resources

first things first: make your gif, color it, sharpen it etc etc, and put all of it's layers in a group. i called mine “blended gifs”. oh and make sure you are in timeline mode, not frame animation!

then you want to import the ripped paper texture(s) you want to use onto your canvas and position them the way you want them to be on top of your gif, like this:

(i am using these textures for most of this gifset)

what you want to do next is create a mask of this torn up area so the gif layers only show up around the "hole". to do that, select the texture layer and press "ctrl" while clicking on the texture's thumbnail. this will create a selection of your ripped paper texture (you'll see a flashing dotted line showing your selection).

btw: the ctrl + click method works only if the image/texture has transparency like this texture does.

[if you want yo create your own torn/ripped shape with 2 or more textures, you can place them on top of each other and create a mask by doing ctrl + selecting the thumbnail of the first one, then while still holding ctrl, also hold the shift key and click on the second texture’s thumbnail (and the third, fourth, etc). this will add the shapes to the same selection and then you can create one layer mask with all of the shapes selected together.]

with that selection still active, you want to select your gif's folder you created earlier and click on the add layer mask button.

this will create a mask for the ripped paper edges on your gif, the group layer should look like this:

now disable the torn paper texture (by clicking on the eye next to it, you won’t need that torn paper texture layer again), and your gif should look like this so far:

as you can see, there's a transparency issue, and we're losing the top part of the gif. to fix that, you need to brush some white color onto the mask.

to do that, hit ctrl and select the group's mask thumbnail again, you will see the same selection as earlier show up. with the selection ready, select the brush tool in the color white (and 100% opacity), and go brush/paint some white over the whole layer mask. this should fix the transparency issue and the gif should look like this:

once you're done, hit ctrl + D to make the selection disappear, and still with the layer mask selected on the gif's group, with the brush tool paint some white at the top so we get the top of the image back. it should look like this:

(you can also brush more white or black to add/remove parts to this layer mask if you want to, it’s what i did for the original gif, actually.)

now you should be ready to put whatever you want in that ripped edges “hole” you’ve created.

what i did for this gifset is i found a random paper texture on google and used it as a background for my text. make sure you put this background texture under the gif folder, so it will only show up in the “hole”. (i put my texture in a group i renamed “text” because i love my psd compositions to be tidy lol)

then i just typed the text i wanted and positioned it the way i wanted it to look. the text layer should be over the paper texture but still under the gif folder:

to finalize the look I color corrected the paper to be a bit more bright and added some highlight on the text, here you can do whatever you want to make the text look the way you want it to look.

i also added a bit of dropped shadow on the edges of the ripped paper. to do that I selected the mask (ctrl + click the smart mask thumbnail), created a new color fill layer (the color is not important). this will create a layer with a layer mask of the selection. i then selected the smart mask thumbnail and hit ctrl + i to invert it, so my mask is not only the inside of the “hole”. then i put this layer on top of everything, and the fill at 0%. finally i added an inner shadow in the layer style options (by double clicking on that color fill layer).

and that is the final result!

i hope that wasn’t all too over the place or not too detailed? i wasn’t sure how familiar with photoshop you are 😊

if you’re having trouble seeing, click on the pictures to see the full image!

i. make your individual gifs

here is my photoshop window. at the top you'll see there are three tabs with each of my individual gifs (I don't save the gifs individually and I also decided not to use the second gif I made, thus: untitled-1, untitled-3, and untitled-4). color each gif individually, make sure the dimensions for each gif are the same (in this case, 540 x 540), and set the frame delay to 0 sec. for each gif.

ii. group gifs (optional)

to make it easier on the eyes, you can create a group for each gif. select all your layers by selecting your first layer at the bottom, holding the shift button, and selecting the last layer at the top (see top right; all visible layers are selected). then press the folder button to create a group and name the group. I usually name the episode, which is why this one is 109. do this in each tab for each gif.

iii. copy frames

go to your second gif (as shown in the photo, my second gif is in the second tab). select all your frames in the timeline (bottom of the photo), then press the hamburger menu in the top right corner of the timeline panel and press copy frames.

iv. paste frames

go back to your first gif and select the last frame in your timeline panel (bottom right). go back to the hamburger menu and press paste frames. you'll get a pop-up that asks which paste method to use. paste after selection will automatically be selected, which is what you are going to use. press ok.

as you can see, the frames for your second gif are now pasted after your first gif. on the right, you can see the two gif groups.

v. repeat

repeat steps three and four with every gif you want to combine.

vi. save your gif

once all of your gifs are in the same window, select all frames in the timeline and click on the arrow next to "0 sec." on any of the frames. select other and enter the frame delay (in this case, I did 0.05 seconds). save your gif as you normally would. if your gif is too big, you can delete individual frames until your gif is under 10MB.

and that’s it! hope that helps. my tag for gif-related things is #em.gif and there are some other tutorials and tips there if anything is confusing, but you’re also welcome to ask questions!

if you’re having trouble seeing, click on the pictures to see the full image!

i. make your individual gifs

Make and color your individual gifs. After you've done that, make sure to group your gifs (explanation on creating groups in this tutorial). As you'll see, I group mine and use the episode number as a name, but use whatever makes sense to you. IMPORTANT: Make sure each gif has the same number of frames (for this gif I had 54 each).

ii. layer gifs

Gif 1: Mulder Gif 2: Scully I put gif 1 over gif 2 by selecting all the frames of gif 1, copying them, moving to gif 2, selecting all the frames of gif 2, then selecting paste over selection. Gif 2 (Scully) will then be hidden by gif 1 (Mulder) until the next step.

Immediately after pasting the frames from gif 1 over gif 2, change the blending mode from pass through to screen. The reason I say to do this immediately is because then all your frames will already be selected and you won't have to worry about the blending mode changing for only one frame, but you can also just make sure you select all the frames yourself and then change the blending mode.

Here is what we have now:

Gif 1 (Mulder) over gif 2 (Scully), blending mode set to screen, no masking.

iii. add layer masks and blend

LEFT: First I add a black solid color layer and move it to the bottom (underneath all other layers). RIGHT: Add a mask to each gif by selecting the gif's folder and pressing the mask button.

TOP: Make sure you have the mask layer selected. I am first masking gif 1 (Mulder). MIDDLE: These are the brush settings I use for my initial masking. The size varies, but basically it's the soft round brush with 0% hardness set to a fairly large size. BOTTOM: Using black, I paint over the parts of gif 1 (Mulder) that I want to hide.

Here is what we have now:

I mainly focused on making Scully more visible.

Although I always start with black (completely masking the gif), I usually end up adding grey and white back into the mask so that it's a smoother layered effect.

I turned off the other layers so you can see what the mask looks like. As you can see, it's pretty transparent in most places, and I added back in some white where Mulder's face is because I want him to be visible as well.

Here is what the gif looks like now:

Now I move to gif 2 (Scully) and repeat the process.

As you can see, I mainly masked the part of the gif that overlaps with Mulder so that his face is more visible. I started with black but then used a dark grey to mask so that it was almost completely erased, but you can still faintly see Scully.

I decided I was happy with how the blending looked, so here is the gif before I start adding in layers of color:

iv. add coloring

For this gif in particular, I added a gradient. It's much more typical, though, for me to add color with a brush (as I show here). That said, I'm using the gradient for this tutorial since I'm showing you how I made this specific gif.

I created a gradient fill layer on top of the gif. You can see my settings on the right. The reason I used a gradient is because this was a text-heavy gifset, so the coloring I added was more opaque than what I usually do.

And here you have the finished gif before I added the text! For the text tutorial, you can go here.

Load Files Fast action opens up a folder where you put your own screencaps in and loads the caps in PS and makes it into a smart object. You will need to configure this yourself since it uses my own folder. Click on Load Files Fast, select "Record" button and then choose File > Open, navigate to the folder that you use to store your screencaps, select the first cap, click on the "Image Sequence" option on the bottom right of the dialog box and then click "Open". It will then ask you to specify the frame rate, I use 25, then click OK. Then you click on the "Stop" button and your action is saved. [video on how here]

After it is put into a Smart Object, I use one of my crop presets I've made. To load them into Photoshop, click on the down arrow next to the crop bottom, click Load Tool Preset and select my preset.

Then I choose a sharpening I want to use. I'm either use 'high pass' or the 'sharper w/o grain' one.

OPTIONAL - Brighten action, brightens the scene using 'Screen' mode. I use these for really dark scenes.

After that I color the gif and add text if needed.

If I want to change the frame delay, I use the 'frame delay' action and set my delay to 0.04 and then save the gif!

This template is comprised of two halves in separate PSDs & comes with the font (Arial) used in the first one

Any layer marked with an "{E}" is fully editable!

Each PSD is 540x586 & the gifs used in the example are 540x350.

It can be used with gifs (using the video timeline & smart objects) and/or still pictures as seen below:

Make sure all your gifs have the same amount of frames!

Here's what the bottom half looks like, i tried to make it as seamless as possible (also no GIFs cuz I'm lazy):

DOWNLOAD

If You Use Please give me proper credit in your caption! & Tag me too! (#/usersmoon) i'd love to see your edits <3

NOTE: If something doesn't make sense or you don't see the settings, click on the photo! They are cropped in order to unify the size, however if you click on it you will see the full picture I included. EDIT: For some reason, the formatting gets messed up for me when you click the read more on the dashboard. But if you go to this post on my blog, the photos seem to be in the correct places!

I. Create Your Base Text

First I create a new text layer and figure out my font settings (font, size, etc.). The text color should be white. The picture on the right shows my settings—I like to unify the layer position and effects so that it applies to my entire gif (note: I make frames from layers so it's necessary for me; I'm not sure if it is necessary if you do the text in timeline).

Change the blending mode to exclusion (right), which gives you the image on the left.

Right click on the text layer and go to blending options. First I select drop shadow and use the settings in the photo on the top right. Add gradient overlay. For this particular gifset, I used overlay for the blend mode (bottom left). The blend mode I use for the gradient changes based on the gif and the coloring, so play around with what blend mode looks best to you! Add color overlay. I also play around with the blend mode and opacity for each gif; in this case, I set it to color burn and 50% opacity.

This is what we have so far.

II. Create Text Outline

Right click your text layer and duplicate the layer. Open blending options and de-select drop shadow, gradient overlay, and color overlay (alternatively, you can right click and clear effects before opening blending options, but this is the way I do it). Go to the blending options panel and set fill opacity to 0%. Add stroke with the settings pictured in the bottom right picture (1px, white, inside, normal blend). The opacity for this gif is set to 58%, but I play around with the opacity for each gifset.

Use the arrow keys to offset the outline however you would like. I usually move it slightly to the left and up, as shown above.

III. Masking

Create a new text layer and style it how you would like. In this case, I just added a drop shadow with the settings pictured on the right. Move the text layer to where you would like it to be (left).

Use the rectangular marquee tool to select the area with your text layer (top left). Make sure you have the base text layer selected (top right). With your text area selected, add a mask by clicking the third button from the left in the layers panel (bottom right). Now we have the image on the bottom left.

Select the mask you created and invert it, which gives you the image on the top left. Hold the option key and drag the mask for your base text layer to the outline layer.

IV. Finishing Touches

– gifset examples: spotify series – cutout tutorial – fonts: Poppins Bold (Google), Circular Std Black (azfonts.net) – tip: play with your export settings for the cleanest result. exporting gifs with large areas of solid colors can sometimes produce a noticeable pixelated effect (see example below; left). while I normally export using adaptive-diffusion, sometimes selective-diffusion works better. try out different combos until you get something smooth!