WORKING WITH YOUTUBE QUALITY - HOW TO GET THE BEST RESULTS
helloooo, i recently feel as though i have found the key when it comes to dealing with youtube quality and i thought it was worthwhile sharing!
i'm finding that when you're stuck with 1080p videos only, (although there is a lot more 4k downloads these days, thankfully) the quality is pretty poor. BUT, this is speaking exclusively about the quality of youtube 1080p - if you use a site such as sharemania, that's usually acceptable and good quality and doesn't deliver poor results.
but alas, this is about youtube, so let's get into it! this process will simply go over all the ins and outs of working with youtube quality, and will not look into the entire giffing process. i'll be using photoshop 2025, but it should work on any version!
Download your video.
firstly, start by downloading your video with 4k video downloader. (<- this will lead directly to a dl of 4k video downloader if you don't have it already! link is all safe and official <3) i can't really think of any other downloader because i haven't used any apart from this one. it's safe and secure and does a really good job.
you'll want to choose the 1080p option that is the BIGGER file amount. not every video will have that, but i believe that the bigger file size is the youtube premium 1080p. take what you can get with them 😭
2. Load frames, crop, convert to smart object...
just get your normal prep work done! make sure to leave out sharpening. you should essentially just be here:
(if my process looks a bit odd or if, on the other hand, you'd like to know my process, you can check that here.)
3. sharpening.
THIS is the point that changes how your youtube file comes out. often times, you'll find the gif comes out with chunks, squares and overall poor quality. kind of like if i used my regular sharpening:
chunky! gross! trashy! i'm seeing too many pixels and things aren't looking the right way that i'd like. (tbh, it's not the worst i've seen - but you can definitely notice when there's light.) if i went on as it is now and continued to colour it, it would continue to look bad.
so, here's what you'll do.
i use multiple sharpening actions, for different purposes: one for hq downloads, so any movies, tv or downloaded/4k music videos, one making icons and the other for lower quality media and photos. the one that i typically use for youtube quality is @/anyataylorjoy's sharpening action (which many gifmakers use, so i wouldn't be surprised if you do already have it!) which is what you'll use. apply the action, using the 'sharper' lot.
^ that's the settings.
4. sharpening pt 2. (noise)
now, you'll need to add noise to offset how harsh the rest of the gif still comes up.
apply these exact settings onto the gif and ensure that monochromatic is enabled.
sometimes, 2% noise might make it look worse, or not be enough. i personally wouldn't go to anything more than 3%, (i don't think you'll ever want to use 3%) and wouldn't go lower than 1%.
it's grainy looking at the moment, just as is. from here, i'll colour it, and then if i think it's no good, i'll go back and clear the noise filter and toggle it. that's just how the process works, don't stress if it doesn't always go your way 😭 that's just gifmaking!
here's the final product!
and here's another example too, i know this one has a lot going on colour wise, so it can be good to look at it working on something with less bright colours:
as compared to before! before shows the gif was really smooth, as compared to in chappell's, were the lighting was just kind of messing with everything. you're more likely to come across videos that are that weird smooth quality, so i'd say that 7 times out of 10 you'll be applying these settings to something more along the lines of doechii's!
for this tutorial, we’ll use my template belle as an example. it can be downloaded for free here. don’t forget to leave a like/reblog when downloading!
step 1: check how many frames you need
open the template you want to use in photoshop. in the top bar, click on window > timeline, and scroll to the end of the gif to see how many frames the template has.
in our example, we need 34 frames.
step 2: make/choose your gif with that number in mind
for belle, the gif needs to be at least 143 wide by 215 tall. it’s important to check this for the template you want to use.
for this tutorial, i made this sample gif for us to test together.
save it and open it in photoshop. keep the timeline window open because we’ll need it.
step 3: copy the selected gif
in the timeline, select the number of frames you need. my example has 34 frames, so you can select all of them to test in belle.
with the frames selected and still in the timeline panel, click on this icon here to open the dropdown menu we need. it’s always in the upper right corner, near the last frame.
in the dropdown, choose the option copy frames. now we’ve got the gif ready for ctrl c + ctrl v, but this part works a little differently from what we’re used to.
step 4: paste the selected gif
go back to the template window and select all of its frames in the timeline panel. using the same dropdown from the previous step, now choose the option paste frames.
when you click it, a pop-up will appear asking for the paste method. choose paste over selection and click ok, like this:
done correctly, your result should look like this:
step 5: position the gif
when you paste frames in photoshop, the corresponding gif layers are automatically selected by default.
keep only those layers selected and, with the first frame selected in the timeline, move the layers until they’re centered over the frame.
it’s crucial that the first frame is selected in the timeline to ensure the adjustment applies to all the frames.
if you did everything right, what you have on screen should now look like this:
step 6: place the gif below the frame
with only the gif layers selected, drag them vertically in the layers panel until they’re placed immediately above these two layers:
since my gif is exactly the right size, i don’t even need a clipping mask, but let’s say you want to use a gif with larger dimensions.
step 7: use a clipping mask
with the gif layers still selected, right-click on them in the layers panel. a dropdown will open. the second-to-last option is create clipping mask, and that’s what we’re going to click.
once that’s done, the gif will be neatly cropped to the size and place we need, like this:
if you need to adjust the position, always remember to select all gif layers and only move them while the first frame is selected in the timeline.
you can also resize the gif with the layers selected by going to edit > free transform. note that this adjustment will make the gif lose sharpness, and i don’t recommend it unless you know how to use sharpening actions.
extra: changing the background gif
to change the background, the process is exactly the same, but you’ll need a gif that’s at least 700 wide by 450 tall, and you’ll drag it into the background group in the layers panel. the gif should go below but not inside the background coloring subgroup.
the background group is the first from bottom to top in the layers panel, and you should place the new background gif layers right here:
for the background, you won’t need the clipping mask step.
extra: what if my background gif is smaller than 700px wide?
you can resize the whole template by going to image > image size. change the width of the template to match the gif you want to use, and it will fit just right.
when you resize an image in photoshop, sometimes it leaves a weird 1-pixel border around the edges. what i usually do to avoid that is this:
i add 2 pixels to the target width before resizing. for example, if i want the final result to be 600 pixels wide, i resize to 602 pixels first.
after resizing, i go to image > canvas size in the top menu bar and change the canvas from 602 to 600. this will cut off the weird extra pixels and leave you with a clean final result.
always remember that tumblr’s minimum width is 540 pixels. anything smaller will result in bad quality when posting.
extra: good etiquette
if you’re going to use a premade gif made by someone else, it’s important to remember that not every creator allows their content to be edited. choose gifs from creators who allow edits according to their rules, and pay attention to whether they require credit when using their materials.
many content creators ask for credit when their resources are used because that’s how you compensate them – by promoting their work.
in my rules, credit is required when using my templates. many gif creators have the same rule when it comes to editing gifs, and most are fine with being credited in the post tags, so it doesn’t clutter the content itself.
I was asked to put together a demonstration on how I did the analog selection effect in the first gif of my Final Girl set which mostly involved elaborate keyframe work and was like a living hell. This will be a much more simplified version for comprehensive ease, but still very wordy.
This tutorial is for intermediate/experienced level gifmakers who are already familiar with gif-making, keyframes, and layer masks, and this will serve more as a guide than anything.
If you are not comfortably experienced with the above, this may be difficult to follow because I won't be elaborating on every detail, but if you're still interested in recreating something like this regardless, I suggest checking out the below tutorials first:
Giffing 101: A Comprehensive Guide by redbelles
Clipping masks vs. layer masks by kal-kestis on usergif
Shapes and putting gifs inside them by nobie
Create your canvas, make your shapes and align them in the positions you want them to be in. Then get the gifs you plan on filling your shapes with created on standby.
Things to keep in mind before starting:
1. Many of you may have already learned through experience that photoshop has a tendency to create duplicate frames when you are working with multiple gifs on one canvas. It typically occurs when you don't have the same number of frames in all the gifs that you're combining onto your canvas, or rather, your clips are not perfectly aligned. OR when you are working with keyframes, but this time we will have an exception to that rule for what're doing so I won't be discussing the 0.03-interval rule here but if you're curious, it's fully explained this this tutorial by nik on usergif.
To be on the safe side, load in the same number of frames for all gifs. I usually just load in however many frames for each, and then I trim the clips on both ends to be the same, but they have to be exact. If even a single integer is out of place in timeline, you could still risk getting duplicate frames at the end.
2. When making an edit like this, you have to consider the amount of time you have from start to end to make the transitions and rationally plan them out in the space you have available. The more shapes you use, the more frames your gifs will need to be composed of.
3. If you're trying to get the same effect as in my Final Girl edit, where the black & white is default, and the color phases in and out, my goal here is for the color to be visible for at least 10-15 frames each gif, so with 3 gifs, I figured around 65-70 frames would be a good range.
For my first gif, I intentionally loaded in my gamble of 68 frames. For the other two, I loaded in all that was capped in the folders, moved the clips into the positions I wanted them to be in, put them in their designated layer masks, and then trimmed the clips on both sides to match the initial 68-frame clip.
❗️Remember that they have to be exactly aligned like this and all other trimmed off clips deleted before you start your key-framing❗️
Next you wanna make a group for each gif (highlighted in yellow for visibility) to put your coloring adjustments into with a layer mask for their designated shapes, which should look like this in your layers, and like the below in timeline once aligned with the rest of the clips.
I also just tucked the shape layers into the coloring groups to clean it up. But if you plan on creating frames for the gifs, I suggest you move those layers to the bottom and keep them until the end when they can be used for borders, but if not you can make new shapes later.
Assign a black & white gradient map to each gif with a clipping mask on top of your coloring groups.
Now lets say you're not pleased with the outcome of the black & white like for mine, it desperately needs brighting and contrast.
Add your brighting adjustments as needed, and give every adjustment its corresponding layer mask like below.
Next, duplicate both your gif layer and your coloring group, then select both duplicates, as well as your new b&w color adjustments and convert them into a smart object together.
You should now have your original gif + original coloring group, and one single black & white gif on top.
Do this with the rest of the gifs! If you want, you can also combine your original gif and coloring group into a smart object so you have one colored gif, and one black & white counterpart for each.
Now we add the key frames!
You're going to be adding opacity keyframes to your black and white gif layers only. Decide which gif you want the color reveal to start with, and what your reveal pattern is going to be.
I chose to reveal the color of my first gif 11 marks in, which means I need to add a key frame at the 10th mark as well. This is because we don't want a literal "fade-out" effect, we want the change to be immediate. The first key should be at 100% opacity, and the second at 0%. You shouldn't have to worry about duplicate frames upon conversion because all keyframes will only be 1 integer apart.
Once you've decided where your next reveal will start on your second gif of choice, repeat the process.
Then you have to add more 2 more key frames to the prior gif to transition it back into black & white. This needs to occur simultaneously as the next gif transitions into color. Where one starts, another ends, and where one ends, another starts, etc.
Follow this process until you have 2 pairs of keyframes on all your gifs (your final gif should only have 1 pair). Whether you want the transitions to be evenly spaced is your choice and I think it looks cleaner that way. For my final girl set, I was trying to simulate an analog effect similar to making a player selection in an old video game so they were placed methodically to be "jumpy". But play with the keyframe intervals between each gif to get them to look the way you want.
Your keyframes should look like this in the end for reference:
Circling back to adding borders, it's the same keyframe process, but on new shape layers on 0% fill +stroke to serve as the border (if you deleted your shapes earlier). Try adding an "outer glow" blending option to make the border more prominent. Then, make sure the opacity keyframes on the shapes align with the keyframes on the gifs.
If you have any further questions on something not elaborated enough on, my dms are open!
So the colouring is two fold, to begin with i decided the colour i wanted it to be. or the dominant colour, which in this case was yellow, then i decided on the shade of yellow, and then went to the little colour squares and made one black and the other the shade of yellow like this:
Then I hit the gradient map button, and it'll create a gradient which in this case I then did nothing to, i just left it like that
But what this showed was that the gif needed to be brightened, so i stuck an exposure layer underneath. This can be anything you'd like, just to brighten the layer.
Then above that was the text layer, and for that I did the following:
Then these were the effects i added:
Then above all of this i had my usual colouring adjusting the brightening to make sure to not wash everything out.
Okay, so, I posted a coloring tutorial for one of my moots a few years ago on my main, @zackmartin (I believe I've since deleted it) but that was the technique I was using when I started making gifs 7ish years ago, and I’ve since updated my routine so I decided to post a new tutorial with my new technique.
I'm going to show you how I achieved this:
I'm using Photoshop for this. I'll try to make this as detailed as possible so it's beginner-friendly, but you do at least need to know how to make and export a gif. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out! just be aware, this tutorial really image-heavy
A few notes before I begin: 1) this is like, the bare minimum most basic way to color a gif. This is what I’d be doing if I was giffing a scene and that’s it. If you’re interested in different coloring styles (like my suite life episode series) then let me know!
2) When coloring gifs with POC, you need to make sure not to change their skin color by making them too light, too orange, too yellow etc. The JATP source blog posted a masterpost of different tutorials to teach you how to color gifs in different ways (like with the pastel coloring for instance) without whitewashing/orangewashing POC. But, honestly there’s a ton of tutorials out there that show you how to avoid this if you do a little digging. NO EXCUSES!
Anyway, let's get started! Before I do the coloring, I ofc make my gif, crop it, set the frame rate, resize, and sharpen. (you can find my sharpening tutorial HERE)
I. BRIGHTENING
(as a quick note, I don't focus much on London's skin tone during this stage, because I'm going to fix it during later steps)
The first thing I do is white balance using a curves layer. To do this, I click the little circle thing in the toolbar below the layers, and then click curves like so (you'll do this every time you want to add a new layer):
And then I click the bottom eyedropper tool on the left-hand side:
Then I click the lightest white part of the gif. (I’m not sure how to explain this well, but it basically white balances that spot to make it pure white. Like, if I clicked on the gold part of London's bracelet, then the whole gif would turn out really blue because it would be trying to white balance the gold) (hopefully that makes at least a little bit of sense)
Anyway, there’s a trick I use to find the lightest part of the gif; hold down the option key (or alt if you’re on windows) and while you’re holding down the option key, drag the little white arrow on the right-hand side:
(i apologize for the quality of the screenshots, tumblr keeps destroying them :/ let me know if I need to clarify anything)
Then I use another curves layer to do the same thing with but with the blacks. So, I add another curves layer, and then click the eyedropper tool at the top this time:
And then I click the darkest, black part of the gif. You can use the same trick by holding the option/alt key and dragging the triangle on the left-hand side:
Next, I add a levels layer. I drag the middle lever thing to the left, and the left lever to the right. (I don’t usually touch the little lever thing on the far-right, but it’s really up to personal preference. I learned to color gifs by basically messing around with settings, so I’d recommend doing the same and just seeing what you like best):
Finally, if I want to go even brighter, I usually add a brightness/contrast layer. I typically turn up the brightness a bit, and turn down the contrast. But, since I brightened a lot with the curves and levels, I usually don’t go that far. These were the settings I used for this particular gif (even though I'm going to share most of the settings that I used, I wouldn't recommend using the exact same ones on your own gif as it'll really depend on the scene you're using):
II. VIBRANCE
Now I add a vibrance layer. I like my gifs to be bright and vibrant, so I usually turn up the vibrance, and turn down the saturation a bit. These are the settings I used for this particular gif:
And this is what the gif looks like so far with just brightening it up a bit and adding vibrance (it might look a bit too bright right now, but I'm going to fix that in later steps):
III. SELECTIVE COLOR
Now, I add a selective color layer. The reds and yellows typically affect skin tones, so this is where I'll start to fix London's. These are the settings I used for this gif (I usually wouldn't change all of the colors, but this is just one of those situations where they happened to be present in the scene I'm giffing):
IV. HUE/SATURATION
now I add a hue/saturation layer. I typically turn up the master saturation to +10 and the lightness between +3 - +5 regardless of the gif. Then if I still need to fix skin tones, I'll mess around with the reds and yellows. These are the settings I used:
V. PHOTO FILTER
Next, I add a photo filter. I usually stick with the default one, I keep the layer set to normal, and I turn the opacity down to 25%:
VI. B&W GRADIENT MAP
finally, I add a black & white gradient map, and I click the little box to reverse it:
Then I set the layer to soft light and I turn the opacity down, between 10% - 20% depending on the gif:
A lot of times, I'll stop here. If I'm satisfied with the way the gif looks, and London's skin isn't too pale/orange/yellow etc, then I could just add my watermark, export and be done. But, there a few other optional steps I might take if I'm still not quite happy with it.
VII. OPTIONAL
Usually the next thing I'll add if I've decided to keep going is a color balance layer. It obviously does as it says, helps balance out the colors, but some gifmakers also like their gifs to have like, a reddish tint or a bluish tint or what have you, so this can help with that too. I wanted to balance out the reddish/yellowish tint, so these are the settings I used:
and this was the gif before the color balance:
and after:
And if I want to play around with the colors a bit more, or fix the skin tones further, I might add another selective color layer or a hue/saturation layer (or both, depending).
Rarely, I might add an exposure layer. (I added one to this gif for the purposes of this tutorial). These are the settings I used for that:
And if the gif came out a bit too bright, I might add another brightness/contrast layer, except this time I would turn down the brightness and turn up the contrast (again, I did that with this gif for the purposes of this tutorial).
And, that's pretty much it! This is my finished gif!
Like I said earlier, I pretty much learned how to color by messing around in photoshop, so I would really recommend playing with the different layers and settings for yourself, as well as checking out other coloring tutorials and other gifmakers methods and see what you like and what you don't. And finally, the best thing you can do is just,,, practice. I've been gifmaking for about seven years, but I feel like I didn't really become decent at it until this year
Again, If you have any questions let me know! and feel free to tag me in your creations! #userzackmartin 💕
In this tutorial, I’ll run through the setup I use to create halftone effects in Photoshop. Great for posters, apparel, stickers, or just making cool retro-lookin stuff! This approach will bypass the halftone filters and create the effect from scratch, with the added benefit of being live and adjustable. In the second half of the video, we’ll take a look at some custom settings to bring additional color or transparency into the image.
header is a template by @stephysource Mascot/faceclaim is Danielle Campbell - Not updated yet but official blog psd made by @smolresources
this is an under construction blog for lovers of content and content creators. this page endeavors to make things accessible as well as joyful in this community. Wether you make fan art, psds,edits, icons, codes, rp resources paid or otherwise. Feel free to tag in things but we will do our best to reblog tutorials and information as well as commission info or pack or template results. @limoncellocodes is where we have gotten code from. Please feel free to send in asks. Shoutouts for creators is greatly appreciated. We ask that you credit the people you use things from or be blocked as a terrible human and if you can like or reblog if a tutorial is helpful to you
It has been literal years since I've done a tutorial.
Nobody actually asked for this, but for the first picture I did with this type of lighting I actually went and looked up some tutorials online... and couldn't really find any. So a lot of what I did in the first picture I used this type of light was me just throwing spaghetti at the wall.
I figured it out a little more in the second picture, and then I thought: y'know i would've liked to have a tutorial like this in the first place to get a good starting point for myself. So I made one. it is yours now. do what you want with it.
