How to make .gifs
So, I'm sure a few of you are wondering how to make these lovely, lovely things called .gifs...
Yes, gifs just like this one!
Crazy, huh?
So, first of all, gif making is VERY easy.
There's a lot of different ways you can go about this, but it's essentially just video>screencaps>editing program>save as .gif
I'll be explaining how to use VLC player and The GIMP
(both are free), but if you have another method, or would like to recommend other programs, please go ahead and do so in the comments! :D
First, let's set everything up, and head over to the preferance box.
(Tools>preferences, or Ctrl+p)
Here we are going to
1.since we're taking the screen shots by hand we're going to use hot keys.
2. find the folder all our screen shots are being saved to.
1: hot keys, the traffic cone on the bottom.
the two we want would be "next frame" and "screen capture"
search for those, I think next frame is set as 'e' already- that's what I leave it on.
But screen capture was set on something harder to hit quickly, and I constantly just pressed 's'. :\
s is stop.
So I changed stop to something else, and put screen capture as 's'.
you have to close the player, and open it again for this change to work.
2. Video, 3rd traffic cone down
in the "video snapshots" section you'll find
Directory, prefix, and format.
Directory is the file the snapshots are saved too, you can change this to anywhere you wish, and if you want you can change the file type it's saved as (in format).
Now, we're ready to start taking the screen shots. :D
Open the video you want and pause on the spot where you wish your gif to start.
Use the 'snap shot' and 'next frame' hot keys to take all the screen shots you want, and stop when you reach the length you want it to be.
(for me, it's pressing s e s esesesesesesesesesese for a long time XD)
Go to the folder every thing's saved in, and open the very first screen shot in GIMP.
once this is loaded, open all the other snap shots as layers by going to file>open as layers (ctrl+alt+o)
select all the pictures
and then press 'open'
Now we wait on the pictures to load.....
Once they do, everything will be in the layer box (if that's not open then press ctrl+L)
The layers are now the frames.
We can now play the gif by going to Filters>animation>playback
and see what the gif will look like, if everything is good, then we'll move on :)
resizing comes next.
I've forgotten this step a few times -_-;;;
For this, we go to image>scale image
I think 300 is a good, standard size, so I set the width to 300, then the height will auto-adjust its self so that it matches the height.
I also change the resolution/DPI to 300 to keep the quality all pretty ^^
Once all that's typed in, press 'scale'
Go to save as
(file>save as>)
Here you choose where you want to save the file, what the name of it will be, ect.
Make sure to name it with the .gif extension! (aka "name.gif") other wise it'll save as a .xcf file. (xcf being gimp's default file type)
like as shown here:
press save.
This box will come up, and the first two options are "flatten image" and "save as animation"
It should have "flatten image" checked, but we want it to be an animation, so make sure to check the box that says 'save as animation'
after you do that, press "export"
now you'll get this box:
"loop forever" should be automatically checked, but check to make sure it is. ^^
As ansnnn said, you can also change the delay time between frames here.
"delay between frames were unspecified", it's automatically set to 100 milliseconds.
You can make the number small, and the gif will go through the frames faster. Or, you can make the number larger, and the gif will go through them slower.
(like 50 would make it move much, much faster. 200 would make it move twice as slow.)
now you just need to press save, and upload it somewhere. :D
that's it! :D
Here's our finished gif
Now for the notes:
1. open video in VLC player
2. use the "snap shot" and "next frame" hot keys to take screen shots of everything you want
3. open the first screen shot in GIMP
4. Go to file>open as layers and open all the other screen shots as layers.
5. resize by going to image>scale image, I recommend setting the width to 300pixels
6. file>save as
7. save with .gif at the end of the name
8. "save as animation", do not flatten the image- when it asks
9. press export
10. make sure "loop forever is checked
11. save.
It's truly not hard at all, I know that was long, but it was a very detailed explanation ^^
I hope everyone gives it a try!!! Be sure to ask me if you have any questions...
Also, please tell me if you notice that I've made a typo/grammatic mistake so I can fix them ^^;
I'm very, very tired right now- and I'm sure that in the morning I'll find a million of them
:\
Thanks for reading this far!
Yes, gifs just like this one!
Crazy, huh?
So, first of all, gif making is VERY easy.
There's a lot of different ways you can go about this, but it's essentially just video>screencaps>editing program>save as .gif
I'll be explaining how to use VLC player and The GIMP
(both are free), but if you have another method, or would like to recommend other programs, please go ahead and do so in the comments! :D
First, let's set everything up, and head over to the preferance box.
(Tools>preferences, or Ctrl+p)
Here we are going to
1.since we're taking the screen shots by hand we're going to use hot keys.
2. find the folder all our screen shots are being saved to.
1: hot keys, the traffic cone on the bottom.
the two we want would be "next frame" and "screen capture"
search for those, I think next frame is set as 'e' already- that's what I leave it on.
But screen capture was set on something harder to hit quickly, and I constantly just pressed 's'. :\
s is stop.
So I changed stop to something else, and put screen capture as 's'.
you have to close the player, and open it again for this change to work.
2. Video, 3rd traffic cone down
in the "video snapshots" section you'll find
Directory, prefix, and format.
Directory is the file the snapshots are saved too, you can change this to anywhere you wish, and if you want you can change the file type it's saved as (in format).
Now, we're ready to start taking the screen shots. :D
Open the video you want and pause on the spot where you wish your gif to start.
Use the 'snap shot' and 'next frame' hot keys to take all the screen shots you want, and stop when you reach the length you want it to be.
(for me, it's pressing s e s esesesesesesesesesese for a long time XD)
Go to the folder every thing's saved in, and open the very first screen shot in GIMP.
once this is loaded, open all the other snap shots as layers by going to file>open as layers (ctrl+alt+o)
select all the pictures
and then press 'open'
Now we wait on the pictures to load.....
Once they do, everything will be in the layer box (if that's not open then press ctrl+L)
The layers are now the frames.
We can now play the gif by going to Filters>animation>playback
and see what the gif will look like, if everything is good, then we'll move on :)
resizing comes next.
I've forgotten this step a few times -_-;;;
For this, we go to image>scale image
I think 300 is a good, standard size, so I set the width to 300, then the height will auto-adjust its self so that it matches the height.
I also change the resolution/DPI to 300 to keep the quality all pretty ^^
Once all that's typed in, press 'scale'
Go to save as
(file>save as>)
Here you choose where you want to save the file, what the name of it will be, ect.
Make sure to name it with the .gif extension! (aka "name.gif") other wise it'll save as a .xcf file. (xcf being gimp's default file type)
like as shown here:
press save.
This box will come up, and the first two options are "flatten image" and "save as animation"
It should have "flatten image" checked, but we want it to be an animation, so make sure to check the box that says 'save as animation'
after you do that, press "export"
now you'll get this box:
"loop forever" should be automatically checked, but check to make sure it is. ^^
As ansnnn said, you can also change the delay time between frames here.
"delay between frames were unspecified", it's automatically set to 100 milliseconds.
You can make the number small, and the gif will go through the frames faster. Or, you can make the number larger, and the gif will go through them slower.
(like 50 would make it move much, much faster. 200 would make it move twice as slow.)
now you just need to press save, and upload it somewhere. :D
that's it! :D
Here's our finished gif
Now for the notes:
1. open video in VLC player
2. use the "snap shot" and "next frame" hot keys to take screen shots of everything you want
3. open the first screen shot in GIMP
4. Go to file>open as layers and open all the other screen shots as layers.
5. resize by going to image>scale image, I recommend setting the width to 300pixels
6. file>save as
7. save with .gif at the end of the name
8. "save as animation", do not flatten the image- when it asks
9. press export
10. make sure "loop forever is checked
11. save.
It's truly not hard at all, I know that was long, but it was a very detailed explanation ^^
I hope everyone gives it a try!!! Be sure to ask me if you have any questions...
Also, please tell me if you notice that I've made a typo/grammatic mistake so I can fix them ^^;
I'm very, very tired right now- and I'm sure that in the morning I'll find a million of them
:\
Thanks for reading this far!