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TUTORIAL: Two GIFs on One Canvas + How to Apply Layer Masks + a little about PSDs/textures

HELLO FRIENDS. I am honored to have received a request for a tutorial by fairynalutail for basically the steps for this edit of mine. I'm going to cover how I did one of 'em 'cause it's just rinse and repeat ^_^

This is what our end result will look like.

[I've always wanted to make a tutorial so yaaay dreams really do come true TuT]

I'm more than happy to share my abundant knowledge of Photoshop, so let's do this! If you need further clarification, please don't hesitate to shoot me an ask.

In summary, this tutorial will cover in almost excruciating detail:

How to get two GIFs on the same Canvas

How to use a template (at least the way I use 'em lol)

How to apply a layer mask to a GIF

A little bit about PSDs (includes other tutorials for more in-depth explanations)

and finally a brief discussion about applying textures (along with another tutorial in case my explanation isn't sufficient, which it might not be because it's really brief.)

I won't be going over how to make GIFs because I'm going to assume you already know how to do that. But if you would like a tutorial on how to make GIFs I can do that another time \(◕ω◕✿)/

Here we goooo! ✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:* ヽ(゜∇゜)ノ*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

SO LET'S BEGIN. This is so exciting wow \(◕ω◕✿)/. So I use Adobe Photoshop CS6 and am on a Mac, therefore I will be saying Command + ____ for shortcuts rather than Control + ____ for Windows.

This masking tutorial will be taught with the help of my husbando Gray so I have a pretty face to stare at as I teach [no shame aw yiss.]

Again, this is what our end result will look like.

STEP 1. Open Photoshop and a new PS thing (command + N). Our template is 245 px by 245 px, so label your width and height accordingly.

You get a blank canvas. This is the template we'll be sourcing from. Follow the link and right click on this image:

Select 'Copy Image', and now let's go to PS. Simply paste the image (Command + V) on our canvas. Now we have this:

Okay, we have our template, now let's get our gifs.

Open your gif and we have this.

[he's so pretty yiss]

Now click this:

and you get this window:

Click 'SELECT ALL FRAMES' and then press 'COPY FRAMES.'

Now let's go back to the tab with our template. Right click the little thing above your frames again to get the above window, but instead of Copy Frames we're going to hit Paste Frames.

You get this window:

And click PASTE OVER SELECTION. It's automatic option is "Paste After Selection" but we need paste over selection, hence my pretty red box. Now we have this:

As you can see, Gray's a little big here. 245 px is relatively small, and ideally you're downloading your videos at 720p quality. Therefore, Gray will naturally be too big for the small square. I already resized him to be 500px before I copy and pasted him here, but we're going to resize him again.

Oh, I like to group my layers too. So let's select all the layers (start from Layer 1 of the GIF and go up to the top layer, then press SHIFT and you'll have highlighted them all) and then press COMMAND + G to group the layers. (Or you can press this nifty little folder button and it does the exact same thing.)

So now Gray is grouped like so:

Okay, now back to resizing our GIF. This makes it easier having all his layers grouped so when we resize it, all the layers are being resized at once.

Okay so to resize, we need to transform the GIF. Press COMMAND + T and you see this:

Move your cursor to the corner of the image and HOLD SHIFT. A lot of amateur mistakes are that people resize images/gifs to fit a template, but the proportions get messed up because people do not hold shift. We want Gray to look pretty and not too thin or long, hence we hold shift. Again, you must do this at a corner. Holding shift anywhere but a corner won't guarantee same proportions.

Okay so with SHIFT held down, drag your cursor so Gray fits the dimensions of our box. You'll see this:

But le gasp! My husband's face isn't visible! You don't need to hold shift anymore, simply move your cursor anywhere over the image (aside from the middle) and drag Gray to the left so we can see his handsome face.

Ah yes, much better.

Okay, we need to add our second GIF. Make sure this second GIF has the same amount of frames as this first one. You can see the frame count on the bottom. This is very important.

So, assuming your second GIF has enough frames to match the first one's frame count, simply repeat the steps above with the selecting all frames, copy frames & paste, but paste it on THIS FILE since we need both our GIFs here.

BEFORE YOU PRESS PASTE OVER SELECTION, make sure our initial Gray GIF frames are highlighted, as this is the "selection" your second GIF will be pasting it's frames over. So where you go to "Copy Frames", click "Select All Frames" so you see this:

So this Gray GIF is only 44 frames, therefore I just need 44 frames of his smirking all cutely.

Again, repeat the steps above, and then GROUP the layers for easier organization. You now have this:

Again, our second gif is way too big. Let's transform this puppy to fit. Knowing this is the smaller gif that gets tucked away in the corner, I'm going to transform him there.

OK darlings, now we have this:

Now let's go back to our template! Select the little box next to our template, labeled as "Layer 1" according to my screencap. This makes the template visible.

We're going to duplicate this layer. To do so, simply press COMMAND + J making sure Layer 1 is selected (that means it's highlighted.) Now we have two copies, like so:

[side note my kitty just jumped on my lap and is sleeping hehehe]

Okay take the 'Layer 1 copy' and move it above Group 2, changing the layer order. Now we see this:

[OH I'M A MORON I forgot a step. Paint over the 'width/height" dimensions on the template, we don't need those. To do so, simply press b for your brush tool and then press ALT (or option, located next to command) and click on the respective color. Release ALT (as now you got the color tone you wanted), paint over it, do the same for the other color and yeah. You'll see why in a sec.]

OKAY with that done, lower the opacity on "Layer 1 copy" to let's say 34%.

Now we see this:

NOW FOR MASKING TIME. I need you to go here, click the fourth one down and select magic wand tool.

Now, I'm assuming you're selected on Wand already, but if you aren't, simply press w and you'll be selected on it. With the Layer 1 copy layer highlighted, press the area for the big Gray gif. You'll see it highlighted, like so:

Now this template has a circular cut, so to make it semi-clean, we're going to go here:

Click it, and you'll see this window:

Change Smooth to 10, and you'll see this:

It's a subtle change but a trained eye will recognize it. Now select "OK".

OKAY, now for the masking. Select your Group 1 folder, since that's where our big Gray gif is, and select this rectangle thing with a circle cut out in the center.

You will get this:

And in the big picture, you see this:

YOU HAVE MASKED ONE GIF, CONGRATULATIONS. Now we need to repeat the steps for the second GIF—so press w for the Magic Wand, SELECT THE LAYER 1 COPY GIF, press the top right hand corner and it will be highlighted, press Refine Edge and change Smooth to 10, press OK, SELECT YOUR GROUP 2, and press the little rectangle with hollow circle thing to activate the Layer Mask. NOW WE HAVE THIS:

TWO LAYER MASKS, LOOK AT YOU GO YOU PRO. (Sorry it's 4AM LET'S CONTINUE.)

Okay but see this?

We need to fix that. SO, referring to the picture above this picture, click on that Layer 1 Copy and click on the eye icon to make it invisible. Then, recalling where we went for "Select all Frames", "Copy Frames", etc., open that window and select this:

Again, MAKE SURE THE LAYER 1 COPY IS SELECTED and the eye thing is invisible (indicating you turned off the layer visibility.) By matching the layer across frames, you are turning off that template visibility across all 44 frames (which saves you the time of clicking each individual frame and making the template layer invisible.)

Now our pretty Gray is all nice and clear *u*

See how everything is unselected on the right aside from Group 1 and 2? To have transparency, keep it this way. Also, if you resized your GIFs wrong and there was empty space from the layer mask (like I did if you look closely a few screencaps back lol), simply right click that black/white square next to what you need to resize, click "delete layer mask", transform your gif and mask it again. Not the end of the world :)

To set your gif speed, go to where your GIF frames are, click on that little downward facing triangle next to where it says 0.04 seconds (or whatever number), and you'll get this window:

Select "Other…" to put your own time. Typically GIF speeds vary from 0.05 to 0.08 or even 0.1 depending how many frames you have. Your speed is up to you, I like to have Gray moving in real time so I set the speed to 0.06.

Sharpen your GIF (refer to this tutorial if you don't know how, and use this tutorial if you don't have the timeline feature like me) and save your GIF (with Pattern rather than Diffusion for good quality) and we have this:

Anyway I know we want this:

[btw this GIF is resized smaller to be under 1MB for this tutorial because the original size is 1.4 MB heheh. Remember that 245px + 160px GIFs can be 2MB at most for tumblr whereas 500px GIFs can only be 1MB.]

So for that blue tint on Gray, I made my own PSD coloring and applied it. Here's a tutorial explaining what a PSD is and how to use it.

My PSD has layers like this:

and what you select and how you customize it is more up to you. I would explain what each thing does but that's definitely a tutorial for another time. To get these options, simply click that half-shaded circle thing next to the mask icon and the folder (group layers) icon, and experiment away.

With your PSD, simply drag this group onto our Gray GIF and you'll see the coloring has been applied.

Now for the texture. What textures you use are completely up to you. I download tons of texture packs from tumblr and deviant art so I have a variety to choose from. The one I used for this gif looks like this:

This shade of blue isn't exactly the one I used. I changed the hue a little bit. When you import a texture (or simply drag it over like a PSD), it becomes a smart object. To change it's color, go to Layer > Rasterize > Smart Object (this enables you to alter the image), then press command + U to open up the Hue/Saturation thing. I shifted the Hue thing to the left to give it a lighter blue.

So when you do drag in the texture, it shows up like so. Now I need you to click where the little rectangular box is—this is the blending mode.

When clicked, you will see this:

Typically it will be set to "Normal", thus blocking my beautiful Gray GIFs. To apply textures, people typically select Screen. I used Lighten to decrease the brightness of the texture but you can still see the texture on the GIF. Again, your setting choice is up to you. I could explain how each setting works, but that's also for another time and I would encourage experimentation to see what you like best for your edits ^_^ Don't forget to play with opacity too!

I transformed the texture (remember COMMAND + T?), moved it around to where I like, and exported the GIF again. So now we have this:

Oh yeah, the texture will go over that little white circle border between my two Gray GIFs. To get Transparaency, simply click the template layer (our Layer 1 copy, remember?), make it visible and with it selected, use our friend the magic Wand tool (simply press W) on the white sliver between the GIFs. Then go back to your texture and apply a mask, this will eliminate it and allow transparency. OH, don't forget the "Refine Edge" and change Smooth to 10. As you can see I didn't do it, and look at what an ugly border it left.

To clean it up and make it more transparent, I used the Eraser tool (simply press E to activate it) and went to my Group 1 and 2 folders and erased carefully along that circle border.

Now rinse and repeat for the other 3 GIFs of Team Natsu and voilà! Ya'll have made a lovely GIFset!!

I'm sorry if the tutorial slowly died later on lol. I got kind of tired and wow, making tutorials is hard! It was tons of fun though!! :D

Here's an alternate tutorial on how to use textures on GIFs.

I think I covered everything! But I could have missed something seeing as its going to 5am lolol. I'm still awake like its the afternoon though TuT

Mostly everything about PS I learned on my own through fun with messing around, so it's awesome to be able to share this knowledge :)

If you have any questions, please let me know! I hope I helped \(◕ω◕✿)/

Thanks for reading and happy editing! ✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:* ヽ(゜∇゜)ノ*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

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