19 : Tumblr GIF Tutorial and Tips
ETA : Tumblr has upgraded their limit to 1MB per January 2012.
Ultimate tumblr GIF Tutorial
Photoshop CS5/CS4 Extended/CS3 Extended
(this tutorial is made with Photoshop CS3 Extended, Windows Vista OS)
BASIC
1. Open video file
Make sure your animation window is open, you'll be able to see your video's timeline bar. I'm using this video that I downloaded in MP4 format (1280x720) using keepvid.com.
2. Select the part you want to gif, render video
Select the part you want to include in your animation. The grey area indicates the part you don't need and will be excluded. Note : With tumblr 500KB limitation, it is better to select shorter scene so that the gif flows smooth even with small number of frames. If your video file is small enough, you can skip double rendering and go straight to next step. If you want to do double rendering, you don't have to worry about selecting the exact time frame, you'll be able to edit it again in the next step.
3. Open your new video, cropping, coloring, second render
In this step I again select the area that I want to GIF. If you're not familiar with editing videos in photoshop, it's basically the same with editing pictures, you can duplicate layer and put it on screen if the video is too dark, you can increase saturation, contrast, etc. You can add nice colorings to your video too. Once you're done with everything, render the video. If you think you'll need some color adjustment, you can do it in the next step.
What I did here :
- Cropped the video to 500x220px
- Duplicate layer, sharpened the layer copy and set it as soft light
- Selective coloring and a layer in grey that I set to color burn
4. Import video frames to layers
File>Import>Video frames to layers
It'll prompt you with this option :
You can either select some part of the video, or put custom number into "every __ frames". Here I input every 3 frames so that I don't end up with too many frames. If your animation doesn't flow nicely, you can repeat this step to increase the number of frames.
5. Setting animation
On top right of your animation window, you'll see a little arrow that'll show you options, click>select all frames and you can change the timing of each frame. As a suggestion, don't make your frame delay less than 0.13 seconds cos your animation will be too fast. Adjust with the length of your animation/video part. Here I have 12 frames that I set up to 0.17 second delay. If you need to change brightness/contras, add curve or do some colorings, you can do it in this step, by adding adjustment layer on top of all the layers.
6. Setting colors and dither options
When you're finished with the animation settings, choose File>Save for Web and Devices. This window will pop up :
There are three different dithering options, and I choose pattern dither as my default. Notice the size of the file, if it's more than 500kb, input less number of colors and check again. If the colors doesn't work no matter how you try, you can cancel and go back to editing your animation. Delete some frames or make your animation in black and white to help lessen the file size.
7. Preview your animation on browser
Click preview on Photoshop CS4/CS5 and in Photoshop CS3, click on the globe button. In the preview you'll be able to see whether it's the right speed or not, and whether the size is small enough for tumblr. If either doesn't work out, go back and change your settings.
8. End result
When you're satisfied with everything, save your file. Here's my end result :
500w x 220h, 497.8K, 94 Colors, Pattern Dither, 12 frames
Practice with different number of frames and colors. The type of video and original colors/quality affects your GIF, too. Practice makes perfect!
VARIATION 1 : GIF in a picture
Once you mastered making GIFs in Photoshop, you'll discover a lot of fun things you can do with your GIFs. One of them is to put your animation in a picture. To me, the animation is the focus, so I chose a picture that I set on low opacity with a black background, that way the animation will pop more.
Crop your animation and place it in the position you want it to be in the picture. Next step is, drag your picture to your animation, place it on top of all the frames. Make a layer mask and delete the part you want your animation to appear.
End result :
500w x 419h, 379.4K, 256 Colors, Pattern Dither, 12 frames
VARIATION 2 :
Multiple animations in one GIF
First step is, prepare your animations in layers, and make sure they have the same number of frames. In the example I'm using 2 clips from the same video.
Set your canvas size and multiple the height (I usually take 1 pixel off so there is no weird - unwanted line between animations). Set it so that the empty part is above your current animation.
Go to your other animation, select all frames and copy frames. Paste them by selecting "Paste over selection".
Repeat the GIF finishing steps and there you have it, multiple animations in one GIF. If you want more animation, you can repeat the same steps.
I cropped the image and added a black layer as background,
Here's my end result :
500w x 500h, 499.1K, 110 Colors, Pattern Dither, 12 frames
Here's an alternate I made by setting the pasted frames before selected frames instead of over. In this kind of multiple animations GIF, the animations don't need to be in the same number of frames.
500w x 540h, 499.4K, 145 Colors, Pattern Dither, 14 frames
Here's something similar I made with 3 animations :
Tips for making tumblr GIFs
Important key is : 500px and 500kb
Keep your animated gif UNDER 500KB !IMPORTANT! Now tumblr has upgraded their limit to 1000MB, and make everything in 500px wide. It's tumblr's default width and if you make them in other sizes, even though they're under 500KB, they might won't work.
Here are some tips on how to keep your gif under 500KB1000KB :
1. Less frames
Everything is adjustable, size, colors, but the standard number of frames for tumblr GIFs are 10-15. Of course, sometimes we'll end up with a lot more frames. Delete some of them (I usually do this to the first or last frames) to make your file smaller. Or, redo the import video frames to layers step and change the setting to every more frames.
2. Make the animated part smaller
The busier the animation, the file will end up bigger. If you want to keep your animation 500px width, you can chop off some to reduce the height by cropping. But other than that, you can resize the whole animation and put it inside a frame like these :
500px × 519px 16 frames 60 colors 499.33KB
500px × 249px 16 frames 497.49 KB
3. Less number of colors + dither setting
Less number of colors will make your animation less vibrant, but with the right setting and coloring, it wouldn't end up so bad.
example :
500 x 300px 17 frames 256 colors 771.26 KB
with less colors :
500 x 300px 17 frames 64 colors 495.43 KB
4. Make your GIF monotone using gradient layer.
This is another way of losing colors but with classier way, and you don't need to dither as much so the graphic itself is pretty, just without colors.
examples :
Special thanks to paintcans whose GIFs and tips are helpful and inspiring! Check out her graphics comm artvalue and her tumblr.
In the end with experience and practice you'll be able to make different variations :)
I hope this is helpful to some of you <3