen a lot.
540 is the maximum width for a large gif on tumblr, other dimensions are 268 and 178 width. After converting the frames to video timeline, I usually sharpen the gifs, then change reduce the size of the canvas to what I want, before reducing the actual gif size and fitting it to the canvas as I want. But remember to make the gif at least a little bit bigger than the canvas because otherwise the gif will have like a pixel width of semi-transparency on every side.
Layer masks are your best friend <33 You’ll find out more on these when looking for tutorials. Basically, for example if you want to make a ”colour porn” edit where the gif scene background is a really strong colour: you add the colour layer and then add a layer mask to the colour layer (by right-clicking the layer and finding create layer mask). Painting black on the layer mask erases that part of the colour layer. This way you can have a colourful background and have a character’s face pop out with normal vibrant colouring. By changing the transparency of the brush when painting the layer mask black, you can blend the colouring better.
That’s probably everything I can think of right now. I know I’m not the best one to ask because I’m literally such a beginner myself, but tutorials are a great help and luckily there’s loads!! I hope this was at least some help and you get started: please feel free to tag me in your future gifs! :’) And please never be afraid to ask stuff, gif makers love to help!
Now if anyone has tips to share or something to add to/correct in my ramblings, please do in the comments or reblogs!
