Reblog: tutorial gif #2 (using screencaptures, for PS CS3, CS4)
It might work for PS 7, CS, CS2 (with Image Ready of course).
We’ll need KMPlayer for that, download it here.
After you download it, open the video you want to take a gif from (it must be a .avi or a .flv, if you don’t have the vid on your computer you can download the .flv file on youtube with this site). Anyhow, I suggest you to download a 720p video if you want a HD gif.
Now, fter you opened your vid look for the point you want your gif to start and press pause. Click on the screen with the right button on your mouse and do Capture > Frame: Extract, and set like this
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/8049/kmplayer.png
and click on start. When you pass the point you want your gif to end, just press stop on the player and stop and the window of the frame extractor, and open the folder in which you decided to save the caps (I usually save them in the default user > documents > the kmplayer > captures), and eventually delete some of the caps that you may saved wrong (the ones that you may captured by mistake that aren’t useful for your gif, that is).
Then, open Photoshop and do File > Script > Load files into stack > select the folder in which you saved the caps just made, and select all the caps, then press OK.
The caps will open in PS in a sorta animation already. What you have to do now is resize the caps (select all > image > image size > I always select 500px large, but if you need to put into a document, maybe around 250px will work fine).
What you need to do now is open the animation palette if you didn’t already (Window > Animation), and then click on the top right of this little window and choose “Create frames from layers”, and the pics will magically (!!) appear in the animation palette.
It’s not over yet. The caps are usually reversed from the end to the beginning, all you need to do is reclick on this menu and do “Reverse frames”, and so the gif will be like it should.
But we need to set a time, or it won’t load, so re-click on this menu > select all frames, and click on that little number under the frame on the animation palette, and set between 0,12 and 0,28 (it depends on how slower or faster you want the gif to be, I usually set on 0,18 or 0,22).
Play your gif, and then save it (file > save for web and devices, check that the option play “forever” is on, or it will play just once).
That’s it! But well, I guess you’d like to post it on tumblr, so it must be < 500kb. To do that, I’ll just copy what I wrote in the other tutorial I made, because the passages are the same:
Do File > Import > Frames to layers (or something, since my PS is in italian lol) and re-open the gif (you might have to type this *.* into the blank line because usually PS doesn’t show you .gif and other files in this option) and put these settings when a window will pop-up:
http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/6910/4gif.png
click on the white box of the option “every /number/ frames” and in the /number/ box.
I typed “4” because my gif was too long, but you can type up from 2 that is the basic number (it depends on how bigger is the gif u saved).
Less frames mean less size. If you want to post it on tumblr, it shouldn’t be more than 500KB.
Press OK, then look how many frames you have. They shouldn’t be more than 20 or so.
Now select all the frames, click on the little number under the first frame in the animation palette (the one with sec. written near) and type 0,12 or 0,18. Press play to see if the gif works fine.
If it’s cool, it’s time to save it again. File > Save for web and devices and under the preview check the dimensions (if you want to post it on tumblr again, it shouldn’t be more than 500kb).
Tip: Click on the optimized menu on the right when you are in the Save for web etc page http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/5195/5gif.png
click on “Optimize for the file dimensions” and type 499 so that the program will auto put the settings for your gif. Do this only if when you want to save the gif it’s more than 500KB big.
If you do this and the results are bad because it sets bad quality, you may have to cancel this action to delete some frames in your gif, because less frames, smaller is the gif.
Footnotes…
I know you’d like to know how to put more than a gif in one work. Well, that’s really simple. When you are done with the gif, save it and do the parts from “import > frames to layers” etc but when you are done, just open a new document.
On the little menu of the animation palette select all frames into the anim palette and the layers palette, then do “copy frames”. Go into the document you just created, and then on the same menu click on “paste frames” this time, and choose option 2 when asked (paste on selection), and that’s it. You need to do this as many times you past gifs. You need to check all the frames are selected or it will load only a frame.
(Source: http://purplebass.tumblr.com/post/1730632593/tutorial-gif-2-using-screencaptures-for-ps-cs3-cs4)