# **In Depth Giffing Tutorial** #
---
**(≧▽≦) Hi everyone!**
So, this has truly been a long time coming and after a lot of requests and me pushing this back *continuously*... It's finally here! I tried my best to be in depth about stuff, but hopefully it makes sense and isn't too rambly or anything!
If there is anything that you want to ask me about this tutorial or giffing in general, please don't hesitate to ask!
(And if I made any spelling, grammatical errors, something doesn't make sense, etc., please let me know, haha;;)
**SIDE NOTE:** `I am a Windows user, and therefore this is mainly based on my experiences using a Windows OS. I believe most of these instructions would work with a MAC OS as well, but if there are any discrepancies, this might be why.`
---
**You'll need:**
* **Photoshop** (I use PS 2021 but I believe it's the pretty much the same with older versions.)
* **Video Downloader** (I recommend [this](https://www.4kdownload.com/products/product-videodownloader) one for youtube videos, as it allows you to download in 4K! I'll list some extra ones for other sites at the bottom if you're interested.)
**Optional:**
* VapourSynth
> **[Here](https://hackmd.io/@nibreon/vapoursynth-book/%2F%40nibreon%2Fvapoursynth-book)** the best resource for working with VS. It explain everything extremely well and provides links for download. I recommend giving this a read through. But, I will also give an brief explanation on how I use it as well.
>
> * [This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLGQNS-Nz_c&feature=emb_title) is **WINDOWS** tutorial on downloading the program and how to use it.
> * [This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj6HbFMWkgM&feature=emb_title) is a **MAC** tutorial on downloading the program and how to use it.
---
## VapourSynth or Not ##
(*•̀ᴗ•́*)و Ok, now that that’s out of the way! I’m going to quickly explain the main difference between using VapourSynth and not using it; if you already know this you can skip over this section.
Basically what VS does, is it crops, resizes, denoises, and sharpens the video for you all in one go, so you don’t have to do it in Photoshop. While Photoshop does an adequate job of sharpening and denoising, I find that when viewing gifs on tumblr, and especially when viewing on mobile, VS makes a world of difference. Since, VS is built for the job of cleaning up the quality of a video, it does an amazing job!
> 
>
>`(There's no colouring on these gifs.)`
The real trade off is time. Making gifs takes quite a bit of time as it is, but once you've practiced and gotten the hang of it, it becomes a really fast process. I find that using VS only lengthens this process. Putting the video through the editor does take time, but in my personal opinion, I think it's worth it in the end.
**SIDE NOTE:** `Also if you ever want to make stage gifs, you’ll need VapourSynth because it deinterlaces **.TS FILES**, which is the format that most stage files come in. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here! I’ll explain this a little later! First I’m going to show you how to make a very basic gif using only Photoshop!`
---
## Tutorial ##
### STEP ONE: Opening The Video ##
After downloading the video you're going to gif, open up photoshop and open the video you're going to use. There's a couple different ways to do this, but I'll show you the two that I've seen used most commonly.
**First Way:**
Go to ‘File > Import > Video Frames to Layers’. That will open up a window allowing you to browse your device for the video you want.
> 
When you pick the video, a window will open up. It’ll look like this:
> 
This does two steps for you; it cuts the video from where you want it AND it turns it into layers automatically.
Using the sliders (that are circled) you can trim the video to the clip you want it to be. I’d recommend you cut it so that there’s a little of excess video on either side of your desired clip. This is so that you can delete frames and be more accurate later on.
Once you have the general area of the the video you want, click ‘OK’ and photoshop will automatically convert your video into frames.
> 
>
> 
Now, select the frames that you don’t want from the gif and highlight all the frames by: clicking on the first frame and, while holding shift, click on the last undesired frame. Then select the garbage can icon to delete those frames.
> 
**Second Way:**
Go to ‘File > Open’. That will open up the same window where you can scroll through your device and find the video you’re going to use. Open it.
> 
>
> 
Notice the difference in the Timeline and in the layers panel; this is a video, whereas in the first example, those were frames. What you need to do now is cut the video and then turn it into frames.
Here is where you can trim your video:
> 
**SIDE NOTE:** `If your timeline isn't showing, then go to 'Window > Timeline and turn it on!`
Using the ‘pause/play’, ‘forward/backward frame by frame’ tools you can clip the video to exactly where you want it. When you’ve found the exact place you want, you hit the scissor icon and it’ll clip your video. Then play through your clip and cut it off when it gets to the end of the desired clip. You should have 3 distinct clips!
> 
You can delete the first and last clips, and keep the desired one.
> 
Using the menu (the three little lines) in the corner of the Timeline, select the ‘Convert Frames > Flatten Frames into Clips’ options.
> 
>
> 
Photoshop will then flatten each video frame into a clip. The Timeline and layers tab should now look something like this:
> 
At the very bottom left of the Timeline panel, there are three little boxes. Click on those.
> 
The Timeline will change into a Frameviewer:
> 
Now, going back to those three little lines from before (in the top right corner of the Timeline) select ‘Make Frames from Layers.’
> 
After that the Timeline will look pretty much the same as the final step from the first way.
> 
Make sure that the option for how many times your gif is played is set to ‘Forever’, or the gif will not be on a constant loop.
> 
You can play through the frames and make sure that all the frames that you want are there and that there’s nothing that’s out of place!
As you can see, the first way is really simple but a little less accurate. The second way, there’s a few more steps but I find it to be more accurate. Honestly, it doesn’t matter which method you use, they both work.
When I first started giffing, before I used VS, I personally prefer the second method because it allowed me to cut the video in multiple places so I could find all the clips I wanted and then from there, I could save the clips as it’s own .psd file. This allowed me to have all the clips presaved!
But it really doesn’t matter! It’s whatever your preference is!
### STEP TWO: Cropping, Resizing, Delay, Frames to Gif ###
**Cropping**
Selecting the crop tool, the top bar will change to display this:
> 
> 
In the second drop down menu, you can select the sizing. I recommend going with ‘Ratio’.
> 
Gifsets on Tumblr require specific dimensions.
> 
The above image has the ratios that I personally like to use!
Although the height of gifs can be almost anything, the width should be these values: 540 for single gifs, 268 for 2 gifs across, and 177 for 3 gifs across.
Now that you’ve selected the ratio, you can enter that ratio of the gifs you’re making. For the example, since this is a single gif, the width would be 540 pixels and the height, 400 pixels. The cropping net will automatically resize as you enter the desired height and width. Now, you can resize it how you’d like. You can get rid of extra spacing, words, or whatever you don’t want in the gif.
> 
Once you’re happy with how the sizing is, before selecting the checkmark in the corner, hit the "Clear" button, next to the ratio boxes! If you don't do this, PS will resize as it crops. Once you've cleared the numbers, you can select the check mark in the corner and it will then, crop the gif to the size you want.
**Resizing**
When you set the ratio for the gif, that didn’t automatically resize your gif; rather it cropped according to the ratio that you set. It's better to do this in two steps, as I find that sometimes the automatic resize makes mistakes.
To resize the gif, go to ‘Image > Image Size’. this will open up a dialogue box.
> 
>
> 
Change the width to what the ratio was set to and hit 'OK'. In this case it’s going to be 540p, and the height should automatically resize.
**SIDE NOTE:** `Make sure the link between the width and height is toggled ON. Otherwise, when you change the width/height, the respective one will not change automatically in accordance with the ratio that the gif was initially cropped to.`
> 
**Delay**
Setting delay is based in preference and on frames per second. Certain videos have more than the average amount of frames per second which is 30fps. High quality videos sometimes will be available in 60fps; these videos are smoother in quality.
The most common delays that I've seen used are: no delay, 0.04 delay, and 0.07 delay. However, it depends on the video, the fps, and the gifmaker.
> 
>
> 
>
> 
>
> 
For my gifs, I tend to use 0.07 delay! Unless it's a 60fps video, in which case I use 0.04.
To set the delay, refer to the timeline at the bottom of the screen. Every frame has a delay number and a dropdown arrow.
> 
Select all the frames, either by selecting the first frame, holding shift, and then selecting the last frame, or, going to the timeline menu and selecting "Select All Frames".
> 
Once all the frames are highlighted, click on the downward arrow that is beside the delay number. A dropdown menu will appear. Select the 'Other...' option. This will bring up a dialogue box. Imput the preferred delay and select 'OK'.
> 
>
> 
**Frames to Gif**
To compress the frames into the gif, select all the frames in the timeline. Then do the same with the layers panel, selecting all the layers.
> 
In the timeline menu, select ‘Convert to Video Timeline.’
> 
The timeline will now appear like this:
> 
To merge all the frames into one clip, using the toolbar, select ‘Filter > Convert for Smart Filters.’
> 
The timeline and layers panel should now appear like this:
> 
### STEP THREE: Denoise and Sharpen (In Photoshop)
**Denoise**
Using the toolbar, select, 'Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise.'
> 
A dialogue box will appear. These are the standard settings that I previously used. Unfortunately, not every video has good enough quality, and it is important to test out different denoising strengths to see which will fit the video the best.
> 
When the denoise settings are to your liking, select ‘Ok’ and these settings will be applied.
**Sharpen**
Similar to denoising, using the toolbar, select ‘Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen.'
> 
A dialogue box will appear. These are the standard settings that I previously used. Again, unfortunately, not every video has good enough quality, and it is important to test out different sharpening strengths to see which will fit the video the best.
> 
When the sharpness settings are good, select ‘Ok’ and these settings will be applied.
**SIDE NOTE:** `Sharpening and denoise is relative to the quality of the video you use. Using a low quality video will only yield in a low quality sharpening / denoising job.`
### STEP FOUR: Colouring ###
There is not a set guide when it comes to colouring. Every gifmaker is unique and has a style. If you're looking for help colouring a specific colour, feel free to ask me, but otherwise I can only really offer some tips that I'd really recommend looking into. These are things that I'd wished I'd known when I first started giffing!
* **Colour Theory:** I really recommend you look into colour theory and do some research on how colours work, what colours look good together, what colours cancel other colours out, etc, etc… It’s really important to understand this, simply because it’ll make your life on Photoshop a LOT easier. It might be a personal opninon, but I think that its a great first step when it comes to making gifs! Every video/source material is different, and knowing where to start from is a big help and if you understand colour theory, the moment you look at the source material, you’ll be able to kind of form a plan on how certain colours will look on it and how your PSD will change it, etc.
* **Red/Yellow:** Skin is just mostly a mixture of reds and yellows, but other colours play a role there too. When adjusting the colouring and trying not to wash out the skin tone, it’s important to add in yellows and reds without saturating it too much so that it doesn’t look unnatural. For example, adding green in can mellow out the reds if they’re too intense. This is another reason colour theory is so important.
* **Curves Adjustment:** The curve adjustment layer is extremely useful and is usually the base of all my gifs. I find that adjusting the curves helps to create a natural unnoticeable bias (if you’re not pushing it too much that is) with the RGB scale.
* **Selective Colour Adjustment:** Selective colour is also fantastic as it targets specific colours and can therefore easily darken or lighten a certain colour that you’re working with OR change it to a completely different colour, without affecting the rest of the image. This is another reason understanding colour theory is important; selective colour really depends on understand what you’re doing.
* **Hue/Saturation + Brightness/Contrast + Vibrance Adjustments:** Also important, these 5 also play a big part in colouring. Some problems are super easily fixed by simply dropping saturation, or upping brightness, or something of that nature. It's the little things that can up how good your colouring looks and paying attention to these can help!
* **Practice:** As cheesy and silly as it will sound, like most things, with time, it’ll become easier and more natural for you. A lot of people have set PSDs that they refer to and cycle between when colouring. I recommend just testing different styles until you find something you really love! Its not an exact science and everyone has their own unique style so just have fun! Don't feel afraid to look to other gifmakers for inspiration! And also, if you're having trouble, there are tons of PSDs out there on resource blogs on Tumblr that are free to use!
> 
As you can see, I've definitely come a long way in terms of colouring and deciding on the style of colouring that I like! The more you practice, the more experience you have, enventually you'll be able to create more and more precise colourings, the way you want!
### STEP FIVE: Watermark ###
This is an optional step. Some users use a logo as a watermark, while others tend to just use a text watermark, and some choose not to watermark at all! It's based on your preference.
For a textbased watermark, select the Text tool and choose a typeface, a style, point size, and colour that you prefer.
For my watermark, I tend to use the typeface **04b03**. The point size depends on the gif size, but typically it doesn't stray above 12pts. It's usually the colour white. It's usually at about 70-75% opacity! (Sometimes, if the situation calls for, I might put the layer type for the watermark as an **overlay**.)
The placement of the watermark is different for everyone. I tend to place it at the bottom middle of the gif!
> 
>
> 
>
> 
>
> 
Of course, there's no need for a watermark, but most people do so just to be aware in case of reposters! It's not necessary but I still recommend it.
### STEP SIX: Exporting The Gif ###
Go to 'File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy)' **OR** hit CRTL+ALT+SHIFT+S on your keyboard.
> 
A dialogue box will open that looks like this:
> 
Double check the settings, looping option, and the size.
> 
>
> 
Tumblr recently upped their size limit for gifs. The largest gif file you can upload now is just less than 10MB. If your gif exceeds this size it will not upload.
**SIDE NOTE:** `Unfortunately, due to Tumblr's new updates, most of the gifs on the site are automatically converted to .gifv rather than .gif files. This change is what allowed us to upload larger gifs. However, the larger the gif, the more it is compressed by Tumblr. This means, even if your gif is clear and high quality, the larger the file size, the lower quality it will tend to look. There are several XKit extensions that have converted gifs back to their normal format, but just to be safe, try to keep your gifs MB count as small as you can, because no matter what, Tumblr compresses gifs!`
Play the gif to make sure everything is alright. If not, go back, address the issue. (If you have a question feel free to ask!) But if everything is looking good, go ahead and hit the 'Save' button.
A save window will open. Rename your gif and save it to the folder of your choosing.
> 
And that's it! You made a gif! ☆ヾ(*´・∀・)ﾉ
> 
---
## Tutorial Using VapourSynth
As mentioned earlier, I really want to emphasize the usefulness of VS. It's not necessary, and I originally didn't use VS, but the difference it brings to gifs is really noticable.
You also cannot gif 4K or .ts files properly without VS. So it's a fairly useful skill learning how to use it!
There's links at the top that provide VS help, as well as, the links to download. I'll briefly explain my process with VS as well, but definitely look up more help if you need it!
### STEP ONE: Time Stamps and Processing ###
VS works by putting a video into a processor, which isolates a section of the video based on a timestamp that is put in by the user.
Open up both the locations of the video and the 'Vapoursynth' package in seperate file explorers.
> 
Drag and drop the video file that you want to gif, into the application that's called 'Vapourscript.'
A command prompt dialogue box will open up that looks like this:
> 
The program will ask you for the initial timestamp (where the clip you want begins.) The second time stamp will ask for the length of the clip. I ususally do about 1-2 seconds extra before and after the clip, so the part of the clip I want isn't excluded.
After this, hit enter and command prompt will take some time to process the clip. It will then open up a resizer in your browser and the VS editor on your desktop.
> 
> **Resizer**
> 
> **VS Editor**
### STEP TWO: Cropping, Resizing, Deinterlacing, Sharpening, and Denoising ###
In the top left corner you will see the below panel:
> 
* **GIF Size:** Allows you to enter the size (width, height), you want for the clip.
* **Opacity Slider:** Allows you to make the entirety of the clip more or less visible, outside of the selected area.
* **Preprocessor:** Allows you to deinterlace videos that are interlaced, (such as .ts, .tp, .m2ts)! This isn't required for regular videos, such as .mp4, .avi), although some people do tend to use it for them.
* **Denoise Filters:** The denoising options that VS has.
* **Sharpening:** The sharpening options that VS has.
> **[This](https://hackmd.io/@nibreon/vapoursynth-book/%2F%40nibreon%2Fvapoursynth-book)** is the link I listed above, and it is the most in depth info about VS that I know of. It's really helpful if you want to learn more about VS and more about it's capabilities.
For the specifc gif that we're working with, this is what the settings might end up looking like:
> 
> *The highlighted values are the ones that change with each new gif you make!*
### STEP THREE: Preview and Clipping ###
Copying the code from above, bring that into the VS editor, and paste it under the section that says, **"Whatever you copied from the resizer goes here"**.
> 
At this point, you can preview your clip to see if the sharpening, denoise are to where you want. Go to 'Script > Preivew' or use F5.
> 
>
> 
More often than not, VS will lag at this point if you try to play the clip, so I'd recommend if your laptop doesn't have a strong RAM, just click through and see how the sharpening and denoise look! If it's too strong, lower it. Likewise, if it's not strong enough, increase it.
Here you can also cut the clip down so that you're only VSing the frames that are required rather than wasting more time to VS frames you won't even need in the end.
Using the timeline, find where the first and last frames of your clip are, the number is displayed to the left of the processor close to the play button.
> 
Once you have the frames, back in the editor, find the line of code that reads "**video = core.std.Trim(video, a, b)"**. This should be directly above the "Whatever you copied from the resizer goes here," line.
> 
The **"a"** and **"b"** can be replaced with your first and last desired frames.
**SIDE NOTE:** `There is a hashtag that is at the front of certain lines of code. This hashtag means that the program is going to parse over that section of code and will not interact with it. To have that be included for the machine to be read, erase the hashtag!`
>
> 
### STEP FOUR: Saving and Encoding ###
Next step is to save the script. So, either, go to 'File > Save Script' or hit 'CTRL+S'and the script will save.
Then, go to the encode video option, by going to 'Script > Encode video'.
> 
This will open a new window that looks like this:
> 
Here, all you have to do is change the 'Header' option from **"No header"** to **"Y4M"**.
> 
Now, click 'Start' and the VS will begin to process your video. When it's finished, the window will look like this:
> 
You can close both this window and the VS editor now. Going back to the VS file explorer, go into the folder that is labelled 'Output.' The file that you just processed should be in there!
> 
>
> 
If you want to move it into a different folder at this point you can! I like to keep my VS files in the same place where the final gif ends up so everything is organized for me.
I rename the output file (especially if I'm making a set with more than one gif), and then move it into the appropriate folder.
> 
**SIDE NOTE:** `If you're VSing more than one file, make sure to either move the first output or rename it, because VS simply overwrites anything that is in the folder that is named 'Output'.`
### STEP FIVE: Making the Gif ###
From here, the steps are just same as the first part of the tutorial! The only differences are, that you no longer need to use photoshop to crop, resize, denoise, or sharpen, as all of that has been done for you!
> 
>
> 
As you can see, it genuinely makes a big difference! I would 100% recommend using VS. It might be a little complicated to get the hang of, but it definitely makes giffing a lot nicer!
---
## Stage Gifs ##
Last thing I wanted to quickly go over was stage gifs!
Videos of stages, usually come in the file format of .ts files! These are interlaced files, which then have to be deinterlaced. VapourSynth is needed to do this.
When making stage gifs, it's basically the same as before, but this time you use the 'Preprocessor' option that's available in the resizer window.
> 
There are four different types of processing:
* QTGMC 30 Fast
* QTGMC 30 Slow
* QTGMC 60 Fast
* QTGMC 60 Slow
I typically use QTGMC 60 Slow for stage gifs, and then QTGMC 30 Slow for everything else.
> 
>
> 
The difference isn't super noticeable, but the 60fps one is smoother and feels a little less choppy!
---
## Extra Resources to Download Videos ##
### TS FILES: ###
> **[KPOP24HRS](https://kpop24hrs.com/blog/live):** A great source for .ts files! You need an account to access the files unfortunately, but they've been opening sign ups more often lately, so if you keep your eye on it, hopefully you can get an account!
>
> **Twitter:** If you search on twitter for the day (YYMMDD) + the group + the ".ts", sometimes you can get lucky and find the files.
### VLIVEs ###
> * **[Soshistagram](https://home.soshistagram.com/naver_v/?lang=en):** Downloads any VLIVE related content, except for VLIVE+ or paid for content.
### Twitter Videos ###
> * **[Twitter Video Downloader](https://twittervideodownloader.com/):** Downloads any Twitter based videos/'gifs'.
### Instagram Videos ###
> * **[DreDownload](https://www.dredown.com/instagram):** Downloads any Instagram based videos.
### Naver Videos ###
> * **[9XBuddy](https://9xbuddy.com/sites/naver):** Downloads most Naver videos. *(Although, I haven't used this site in a while, so it might've changed since then.)*
### Other ###
> * **Screen Record:** When all else fails, screen recording has your back. For most paid content or VLIVE+ content, I just screen record the video and then gif using the recording! I'm a windows user, so I use **[OBS Studio](https://obsproject.com/)** to record most things as it is free software and is super useful! I think MAC users can use QuickTime as well!
---
# (❁'▽'❁)*✲ﾟ* #
And, you've done it! Yay!!! You can make gifs with photoshop now!!! Thank you so much for using my tutorial!
I hope this tutorial was in depth, but not too rambly or anything haha;; I hope it made sense, was spelled correctly, and helped you understand how to gif! If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask!!!
('' ≧▽≦) ♡
Sign in with Wallet
Connect another wallet