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[Gif Tutorial]
YOOO so this is going to be a tutorial on my method of making gifs.
First off, the two programs I use are:
- KMPlayer
- Photoshop CS6
KMPlayer is what I use to get the frames I need for my gifs. There's plenty of ways out there to do this, but this is my preferred method. The program itself is really bloated with features, but don't worry, you only need one of them.
So, the first thing you'll need is the video you plan to gif from. Go ahead and open it up in KMPlayer. Skip to where you want to start capturing, potentially a couple seconds before it. You can always cut extra frames out later.
(Optional tip: If I don't know exactly where the part I want to gif is, I like to open the file in VLC first and find it, check the timestamp, then go to a couple seconds before that in KMPlayer. I only do that in VLC because KMPlayer's tracking bar is a little jankier to move around.)
Once you're paused at the right spot, right click on the video. You'll want to go to Capture > Frame: Extract... like so.
You'll get a window like this. I'll explain each section and how I use it.
At the very top, you've got your "Extract to" folder. KMPlayer has a folder for this that it defaults to every time you open this window, but I always change it to a custom folder, preferably a different folder/subfolder for each each capture. (Note that it doesn't let you create a new folder from within the folder selection popup, so you'll have to go make a new folder elsewhere before you can select it.)
The prefix and digits stuff is just to alter how it names the files- I don't mess with this.
In the image format section, you can select whether your capture will be in PNG, JPEG, or Bitmap. I always go with PNG- it's bigger, but you'll be compressing the images further when you make it into a GIF, so you want to start with the highest quality you can. The 'Method' box lets you select whether to capture just the video or include subtitles. This only applies for MKVs and such with embedded subtitles.
For numbers to extract, just leave this on Continuously.
In frames to extract, you have a lot of options. The only ones I pay attention to are "Every Frame" and "Every # frame." This is something I generally have to tweak when capturing from a new video, as the framerate and settings of videos can be all over the place. It can take some trial and error to find a good number here. But generally you're going to capture between 1 (or just the 'Every Frame' option) and every 3 frames. The higher the number, the less frames you're capturing. (Note that the number of frames you capture here will also affect the framerate you choose in Photoshop- more on that later.)
Starting with 2 frames is a safe bet- most video framerates are roughly around 30 frames per second, and this way you're capturing roughly every other frame.
In size to extract, usually you're good to stay on 'Original size.' For specified size, if you hit the 'G' button it should automatically enter the resolution of the video. I suppose you could use this if you want to capture in the size yor gif will be, but I'd wait until I'm in Photoshop for that.
OKAY. So you have your video ready and all your settings ready to capture (or to do a test run). Hit start, and then hit play on the video. Let it play through the end of the gif, then pause again. This may cause the video to slow down and stutter depending on your system and the video size. Go back to the Frame Extraction Window and hit stop. You're done! At least with the first part.
Now you'll want to open these frames in Photoshop. Open Photoshop, go to File > Open and navigate to the folder where you saved your captures.
Select the very first screencap. Make sure that the "Image Sequence" ticky box is checked down at the bottom. You'll get a frame rate window like this:
This is there the number of frames you captured comes in. If you captured 2 frames per second, you'll probably want to go with 15 fps- half of 30. However, if you captured 1 or 3, you may have to tweak this number until you get a frame rate you like. This can take some tedious trial and error, as it's hard to tell what speed a gif is playing at until you're ready to export it, and the only way to change the frame rate (without fucking up the frames) is to re-import the captures into photoshop. But once you have it figured out, it's super easy to make multiple gifs from the same source.
Now you should have a timeline at the bottom of your window like so. If not, go to Window > Timeline and it should show up.
Before anything else, I resize the gif. Doing this later can fuck things up sometimes, so best to get it out of the way now. Go to Image > Image Size.
The size can be whatever you want. Generally smaller resolution = smaller filesize, but on some baffling occasions it's actually made the filesize larger when I shrink the resolution. Mysteries. (Note: Tumblr won't allow uploading of gifs larger than 1.5 mb, and sometimes it won't let me even if it's a little under. You have to make them pretty small/short for this. I don't really bother with that anymore unless I super want to upload it to tumblr.)
Also, when you resize, it may say something about converting it to a smart object. Just go ahead and hit yes.
Once your image is at a size you like, you'll want to crop it down to just the frames you want (unless you're just That Awesome and managed to capture exactly what you wanted). This is easily done by dragging the little blue slider around to where you want it to start, then grabbing the start of the frames and dragging it over to snap to the slider. Do the same to the end.
You could move on to the last step of exporting your gif from here if you wanted, but if you want to tweak or fix any color things first:
Click on this little button down at the bottom of your layers window. It should give you the option to create adjustment layers. This is essentially the same as going to layers > adjustments, but it lets you turn it into an adjustable layer instead. Once you have these added and adjusted, it should look something like this:
And now for the last step: actually exporting this sucker.
Go to File > Save for Web.
The window that comes up has a ton of shit on it, but all you need to worry about is the Animation section in the lower right. As you can see, the looping option tends to default to 'Once.' Make sure to change this to 'Forever' or it won't loop. You can then hit the play button below that to preview your finished gif. You can always go back and tweak if it doesn't look the way you want. You can also see the filesize on the bottom left under the preview window.
Once you're ready, hit Save and select where you want to save it, etc etc
AND YOU'RE DONE. YAY YOU DID IT, you made a gif.
First off, the two programs I use are:
- KMPlayer
- Photoshop CS6
KMPlayer is what I use to get the frames I need for my gifs. There's plenty of ways out there to do this, but this is my preferred method. The program itself is really bloated with features, but don't worry, you only need one of them.
So, the first thing you'll need is the video you plan to gif from. Go ahead and open it up in KMPlayer. Skip to where you want to start capturing, potentially a couple seconds before it. You can always cut extra frames out later.
(Optional tip: If I don't know exactly where the part I want to gif is, I like to open the file in VLC first and find it, check the timestamp, then go to a couple seconds before that in KMPlayer. I only do that in VLC because KMPlayer's tracking bar is a little jankier to move around.)
Once you're paused at the right spot, right click on the video. You'll want to go to Capture > Frame: Extract... like so.
You'll get a window like this. I'll explain each section and how I use it.
At the very top, you've got your "Extract to" folder. KMPlayer has a folder for this that it defaults to every time you open this window, but I always change it to a custom folder, preferably a different folder/subfolder for each each capture. (Note that it doesn't let you create a new folder from within the folder selection popup, so you'll have to go make a new folder elsewhere before you can select it.)
The prefix and digits stuff is just to alter how it names the files- I don't mess with this.
In the image format section, you can select whether your capture will be in PNG, JPEG, or Bitmap. I always go with PNG- it's bigger, but you'll be compressing the images further when you make it into a GIF, so you want to start with the highest quality you can. The 'Method' box lets you select whether to capture just the video or include subtitles. This only applies for MKVs and such with embedded subtitles.
For numbers to extract, just leave this on Continuously.
In frames to extract, you have a lot of options. The only ones I pay attention to are "Every Frame" and "Every # frame." This is something I generally have to tweak when capturing from a new video, as the framerate and settings of videos can be all over the place. It can take some trial and error to find a good number here. But generally you're going to capture between 1 (or just the 'Every Frame' option) and every 3 frames. The higher the number, the less frames you're capturing. (Note that the number of frames you capture here will also affect the framerate you choose in Photoshop- more on that later.)
Starting with 2 frames is a safe bet- most video framerates are roughly around 30 frames per second, and this way you're capturing roughly every other frame.
In size to extract, usually you're good to stay on 'Original size.' For specified size, if you hit the 'G' button it should automatically enter the resolution of the video. I suppose you could use this if you want to capture in the size yor gif will be, but I'd wait until I'm in Photoshop for that.
OKAY. So you have your video ready and all your settings ready to capture (or to do a test run). Hit start, and then hit play on the video. Let it play through the end of the gif, then pause again. This may cause the video to slow down and stutter depending on your system and the video size. Go back to the Frame Extraction Window and hit stop. You're done! At least with the first part.
Now you'll want to open these frames in Photoshop. Open Photoshop, go to File > Open and navigate to the folder where you saved your captures.
Select the very first screencap. Make sure that the "Image Sequence" ticky box is checked down at the bottom. You'll get a frame rate window like this:
This is there the number of frames you captured comes in. If you captured 2 frames per second, you'll probably want to go with 15 fps- half of 30. However, if you captured 1 or 3, you may have to tweak this number until you get a frame rate you like. This can take some tedious trial and error, as it's hard to tell what speed a gif is playing at until you're ready to export it, and the only way to change the frame rate (without fucking up the frames) is to re-import the captures into photoshop. But once you have it figured out, it's super easy to make multiple gifs from the same source.
Now you should have a timeline at the bottom of your window like so. If not, go to Window > Timeline and it should show up.
Before anything else, I resize the gif. Doing this later can fuck things up sometimes, so best to get it out of the way now. Go to Image > Image Size.
The size can be whatever you want. Generally smaller resolution = smaller filesize, but on some baffling occasions it's actually made the filesize larger when I shrink the resolution. Mysteries. (Note: Tumblr won't allow uploading of gifs larger than 1.5 mb, and sometimes it won't let me even if it's a little under. You have to make them pretty small/short for this. I don't really bother with that anymore unless I super want to upload it to tumblr.)
Also, when you resize, it may say something about converting it to a smart object. Just go ahead and hit yes.
Once your image is at a size you like, you'll want to crop it down to just the frames you want (unless you're just That Awesome and managed to capture exactly what you wanted). This is easily done by dragging the little blue slider around to where you want it to start, then grabbing the start of the frames and dragging it over to snap to the slider. Do the same to the end.
You could move on to the last step of exporting your gif from here if you wanted, but if you want to tweak or fix any color things first:
Click on this little button down at the bottom of your layers window. It should give you the option to create adjustment layers. This is essentially the same as going to layers > adjustments, but it lets you turn it into an adjustable layer instead. Once you have these added and adjusted, it should look something like this:
And now for the last step: actually exporting this sucker.
Go to File > Save for Web.
The window that comes up has a ton of shit on it, but all you need to worry about is the Animation section in the lower right. As you can see, the looping option tends to default to 'Once.' Make sure to change this to 'Forever' or it won't loop. You can then hit the play button below that to preview your finished gif. You can always go back and tweak if it doesn't look the way you want. You can also see the filesize on the bottom left under the preview window.
Once you're ready, hit Save and select where you want to save it, etc etc
AND YOU'RE DONE. YAY YOU DID IT, you made a gif.