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Hello! I had a request to show how I make gifs / color them. I made a basic photoshop steps page so that this isn’t any longer than it needs to be. Under the cut will be my coloring steps.
I will be turning this:
into this:
Disclaimer: This is just the steps that I made for this particular gif. The settings I used for this tutorial probably won’t work on a different scene but they are the steps/layers that I use regularly, so you can change up the settings if you like.
Disclaimer Part 2: This tutorial is super long, I apologize.
1. Curves
For Curves I keep the layer settings blank and change the drop down setting to “Screen”.
This should brighten your layer from this:
to this:
2. Levels
I don’t really do anything special here, just make the black a little darker and brighten the background up a little bit.
3. Contrast
Depending on the scene I gif and what show/movie it is, I like to bring the contrast and brightness up. For this scene I made the contrast pretty high.
4. Exposure
These are settings I use for every gif I make. It’s not necessarily something needed but I like to use it.
5. Vibrance (Optional)
Another case of using the same settings, I always make two different vibrance layers and make them both +20.
RESULT SO FAR:
6. Selective Color
For this layer, I typically use each color setting. I start with “colors: black” and only adjust the black option to make it a little bit darker.
Next I go to “colors: neutral” and change the adjustments for cyan, magenta, and yellow.
I go to “colors: whites” next. This is something I use to make the background more light / faces more flesh colored and less yellow.
I use “colors: magenta” next. I typically keep my settings for this the same: -100, +100, +100, 0; but because Number Five is already pretty pink in this scene I adjusted the magenta option to -1.
Then I go to my blues. I love making scenes really blue and this scene was pretty receptive to it. I typically keep these settings the same as well.
Next, I go to “colors: greens”. Depending on the gif, I might just skip over this because it tends to mess with the cyans. For this scene, since there are trees in the background, I brought the adjustments all the way up for more pretty green.
Now, I’m going to “colors: yellows”. This helps make the greens more vibrant.
And for the last step on selective colors, I go to “colors: reds”. I didn’t really go too crazy on this one since Five’s face is going to be pretty red with the help of the magentas.
RESULT:
Step 7. Color Balance
This is going to be part one of the color balance settings. I use this layer next and start with “midtones” and make it a little bit blue and red.
Then I go to “highlights” and make it more yellow. Since that yellow option made the contrast a little off, I go up to the top and make it a little bit more cyan to even that out.
I go to “shadows” next. This adjustment is actually a new step for me, so it’s not really too important, but I like how it makes the gif look. For this layer I made the blue’s / yellows adjustment more blue along with the cyan’s / red’s and I brought the green adjustments up a little bit too.
Step 8. Gradient Map
This is a step I always use, as well as keeping the exact gradient; the only thing I ever change is the “fill” percentage. For this layer I brought the “fill” percentage down to 27% because the contrast on this scene was already pretty high.
The gradient map exact settings with colors are: #0f0f0f, location 54% --> #a9a9a9, and #f7f7f7
Step 9. Vibrance Part 2 (optional)
Because I love my vibrance, I make two more vibrance layers on top of what I have so far. Depending on your gif you can change the adjustments to whatever you like or just ignore it and move on.
Step 10. Hue/Saturation
Another case of my loving vibrance, I make a Hue/Saturation layer above my two vibrance layers. This is going to be like my selective color layer, where I adjust each color option in the drop down.
I start with “master” and make it +9. I always keep this adjustment the same.
Next “reds”. Since my gif at this point is pretty red, I bring the lightness up and saturation just a little bit.
“Yellows” are next and, same as with the “reds”, I bring the lightness adjustment up a little bit but bring the saturation up a little as well.
For “greens” I bring the saturation up a lot for the trees and the wall to pop out more.
“Cyans and Blues” get a lot of saturation as well.
I bring up the saturation on “magentas” to make up for some of the loss on “reds”.
RESULT:
Step 11. Color Balance Part 2
For this layer, I’m going to move it to the very bottom below all of the other layers. Doing this tends makes more of an effect than leaving it at the top.
I didn’t really make this layer’s adjustments too drastic. I start again with “midtones” and adjust the blue and reds just a little bit with a little magenta in there.
Next, I go to “highlights”. This one again makes the contrast a little higher so I make it -26 for yellow and keep -16 for both cyan and magenta since his face is pretty pink right now.
“shadows” is next. For this particular tone, I don’t really change much because of how much it affects the gif. I make it a little bit more yellow and magenta and bring my cyan up a little more.
Step 12. Selective Color Part 2 (optional)
I don’t always use this layer but I wanted some of my colors to pop out a little more than what I had already, so I made another selective color layer and placed it above all of the other layers that I have.
I start with “reds” and make it -47 to bring out more red lighting.
“yellows” is next and, for me, the yellows seem a little dull still so I adjust it and make it brighter and pop out more.
I go to “greens” and adjust it for the trees to be more vibrant.
Next up are my “cyans and blues” so I adjust those in the same way as previously for Five’s school uniform to be brighter.
For “magentas” i lowered it quite a bit since his face is really pink still whenever he’s in the snow.
For the “whites” adjustment I lighten Five’s face up from how pink it previously was and make the background lighter again.
This should be what your layers look like in order when you’re finished
FINAL RESULT:
I hope that this was easy to understand! If there’s any questions, don’t hesitate to send me an ask.
a requested psd for Zodiac. This psd won’t need many adjustments. You may need to adjust the color balance layer because it can be a bit too blue. For darker scenes you will have to adjust both curves layers and maybe the exposure layer. Please like or reblog. download.
you will need to adjust the color balance and levels (which was done for every gif above) but it's a base i really like. i made this for my ships series and i've been using it on my legacies gifs (more examples of this psd can be found here).
like or reblog if you download and do not repost! i'd love to see this in action so feel free to tag me in any edits.
Includes an Adjustments Folder with extra brightness layer & color adjustment area
(color adjustment is why it works for most fandoms - you'll need to adjust this)
Includes stylistic adjustments:
A lower vibrance//saturation setting (Gif 7)
A B&W option (Gif 8)
A lower brightness/contrast setting (not pictured)
this psd should work on most dark scenes but adjust curves & selective colour layers if it doesn’t. please like or reblog if you download. tag me in your work!
