There are many simple programmes that allow you to create an animated gif, either on Windows or Mac. GIF is a format that is used for images and animations and allows you to save images of up to 256 colours without losing any quality. Normally it used to create advertising banners but the applications are endless. In this OneHowTo article we are going to show you how to make an animated GIF using Adobe Photoshop.
- A computer
- Adobe Photoshop
Previously GIF's were created with Photoshop ImageReady but in later versions this option has disappeared, so we'll do the animation directly from Photoshop.
Open the images that you are going to work on in Photoshop and make them the right size. For example, if the GIF is square and small, you can give them a measurement of 300 x 300 pixels and save them as 72 DPI.
Create a TIF file that will serve to create the GIF. This way you can turn the layers on and off as you see fit.
Give the TIF file the same dimensions as your images, and drag and drop them so that each one is a unique layer.
In the upper horizontal bar in Photoshop, go to Window /Animation. Then the animation bar will appear on the screen, which is similar to a timeline.
Once on the animation bar go to the bottom right corner and hover over the symbol "Convert To Frame Animation" and click.
You will see that the image you have selected in your TIF will automatically appear in the timeline in a frame format.
Under the image of the timeline on the right, click "duplicate selected frames". The image will be duplicated with a second frame appearing.
In the "Layers" window, close the first image and activate the second one. You'll see the second image is automatically displayed in the second frame.
Repeat this process, duplicating the 2nd frame in the timeline. Go back to the "Layers" tab and deactivate the second image, leaving only the third active. It will then appear in the timeline, in this way. You should repeat this step with your images as necessary depending on the amount of frames you want to have in your GIF.
Remember to save changes while you work on your TIF.
Once you have the images or frames on the timeline, mark the duration of each frame and under the first box click "infinite" if you want the animation to repeat continuously.
To save the image as GIF just go to File/Save for Web and Devices and a new window will open. Hit save as GIF with 256 colours if you do not want it to lose any quality. In the "Quality" tab, choose "Bicubic smoother".
Done. There you have your GIF to upload to your social networks or your website!
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