life in technicolor

First of all, I make my gif: - I take caps with kmplayer and i use ps cs5 to make the gif. - I sharpen each layer/frame manually. My sharpening settings are: smart sharpen > 500/0,3 (gaussian blur / more accurate) - I set the time delay to 0.04

COLORING

I always start with a levels layer to add some brightness and/or contrast.

I add a selective color layer and I play around with the settings. Be careful with the whites, especially the yellow (i usually play around with the withes when my gif is done). 

I add a curves layer to brighten up the gif a little and add some contrast.

I add a hue/saturation layer to decrease the yellows and the reds. This step really really depends on your gif and most importantly on your style preferences, so play around with the settings.

I add a brightness/contrast layer to brighten up the gif.

Then I add a black and white gradient map layer and I set it on exclusion  (opacity at 10-15%)

I add a color balance layer. The settings really really depend on your gif, so you just have to play around with them.

I add another curves layer.

I add another hue/saturation layer to make my gif pale and decrease the saturation.

I add a levels layer and press AUTO (i set the opacity at 15-20%)

I add a selective color layer and I play around with the settings. Again: be careful with the whites, play around with them when your gif is done.

I add a brightness/contrast layer to add some contrast.

I add an exposure layer to brighten up the gif.

I add another selective color layer and I play around with the settings. Again: be careful with the whites, play around with them when your gif is done.

I add a black&white layer and I set it to soft light (opacity 40-50% and fill 40%) to add more contrast.

I add another color balance layer to increase the blue and decrease the green.

ADJUSTMENTS

I usually go to the levels layer #2 (the auto one) and i press AUTO again. Now that the gif is done I play around with the whites (selective color layers).

That's it, the gif is ready. If you have any questions, don’t esitate to ask. If you want, you can DOWNLOAD THE PSD FILE HERE.

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