oh my gosh looking at those gifs of prompto smiling made me realize something. like he always puts on that awkward smile for like selfies or when he's TRYING, u know? but when he says "ever at your side" his smile becomes more genuine and less awkward looking and now i'm like HHHHNNNNGG.
Yes it’s true! It is the same grin he does in selfies, which I definitely think is his ‘fake it till you make it’ smile. Big difference between the top and the bottom, when he’s just smiling naturally and taking in the moment.
Hi there! I’m answering this in a new post so I can add more images.
I made a tutorial of how I make gifs, along with tips you asked about copying and such. Beware, it’s pretty long because I tried to go into as much detail as I could for someone who hasn’t used Photoshop much, but I’m sorry if it’s not 100% beginner friendly. :(
If you really want to learn and you found this confusing as all hell, hit me up again and I’ll make a video or something. I’m not great at tutorials :’)
Gif Etiquette:
Theres a little bit of gif making etiquette that will help you avoid scuffles. The first is NEVER to re-edit or re-post someone else’s finished gif. If you want to add text or recolor to a clip someone else has already gif’d, you have to make the initial gif yourself, otherwise you’re taking half of someone else’s work. It also looks better in the end if you don’t edit gif files.
In general, if you’re doing basic gifs of footage like I usually do, there’s not a whole lot to be done in the way of copying. Everyone is allowed to gif whatever they want, but if someone does something really unique with their coloring that’s really different from the original footage, I wouldn’t try to emulate it. Its much more fun and rewarding to try to come up with your own color schemes.
If you plan on moving up to more complicated edits and gifs, the only other thing I would warn about is if you were influenced by another gifset, particularly one that contains a quote or is heavily edited beyond the original footage, it’s always a safe bet to ask if you can make something similar with credit. Usually if the gif maker isn’t in the same fandom they don’t have a problem with it, if they do, oh well, find another idea. Sometimes basic things like using the same quote don’t really warrant asking for permission, but it’s always a good thing to credit them in your comments if they inspired you. Just a hyperlink to the gif set over (insp) is good.
What do I use to make gifs?
So first, to make gifs, you have to make them from videos with a editing program. I use Photoshop CS6, this is a pricey program, but I’m sure there are cheaper ones you can use that work just as well. (And that also isn’t to say you can’t *cough* borrow the program from a friendly internet file-sharer).
STEP 1: Footage Hunt
The key to clean looking gifs is clean footage. Whenever possible, I get uncompressed footage instead of going to youtube. The frames are crisper and you avoid that slow-mo ghost effect that sometimes happens through youtube compression.
I either use 1080p cutscenes captured using an Elgato (I have uncompressed FFXV cutscenes if you want them). For trailers, I use what developers release on their press pages. FFXV is here, including the most recent Ep. Prom Trailer.
In a pinch, you can still use youtube videos, but always go with the video uploaded by the developer directly, third party uploads will always be lower quality because they ripped the original and re-uploaded up for twice the compression. There are several FFXV youtube channels in Japanese and English including the main Square Enix channel so just poke around until you find the official ones.
Once you find your footage, I use clipconverter.cc All you have to do is paste the video link, select 1080p output, and make sure you have download selected and not any of the conversion options, click Start! wait for it to convert and download on the next page.
STEP 2: Pick your clips
Some people like to import their clips directly to frames, I prefer to work with the video first on the timeline, so I’ll detail that method. I’m using the Episode Prompto trailer downloaded from the Square Enix Press site.
Once you have your video downloaded, in Photoshop, open the .MP4 file directly. It should appear on a timeline below the preview image, if you don’t see it click “Window” and make sure timeline is checked. From here, use the cursor to scroll through and pick out the clips you want. You can use the arrows to go in increments of 1 frame when you get close to where you want, then, once you can see the first frame of the gif you want, click the scissors button and the clip splits. Repeat this until you have all the footage you want to gif, and delete all the other stuff.
Here’s what the trailer looks like on the timeline when I split up every scene. The second one is zoomed in so I can look at all those little itty bitty clips.
STEP 3: Cropping, Editing, Recoloring
So I decided to use the Prompto gifs I uploaded yesterday. The first thing you need to do before anything else is convert all the clips to smart objects. To do this, just select each clip individually, go up to Filter > Convert for Smartfilters. This way, after you crop an image you might be able to mess with it later. Be sure to do this for each clip individually if you’re making more than one gif, otherwise it’ll combine the multiple clips into one. Alternatively you could just make the video a smart object from the beginning, but I do it the long way for some reason.
Next up is crop the image to how you want it. I like face close ups, so I closed in pretty far on his face. This crops every single clip you have in the timeline, so if another clip is off center on your crop, you can simply select the clip thats out of frame and use the move tool and put it back into place. The advantage of smart objects is that the image outside your crop will not be deleted. At this stage, make your gif a little taller than it needs to be, so you can crop it later if the file size is too big.
Once you’re all cropped, it’s time for the fun part, which is recoloring! If you’re a beginner, I recommend using pre-made PSD files. You can find a lot of them on tumblr just by searching ‘psds’. Before I knew what I was doing with adjustment layers I relied a lot on @remondpsds @honeycoloring @kpop-colorings @prettycolorspsds. But there are a lot of PSD makers out there. Be aware however most of them would like (rightfully) for you to comment/reblog/like their work if you use them so that they can see what you use them for.
But it’s very good to play with PSDs! Click on the layers and find out what they do, add more to see what those do. Make multiple of the same adjustment layer to see if it adds an effect you like. There’s no wrong way to do it. I added some basic info about adjustment layers at the end.
Assuming you have a premade PSD, just open up the PSD file, right click the group, select “Duplicate Group” and then select the video file as the destination, click OK. It will appear in your timeline.
If it ends up below the videos, just make a new video group above the first video group. Then move the PSD group into to that Video group, by clicking and dragging the PSD group in the Layers menu and dropping it in the Video Group 2 in the layers menu.
If you’re making your own adjustment layers, just create the new video group on top, make a group within that video group, and put your adjustment layers in the group. You’ll be able to see them on your timeline and extend them to the length of the clip. If the PSD file is too short, you can just expand the PSD group in the timeline by clicking the arrow next to PSD and extend each layer to the length of your clip.
Note: If you’re using pre-made PSDs, you’ll likely have to import many different PSDs until you find one you like, so while making your own may seem time consuming (and it is) it can be just as difficult to find one pre-made that you like.
This is the product of 22 Adjustment Layers, but you can see the difference when you put some time and love into recoloring.
As a counter example, here’s coloring the same image with another PSD I made for Aranea that was just not right for the job. (This may be the look you want, but not what I was looking for.)
One last note about coloring! The more white is in your gif, the bigger the file size will be. This will be a problem if you’re trying to fit down to the tumblr size. So try to decrease the white in the gif as much as you can without making the gif too dark to see. If you want a really bright gif, you’ll have to sacrifice height or frames later.
STEP 4: Resizing and Sharpening
So you’ve got the gif cropped and colored the way you want! Now we can move on to resizing. You want to get your gif to the tumblr dimensions, which you can find a good visual of here. Usually I use straight across gifs, which are 540 pixels on tumblr.
Go up to Image > Image Size and then you’ll get this menu. Put in the width you want, but make sure you have “Bicubic Shaper” selected when you’re downsizing.
Then you want to sharpen your gifs. You’ll have to select each Smart Object in the timeline and do this individually if you’re making more than one gif.
Just go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen and use these settings for each Clip (smart object).
Once you’re at the tumblr dimensions, now is the time to add any text or texture overlays, as if you add them before downsizing, they will become blurry.
STEP 5: Saving as a gif and getting down to size
Now comes the really frustrating part, getting the gif down to 3 MB or less so tumblr will accept it. If you’re not posting to tumblr you can ignore this part, but you might find that your gif is too fast and this is also where I change the speed.
Make the two smaller cursor things highlight the clip you want in one gif.
Now you can try to save it as a gif. Go to File > Save for web, and you’ll get a pop up window. These are the settings I use for compression, and looping options set to forever.
I NEVER delete colors to reduce file size. As you can see, this gif is way too big for tumblr, It’s 5.566 MB, 37 Frames, and 392 px tall.
37 Frames is a pretty long gif, so before I delete middle frames in the next step, I’m going to try reducing the file size by starting the clip later and ending it earlier, as well as cropping it so it’s a little less tall. Here is my timeline now:
And here is the file output, It’s now 27 frames, 3.655 MB, and 355 px tall. This is still too big for tumblr, so we can remove some middle frames in the next step. But before you move on, make sure you at least get it within 1 MB of the file limit. Once thats done, just click “Done” and save your gif.
STEP 6: Final Adjustments and Timing
Now you’re going to open up the gif you just made. File > Open > Yourfile.gif.
You wont have a video timeline anymore, it will be frames. Now go through each individual frame, and find two with little movement between them, select the one you think you can live without and click the trashcan.
I deleted four frames, and also did some additional cropping on his hat. But before you save, adjust the speed of your gif by selecting all the frames (Click the first and then shift+click the last one). Click the time at below the frame and change it to whatever you want. I usually use other and then enter 0.08 seconds.
Now my gif is the right speed and the right size! Again, I deleted four intermediate frames and did some more cropping to get it under 3 MB.
Now you can save and you’re all done! Here’s the gif.
Extra reading for making your own PSDs:
To make an adjustment layer, just go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Whatever adjustment layer you want.
Playing with Curves, Brightness/Contrast, and Levels are the easiest way to change the lighting of your picture if it’s too dark. Curves is going to give you the best control over what parts of the picture you want darker and which you want Brighter. Levels, Brightness/Contrast are simple sliders that sample the whole picture less precisely but still very useful.
Playing with Hue/Saturation can help you emphasize colors you like and decrease colors you don’t. You can decrease the overall saturation to make it black and white increase saturation to make all the colors brighter, or you can go to the menu that says “Master” and select a different color if you want to isolate a single color category. Vibrance has the similar effect of increasing overall ‘pop’ of color, but in a less harsh way, I would use this before playing with Hue/Saturation.
Color Balance layers are another good way to play with color. This gives you sliders so you can change one color to another. If you think the image is too blue, slide the cyan slider toward red. You can also select from “Midtones” “Shadows” and “Highlights”, which will target colors in different brightness areas of the picture, and give you more control.
Selective Color is one last way to play with color, it’s more reliable for isolating colors than Hue/Saturation but is also more complicated. Select the color group you want to change from the drop down menu, and then play with the sliders until it comes out the tone you want.
Gradient Maps are a good way to block out areas of the picture you want to emphasize less, I usually use black and white gradients, but you can also use color gradients. Just make a gradient map, and then play with the Layer type from the drop down menu above your layers. It should initially say “Normal” but I usually set it to “soft-light” for black and white gradients. The black part of the gradient will end up being in shadow.
Finally, you can add textures, screen tones, and cross hatching. Just copy and paste the image above the video on your timeline, usually in a new video group seperate from your PSD group, and stretch it out so it covers the whole video. Then play with the layer settings again, usually settings like “Screen” and “Soft Light” work well.
You can play with the opacity of each of these (next to the layer type drop down menu) if the effect is too harsh.
This was really long and probably had mistakes but this is basically how I do it. Let me know if you have any other questions and I’ll try my best to help.
Oh!! One of my own headcanons is that Prompto gets insecure when Noctis suggests he takes more pictures of himself, and Noctis always encourages him, pointing out spots that look great for a selfie and complimenting him and his skills, occasionally taking a selfie with him. I just really enjoy the idea of Noct helping Prompto with his self worth issues from complimenting his looks to his skills in battle and in photography
OKAY YES??¿?!!!Noctis is a smart cookie and even though Prompto doesn’t voice his insecurities Noctis is always keenly aware of them and trying to find little ways he can give him a confidence boost-- any covert opportunity he has to give Prompto a compliment is taken.Whenever Prompto grins big in photos he points out what a nice smile he has.Whenever Prompto takes a trick-shot at enemies Noctis is the first person to holler for him. Whenever Prompto takes a nice picture of them together Noctis asks for a copy for himself. Whenever Prompto takes a new selfie Noctis updates his phone contact picture to the new selfie. And Prompto does the same thing in return whenever Noct looks good in a picture he makes some cheesy remark, whenever he does a cool warp strike Prompto takes a picture and shows him afterward. Even though Noctis hides his confidence issues in apathy Prompto understands the importance of what Noct does for him and always wants to show just as much support. WHAT RESULTS IS THE MUTUAL SUPPORT AND BOTH OF THEM FEEL SO MUCH BETTER HAVING THE OTHER AROUND FOR THE CONFIDENCE BOOST. 👏 👏 👏
Hopefully that squeenix tweet means "match made in heaven" in a combat sort of way but phased it that way to seem sensational???🤞🤞🤞
I’ll say I definitely don’t think anything romantic is going to come out of episode Prompto, there just isn’t the time to develop it in a DLC. I’m irritated specifically BECAUSE they made that tweet to be sensational, knowing that phrase has romantic implication, like putting a man and a woman in the same place means love might fall out and using it to sell their DLC. 🙄Aranea and Iris are the only female characters with a decent amount of screen time in XV, and it’s just a little annoying that Aranea shows up and pile drives an Iron Giant and they phrase their selling point as “Prompto might get some!” It’s totally a red herring because nothing is going to happen, I’m mad at their marketing decisions making something really cool like those two fighting together seem like romance.
Since neither Noct or Prom had their styled hair in brotherhood, I like to headcanon that they spent many days in highschool at each others houses watching youtube videos about how to gel their hair all cool and learned it together.
This is so cute and pure. Both of them wanting to make a concerted effort to look cooler senior year and deciding to help each other out. I imagine the back spikes on Noctis took a lot longer for him to master on his own, so I can see Prompto helping him out from time to time and giving him touch-ups while he learns how to do it right. I can imagine them getting ready to show off their new hairstyles and being super nervous about it walking into school, but when they get one “Nice hair” compliment the both of them feel so vindicated and never change their hair style for the next three years.
Noctis tries on Ardyn's coat and hat when he's showering/sleeping and does stupid poses in them and send pictures to prompto
This is right up my ally because I think at first in a relationship Ardyn tries to take this “I’m the older, wiser partner. I won’t be mocked and you will treat me with RESPECT” approach and comes off as a bit of a hard ass. ...But that goes away within like a week because Noctis absolutely refuses to take him seriously and is constantly messing with him. Asking him if he has his ‘stupid hat’ when they’re leaving the apartment, dressing up in his clothes to make fun of him, calling him a scruffy-old-man when he doesn’t shave.Instead of getting angry Ardyn just pretends to put up with it, but is actually really amused and pleased with the fact that Noctis is not even a little bit intimidated by him. Imagine if he double texts Ardyn instead of Prompto and he sees them when he wakes up. He’d get angry for .5 nanoseconds that Noctis was messing with his clothes but Noct’s only response is. “Oh right, sorry, those were for Prompto” *sends*. Too astounded and impressed by his gaul to be pissed any further he just lets it go and has a laugh about what a plucky young man he found.
