Glitchy Gif Tutorial
I recently learned how to create a simple glitching effect in Photoshop, which involved adapting parts of several different tutorials into something that worked for me. So here’s the simplified version that consolidates all of those! I’ll be walking through creating this gif in Photoshop:
First, create the rest of your image however you like. You should have everything complete before you start, as any changes to your base image will require starting over. This tutorial is designed for an image that’s 540px wide, but it should work with any size with minor adjustments. This one’s mine.
Now, put all of your layers into a group, by selecting all of them and pressing CTRL + G. It’s not necessary, you could just merge it down to a single image, but I prefer keeping it a group in case I have to go back and change something. I’m going to call it Base Image Group.
Make a copy of this group, either by right clicking and hitting Duplicate Group, or by clicking and dragging the group to the New Layer button at the bottom of the layer’s panel.
Then, with the group’s copy selected, press CTRL + E to merge that group into a single layer. I’m going to call this Glitch Image.
Now, make two copies of this Glitch Image, again by right clicking and choosing Duplicate or by dragging the layer to the New Layer button. I’m going to call the new copies Red and Blue, making sure both are on top of the original.
Double click on the Red layer to open the Layer Styles window. Then where it says Channels, uncheck G and B so that only R remains. Then click OK.
With the Red layer still selected, make sure you’re on the selection tool (press V if you’re not), then hold down shift and press the right arrow key. The layer should shift 10 pixels to the right, and create this effect.
With the Red layer still selected, go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. Change the Angel to 0 and Distance to 10, then click OK. The red will now have a slight blur to it.
Repeat the process for the Blue layer, except this time uncheck R and G to leave only B, then shift the layer to the left instead of the right. You should now have this effect.
You can play around with different colors and distances and blurs, but most of the time this is my personal favorite look.
Select the Red, Blue, and Glitch Image layers, and press CTRL + E to merge them. Rename it again if you need to.
Now select the Rectangular Marquee Tool (second from the top in the toolbar). Change the Feather in the top bar to 2.
Make a selection across the entire width of your image. It can be as tall as you want.
Hold down CTRL, then use the arrow keys to nudge the selection to the right or left, as far as you like. If you also hold down SHIFT, the selection will nudge by 10 pixels instead of just one, speeding this process up.
Hit CTRL + D to deselect.
Keep repeating this same process across the image, changing the height and direction each time until you have something that’s as warped looking as you want. You’ll probably wind up with something very goofy looking, but that’s alright. This image will be visible for less than half a second in the final gif.
For one last touch! Create a new layer on top of the glitch image, then fill it with solid black. Rename this layer to Static.
With the Static layer selected, go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Set Amount to 200, Distribution to Uniform, and make sure Monochromatic is unchecked. Click OK.
Keep the Static layer selected, and go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. Set Angle to 0 and Amount to 30. Click OK.
Change the blend mode of this layer to Hard Light and Opacity to 75%.
I’m not a fan of how this looks at the edges. Hit CTRL + T to open up Free Transform.
Hold down ALT and use the center selector on the either the right or left the drag the image outwards until those edges aren’t visible anymore.
Hit ENTER. This is now your glitchy frame.
Now we can start making the glitch animation. Go to Window > Timeline to make sure the animation window is open.
In the layers panel, turn off the Static and Glitch Image layers, by clicking the eye icon next to them. Only the Base Image Group should be visible. Then click Create Frame Animation (if it says Create Video Timeline, use the dropdown next to it find Frame Animation).
This is your animation’s first frame. Click the plus sign at the bottom of the Timeline window to create a copy of the frame.
With this second frame selected, go back to the Layers panel and make the Glitch Image and Static layers visible again. You should now have one frame of the normal image, and one frame of the glitchy image.
On the first frame, open the dropdown that reads 0 sec and change it to 2.
On the second frame, change it to 0.1.
Now select the second frame and click the Tween button. It’s to the left of the plus sign, I think it looks like a comet.
Change Frames to Add to 1 and click OK.
This will add a new frame between the first two that serves as a transition.
Open the timing dropdown on the middle frame and change it to No Delay.
Then click and drag the second frame until its at the end of the sequence.
Click play to preview your gif and make sure you like how it looks. Note that the preview will play slightly slower than the final gif. Also, make sure the dropdown in the bottom left says Forever so that the gif will loop indefinitely.
To export this gif, go to File > Save for Web (or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + S). These are my preferred export settings for gifs.
Now you have your finished gif!
There are some variations you can make to this. You could create a second glitchy layer and make it another frame, to have multiple glitches with different timings.
You could add the glitch effect to only a single element, like the subject.
Or the text.
Just play around with it til you have it just the way you like it! I hope this has helped you!
