---
title: 'GIF Tutorial'
disqus: hackmd
---

Giffing for Beginners
===
Welcome to BT21Help's gif tutorial. You can find me [here](https://bt21help.tumblr.com) for more support.

> _{Disclaimer: We do not claim to be professionals in any way shape or form. This is simply based on personal knowledge and information found, as this is supposed to be helpful and a way of learning/support for others.}
## Table of Contents

[TOC]

## Software

When you begin your gif/gfx journey, having the right software is vital. Many people use Photoshop and programs of that sort.

Please visit [this](https://bt21help.tumblr.com/software) page in order to find files and tutorials on how to install Photoshop and other programs (as this isn't a program-cracking tutorial).

## GIF Trivia (on Tumblr)

There are a few basic things to know when it comes to gifs.

1. Gifs are limited to 256 colors.
2. Gifs on tumblr must be under 3MB (as of 2019).
3. Gif dimensions on tumblr are located [here](https://bt21net.tumblr.com/post/179807115531/tumblr-gif-size-dimensions-2018-for-anyone).

## How to GIF

In this section we'll be covering the very basic form of giffing. This is just to get you started, and to understand how to gif, and the basics of giffing with Photoshop specifically.

You'll need to download a video, which is briefly covered in the Video section and a more in-depth version including fps, .ts vs. mp4, in the table of contents.

For the purposes of simplicity, the video being used is a simple, mp4 video from BANGTANTV.

#### Opening your Video
Once you've opened Photoshop and have your video downloaded, proceed the following:

`File > Import > Video to Layers`


When you hit OK, it should load the clip. It'll be large since it's uploading it at it's video size (1920x1080). Since this is going to be for tumblr specifically, we'll be using tumblr sizes in order to resize this gif.

#### Cropping and Resizing

On Photoshop, to resize it, go to sidebar of the app. You'll find something similar to this:


As you can see, I've clicked on the Rectangular Marquee tool. This is the tool I find to be the most useful for resizing. Go ahead and click on that for this tutorial.

Next, go to the header portion of the application.


As you can see, I've already inputted the size I want my gif to be, according to the tumblr sizes. Another important thing to click on, is `Style`.


Fixed Ratio allows you to crop your gif and then resize it with `Image Size`, and it'll come out being your gif size and you can resharpen it and more. Fixed Size will crop your gif *exactly* to the size you've inputted, which isn't always ideal since you can't resize it using `Image Size`. For this tutorial, pick Fixed Ratio.

Next, highlight the area of your gif. Hit


From there, proceed to the following:
`Image > Crop`

Once it loads, you'll want to do the following:
`Image > Image Size > Type in the dimensions you put into your Fixed Ratio`

>Note: if you have the lock on (the little thing to the left of the Width and Height, it'll automatically enter the Height or Width according to the ratio you enter, which is very useful and makes this easier)
>>I.E: I put in 268 Pixels for the Width, so the lock automatically assumes based on the Ratio of the image that my height will be 350 Pixels, which is what I want.
>>
#### Trimming

You officially have the very basic form of a GIF. However, you may notice you have a surplus of frames. For Tumblr, many gifs will be around 30-80 frames, depending on the size, the way it's colored and more. Because for this tutorial, I picked a bigger size of gif (height is 350px), I have to trim down frames.

I started with 102 frames:

I'd like to trim it down, so I'm going to cut down on the frames I have. This *does* get rid of some parts of the gif, so choose carefully which parts you want.

For me, I typically just trim the end of the gif.

To do this, simply select your last frame, and scroll through timeline until you find where you'd like to trim, and with the `shift` key held down, click on the last frame you'd like to keep.


Now that you've selected the frames you'd like to get rid of, just hit the Trash icon below that.

Along with that, you may want to trash any excess Layers that are left over from your frames (like I trashed all of the frames from 102 to 60 so I was left with only the layers that had frames corresponding to them).

#### Timing

This is the homestretch of making a very basic gif. The timing of your gif can be important, and can make it look a lot neater. If it's too fast, it might look weird. If it's too slow, it'll look choppy.

| MP4 files | .TS files | MKV/TV shows |
| -------- | -------- | -------- |
| 0.04/0.05 | 0.03 | 0.04/0.05 |

To change the timing of your gif, simply select all frames (you can do it manually, shift selecting all the frames, or you can click on the hamburger menu in the upper right corner of the Timeline panel and click Select All Frames), and then click on the timing on the frames. It should open up a small navigation panel.


We'll want to click on Other. From there, a pop up will open. Set your Frame Delay to 0.04 (or whatever file you're giffing, pick a time that's right for it).

Next, in order to save, we'll need to Save for Web.
`File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy)`

Ensuring that the gif is under 3MB, feel free to mess with the settings. The settings I used for this gif are [here](https://i.imgur.com/XSkloRd.png).

Now, we have a basic gif:


> To look at sharpening your gif, coloring your gif, Topaz, and more, go to the intermediate section of giffing. Good luck, you've got this!
>> Also, please note that there are other ways to gif using exterior programs (see: Secondary Processing), and other methods. These are links to other popular methods of giffing. If it gets requested enough, I'll add my own tutorial to this page.
>>> [Giffing using KMPlayer ](https://quirkyresources.tumblr.com/post/165200555621/how-to-make-gifs-with-photoshop-and-kmplayer)
>>> [Giffing using screenshots](https://dreamcolouring.tumblr.com/private/165236412806/tumblr_ow4mwyJ7171wvkujs)

## How to GIF II
> Please note this is the Intermediate stage.
>
Welcome. If you've come here, then you've already made the basic gif from the first part. This will detail some more steps in giffing to create a more complex gif, and to advance yourself when it comes to making gifs.

We will be using the gif that was created from the Basic How to Gif guide, expanding from that.

### Sharpening Your Gif

Sharpening your gif will allow it to look clearer and sharper to the eye, and is a common practice for many gifmakers on Tumblr.

This guide will show two methods in sharpening: the way you can do it yourself, and using an action.

##### Setting up for Sharpening

Sharpening a gif yourself can be daunting, since you have no idea where and how to start. This will be a guide that will show you how to adjust settings yourself, and create a simple sharpening per gif.

> Please note this guide uses Timeline and Smart Objects as a way to do this. Should you have another way of doing it, that is fine.

The first thing you'll want to do is select all your frames and layers of your gif. The way you can do this is by holding the `shift` key as you select your frames to select multiple frames/layers, or using the select all for frames, etc.

Once you have all of those selected, proceed to the following:
`Convert to Video Timeline `


> Video timeline is the icon in the lower left corner of your Timeline panel.
>
Next, with all your Layers selected, proceed to the following:
`Filter > Convert for Smart Filters `

You should be left with this in your Timeline and Layers:


Now, for the actual sharpening.

##### Do It Yourself: Smart Sharpen

If you are sharpening your gif yourself, there's many ways to approach it. Many tend to prefer sharpening + gaussian blur, but you can sharpen only, etc.

To sharpen using only sharpenings, you'll be using following:
`Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen`

To sharpen using sharpening + gaussian blur, you'll be using the following:
`Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen`
and
`Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur`

I'll be showing two different (and very basic) ways to sharpen, using the above filters.

For Smart Sharpen, it's important to fiddle around with what fits for you, and what you like.

Here is a brief example:

| Unsharpened | Sharpened |
| -------- | -------- |
|  |  |
| No settings | 

Once you sharpen to your heart's content, click on the hamburger menu in the upper right corner of the Timeline panel:


Next, proceed to do the following:
`Convert Frames > Flatten Frames into Clips`

And once you've done that, click on the three little boxes in the lower left corner of the Timeline panel:

Click continue, and go back to the hamburger menu. Proceed to do the following:
`Make frames from layers.`

Once you've done that, delete the *first* layer and frame, as they are excess. Typically, the first frame will have a time delay, like shown below, and the first layer will still have the smart object:

 

Delete these both! Refer back to the time delay portion of the basic gif to set the time delay on your gif, and you're done.

##### Do It Yourself: Smart Sharpen & Gaussian Blur

If you're using Gaussian Blur, then we will begin again from the Setting Up section and start over. For this, we will first apply smart sharpen. Typically when using Gaussian Blur on top of smart sharpen, you'll want a **sharper** smart sharpen.

| Sharpened (only) | Unsharpened |
| -------- | -------- |
| |  |
|  | No settings

Now, to apply Gaussian Blur, what you'll need to do is make a duplicate layer of this sharpened layer. You can ctrl+c in the layer section, or just select the layer and do the following:
`Layer > Duplicate Layer`

You should have two layers. My current layout looks like this:



On our copy layer, we will be applying the blur. Proceed to do the following, once clicking the copy layer:
`Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur > Radius: 2.0 (or any amount you want).`

It will look blurry, but this is what we want. This important part is adjusting the opacity of the layer.

For this layer, I'm setting it to 40%. Some people use 60, 50, or less.

Once you've adjusted the opacity to your liking, select BOTH of the layers, and convert them to **one** smart object/for smart filters. Essentially,
`Select both layers > Filter > Convert for Smart Filters`

Then, proceed as demonstrated in the first do it yourself tutorial:
`Convert Frames > Flatten Frames into Clips`

Click on the three boxes in the lower left corner, to convert timeline to frame animation, and then finally make frames from layers.

Delete first layer and frame as mentioned in the previous tutorial.

| Sharpen + Gaussian Blur | Sharpen |
| -------- | -------- | -------- |
| |

#### Using Actions

If you see a sharpening action that you like in particular, then you can use that as well to sharpen your gif. It's rather simple, too.

All you need to do is download the action of your choice, and (typically) prepare for sharpening as demonstrated in the first portion of this section by creating a video timeline, and smart objects.

Once you have that, simply click on your action so it applies to your photoshop. Next, if you don't have Actions in your window, go to `Window > Actions` and make sure it's checked off. Ideally, you'll find something similar to this in a smaller window:

(may have another name)

With your layer selected, go to the play arrow at the bottom of the Action window, and hit play.

It should sharpen your gif and do whatever the action says it'll do for you.

> Looking for sharpening actions? Check [this](https://bt21help.tumblr.com/tagged/sharpening) tag.

### Coloring Your Gif

The easiest way to get started is to simply use other people's released psds and look at their own settings, however, I will be covering what certain tools are used for, and more so you have a better understanding of Photoshop.

#### Selective Color

Selective Color is what it sounds like. It will take certain colors in your image, and decrease or increase them depending on how you adjust the settings.

Here are the colors you can adjust in Selective Color:


An example of this is shown here, as the **Red** on Selective Color has a heavy emphasis on less Cyan (creates redder look), and a bit more Yellow.

<style>.im_off, #meoh:hover .im_on{
display:none
}

.im_on, #meoh:hover .im_off{
display:block
}

.t2, #meoh:hover .t1{
display:none
}

.t1, #meoh:hover .t2{
display:block
}

.meoh {
min-width: 268px;
min-height: 250px;
width: 268px;
position: relative;

}

.t1 {
position: absolute;
bottom: 0px;
right: 0px;
background-color: white;
color: black;
padding:5px;
padding-left: 5px;
padding-right: 0px;
}

.t2 {
position: absolute;
bottom: 0px;
right: 0px;
background-color: white;
color: black;
padding:5px;
padding-left: 5px;
padding-right: 0px;
}

</style>

<div id="meoh" class="meoh"><div>
<img id="im_on" class="im_on" src="https://66.media.tumblr.com/08ab5b95bfb7257ea6771989e201078e/tumblr_ptvl853joP1x15lmpo1_400.png" /><span id="t1" class="t1">Emphasis on red</span></div><div><img id="im_off" class="im_off" src="https://66.media.tumblr.com/2333110064aa210c2d66df3da2a68af8/tumblr_ptvl853joP1x15lmpo2_400.png"/><span id="t2" class="t2">None</span></div></div>

#### Lighting

For lighting, you can use Brightness/Contrast, Levels, Exposure, and Curves.

Each has their own settings that create their own distinctive looks, depending on how you adjust them.


#### Color Balance and Channel Mixer

Color Balance is self explanatory, when you open it up it has bars that indicate colors, and you can adjust them accordingly to emphasize on one color or another.

Channel Mixer on the other hand is mixes color channels within an image, allowing you to tint images with certain colors. It's important to play around with these settings and find out what works for you.

My personal coloring with just exposure, selective color and a little channel mixer turned out like this:


>There's many other smaller things that can help with gif coloring, such as gradient maps and more. A lot of it is just experimenting and finding out what works for you. Some of these things may be added on later, as well.
>> Looking for psds? Check this [tag](https://bt21help.tumblr.com/tagged/psd).

## Videos

In order to gif, you need videos. You can typically download videos using extensions on chrome, or websites that offer this service.

Personally, I tend to lean towards using programs such as [youtube-dl](https://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/index.html), or [4K Downloader](https://www.4kdownload.com/).
> Note: Youtube-dl utilizes terminal code, it may seem intimidating but it can be incredibly useful. It's what I use personally.
>
Many fancams on Youtube offer several different qualities. For example, [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pm5C6e8hv0) video of TWICE's Sana, offers 1080-HD footage, with 60fps. Meanwhile, [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqs7gyyL_xo) fancam of TWICE's Sana offers 2160-4K *and* 60fps footage. Several others may offer 1080-HD without 60fps, and more.

It's important to note if you use programs that process 60fps (Vapoursynth or Avisynth), fancams with 60fps do not need to be processed through the fps option, as they already play processed (in my experience)!

MP4, .TS files, and more
---

If you're in this section, you might be confused about the files you're downloading for your gifs. Whether you're here simply because you're confused, or you're ready to tackle .TS files, we'll be covering the differences, where you can find .TS files, and more.

You might've heard these two things: MP4 files, and .TS files.

.TS files are, in the K-Pop giffing world, typically a higher quality file that allows for 60fps. MP4 files typically do not have 60fps. FPS stands for frames per second. We'll look at the difference of this below.

> Please also note the gifs below do have a coloring (PSD) on them, but our focus is the way they play.

| 60fps | 30fps|
| -------- | -------- |
|  |  |

You may not notice the difference at first, but the 60fps gif plays with 65 frames, while the 30fps plays with 34 frames. Furthermore, when we look at the individual frames:
| 60fps | 30fps|
| -------- | -------- |
| |  |
> As you can see, 60fps is much more defined and 30fps is blurrier, has lines in it and more.
>

The reason for this is interlacing. Typically, with 30fps videos (usually most Youtube videos that are only 1080i), are interlaced and will only show you "half" of the image being drawn. Meanwhile, 1080p, or, 1080 progressive, will show you all the lines being placed. Hence why on the left, you see the lines, and on the right, you don't.

With .ts files in particular, programs that process these types of footage (either via Avisynth, Vapoursynth or screencapture) will deinterlace this and create a smoother looking finish.

Furthermore, 60fps generates more frames as well, which gets down to a lot of little nitty gritty bits of quality.

Now you might wonder, where do I download these files?
For music performances/TV shows/award shows, frequently, .TS files are posted by several users and on certain sites (as this is for K-Pop, there are many korean sites that post .TS files).

We do have a page that has general websites, and more here for .ts files.

>[Click here to find them!](https://bt21help.tumblr.com/ts)

## Secondary Processing

If you're looking at .ts files, and constantly hearing Vapoursynth or Avisynth, you might be wondering what those are.

Avisynth and Vapoursynth are both programs that will run .ts files and mp4 files, and process them before they get to Photoshop.

If you're looking for Avisynth, click [here](https://brandinator.sexy/post/124332876415/hi-i-know-you-must-had-answer-question-like-this).
If you're looking for Vapoursynth, click [here](https://hackmd.io/@Se1ry_ZUSminEO7QQyVHAQ/HJwtY1WV7?type=view#_=_).

And on top of that, you might've heard of Topaz Clean and Topaz Denoise.

If you've looked at our [software](https://bt21help.tumblr.com/software) page, we do have download links for those applications as well.

## Support

:::info
**Still need help?** [Send us a message!](https://bt21help.tumblr.com/ask)
:::