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Ok, so, I've noticed that a lot of gifmakers nowadays are doing this thing where the gifs need to be faster to be more similar to real time gifs. It's ok, BUT the way I made my gifs made photoshop (I use photoshop 2020) made photoshop alter the timing of the gif post saving, which meant that they'd be just like the first example. So, how do I fix that?

Step 1: Make your gif. I taught my process here. I think this is mostly for people who still make gifs by grabbing frames instead of converting video.

Step 2: Open your gif again, like so:

Step 3: Select all frames and change the timing.

Now, usually photoshop will have altered the frame timing to 0,07, which is coincidentally the frame timing we used to use in the times of yore of 2015 gifmaking here on tumblr. Most people use 0,05. nowadays or 0,06., depending on the gif in question.

0,05:

0,06:

The difference is barely perceptible, but if you're perfectionist, you'll notice it, unfortunately :(

Step 4: After doing this you just save for web (ctrl + shift + alt + s), the same way you saved your gif, and that's it! Literally. It's the simplest thing in the world.

First, you'll want to complete any base sharpening/coloring for the gif ahead of time. Then we can get into the extra coloring!

The way I approached coloring for this gifset depended on the specific scene I was coloring. The first and easiest method to get the background color you want is to use Hue/Saturation.

Method 1: Hue/Saturation Layer

When to use Hue/Saturation: - If your background is all the same/similar colors (and if those colors differ from the character colors) - If your character doesn't move much

Example:

Here is a screenshot of one of my base gifs from the same set. You'll notice that the majority of the background is blue aside from a few parts which are kind of a tanish-orange. This was an ideal gif to use hue/saturation because the background was mostly one color that differed from my character. I also happened to want an orange background, so those orange colors worked in my favor.

Step 1 - I added the hue/saturation layer and adjusted both the cyan and blue colors. This will of course differ for every gif but here is what I did.

After this adjustment, my gif looked like this:

As you can see, it's already looking much better for the colors I want. You'll notice that the walls are kind of grayish which was fine for me because next I was adding in the gradients!

Step 2 - Add Gradients

I added gradients to every gif in this set, although they were all slightly different. For this gif, I added many more gradients than the other gifs.

First I added two darker colored gradients at the bottom using the gradient tool. They are linear gradients fading to transparent. This is important because it prevents the color from going over your character.

Set the first gradient to Hard Light and adjust the opacity as wanted. The next layer is set to Screen and again adjust the opacity until it's what you want. In this case, my Hard Light layer was set to 27% and my Screen layer was set to 33%.

The top part still needed to be more yellow/orange, so I then added more gradients.

These gradients followed the same Hard Light/Screen pattern as I did above. There are four here because I have two on each side of the gif.

And that was it! Here is the completed gif:

Now unfortunately, many scenes can't be colored using only this tool because the backgrounds are more complex. Which brings us to the second method I used in this gifset.

Method 2: Frame-by-Frame Coloring using Timeline

This method is far more tedious and frustrating than the other one. It takes some extreme patience sometimes. That being said, this method works the best/is much easier when you use a gif with a subject that doesn't move very much!

Step 1 - Fill a new layer with the color your want your background to be and set that layer to Color. You can use another setting but I've found Color usually works the best for me.

Next, you want to add a layer map (square button with circle in middle).

Your layer will now look like this:

Now this step is important. Make sure to unlink the layers (click the little chain link button). This allows the layer mask to move freely later on.

Then, you'll simply use the black paint on the layer mask and paint over your subject (or anything else you don't want to be colored). Another important tip: Make sure you are on your first frame when you do this!

Next, make sure you're still at the very beginning of your gif in the Timeline. You're going to want select your color layer, then press the little timer button next to where it says Layer Mask Position.

You can see that it should put a little diamond that's half filled at the start of the gif. This is the beginning position of your layer mask. Why do we do this you may ask? This is used when the character is moving so the color doesn't cover them when they move.

So how do we adjust it? Well, I'll show you!

So this is the very first frame of my gif with the coloring. I painted over David's face with the black on the layer mask but everything else is colored. But on one of the next frames, he tilts his head up:

Here, I had to adjust the layer mask by nudging it with the arrow keys upward. Make sure you are on the frame in Timeline that you want adjusted, and that you have the layer mask selected. You'll notice this change will add another diamond in the position you chose, signaling that your layer mask has been moved.

You can keep doing that with the same layer throughout the gif, and sometimes that works great, especially when there isn't much movement/variation of movement.

However, for this gif, because of the way his head was moving, I couldn't just use one layer. While you can easily use the Layer Mask Position to move the layer mask up and down or side to side, sometimes the area that needs masking can change shape (i.e., when they turn significantly) or size (when the camera zooms in/out).

When that happens, you'll need to make another layer right after the last one left off. So go through the same steps as previous (new layer -> color fill -> move to the frame you want to color -> add layer mask

You can theoretically do this for every individual layer (which is sometimes necessary), but when I can I always try to use the same layer and just move the layer mask as explained above. Still, I usually end up with at least a few different color layers/layer masks.

Here is an example of how this looked for this gif of mine (this isn't the whole thing, but it's similar throughout the rest):

Each new layer is the same color/setting, and it leaves off right where the last one ended. I move some of them a lot more than others (such as copy 8 of layer 60). Then sometimes, I don't move it at all such as in copy 5 and instead make a new layer.

Here is an example from the stretch of frames in Layer 60 copy 8. This is the coloring at the start of the gif:

If I didn't move it at all with using the Layer Mask Position, it then looks like this a few frames later:

But after using Layer Mask Position, it looks like this:

So this is really important to help color your gifs! Again, I just find that it can take less time to use this and move it instead of making a new layer for every frame, but if you prefer that/if it's needed for your gif, you can also do that.

Step 2 - Gradients!

Once I have every frame colored, I can now add on my gradients on top. I think they give an added layer of color/depth to the gifset.

For this gif, I only added two gradients: One in the upper right corner, and another in the bottom left corner. Both of these gradients fade to transparent like all of the others, and they were both set to Screen with 100% opacity because I really wanted to get some lighter colors in there

Again, I usually play around with the settings. Sometimes if I want it darker/less harsh I add a Hard Light layer as well and adjust the opacity more. It just depends on the effect you want.

And here is my completed gif!

first, i made both gifs separately. when i'm combining multiple gifs into one canvas, i typically do not crop them beforehand and instead leave them at their original dimensions so i can move them where necessary on the final canvas. this is totally personal preference.

in this case, my final canvas was 540px by 540px. i create this canvas separately and then bring both gifs over to it. i've sharpened them, but left them uncolored and uncropped.

once both gifs are on the same canvas, i add the ripped paper texture/brush. now, you can do this effect with any sort of texture or brush, not just one that looks like ripped paper, but that's what i used for this set. you can find all sorts of brushes on my resource blog or you can search for them on google or other PS resource websites. you can do the same with textures as well -- here's that tag on my resource blog.

the most important parts are the order of your layers and using clipping masks. for this effect to work, you need the brush/texture layer to go IN BETWEEN your two gif layers. if you're using a texture, you don't really need to do anything other than using either the transform tool (ctrl+t) or move tool (v) to position your texture where you'd like it. it depends on the look you're going for, but with both of the gifs in this set that use this technique, they're divided approximately in half.

if using a brush instead of a texture, you need to create a new layer in between both of your gifs first before stamping the brush in the desired location.

without any clipping masks, your canvas will just show the topmost layer, which we'll call gif #2. gif #1 is your bottom/lowest layer with the brush/texture layer above it and gif #2 at the very top. this is what my canvas looks like with gif #2 hidden so you can see the positioning of my ripped paper brush:

to create a clipping mask, right-click on the gif #2 layer and select "create clipping mask." now you should see both gifs with gif #2 only appearing where your brush/texture appears:

you can see that depending on your texture/brush and its positioning, you can end up with a lot of cool and dynamic arrangements! clipping masks and the order of our layers are going to continue to be very important in order to keep the coloring separate. if it gets hard to keep track of what is where, you can always rename your layers by double-clicking on them!

let's color gif #1 first. before adding your first adjustment layer, make sure you have gif #1 selected as any coloring layers need to be above gif #1 but BELOW your texture/brush layer. because gif #2 and the texture/brush layer are above gif #1 and whatever coloring layers, they will only apply to gif #1. you do NOT need to use clipping masks for gif #1. here are my coloring/adjustment layers and their settings (click to enlarge):

the coloring layers for gif #2 need to be above gif #2 and all of them must utilize clipping masks! with adjustment layers, there are a couple ways to do this. you can right-click on each of them and select "create clipping mask" like we did before or you can click this button underneath the properties tab of each layer:

here are these coloring layers and their settings:

the last thing i did was add the drop shadow part of the texture/brush. to do this, i duplicated that layer and moved it down a handful of pixels using the transform tool (ctrl+t).

to add the color overlay effect (making it pink), double click the layer, select color overlay, and choose your color and applicable blending mode. i just chose a pink color and left its blending mode at normal and 100% opacity.

i would recommend checking out my general coloring tutorial here where i talk more in depth about my process as i'm just gonna go through it briefly here. here's my gif right after sharpening:

it's a pretty bright scene with lots of white and it can be tricky to color it properly and not make the skintones washed out. i like my gifs to be crispy and have a lot of contrast, so here's what works best for me:

i always start with layers and curves, they're the most helpful guide for me when it comes to working with literally any scene ever. i explained how i do it in my previous tutorial, so you can check it out, but i basically pick the brightest and darkest parts of the scene with the pipette tool which helps to neutralize the overpowering color if there is one and just makes the scene more natural (e.g. if it's too yellow, it will automatically tone down the yellow). in this case, the scene has a little bit of a blue tint, so it reduces the appearance of the overall blue tone (i really hope it makes sense lol). i usually set the opacity to around 50-30%. here's the result of just two layers: levels and curves:

it's a subtle change but it deepens the shadows and it's always so much easier for me to color after i do this step, so i never skip it lol.

next up, i use a gradient map to bring out the shadows even more just because i think it looks better (especially on the bear scenes, i noticed! or any 4k footage tbh). so i just add a gradient map layer, black to white, set it to soft light and set the fill to 10%:

and since this makes the gif just a little bit darker, sometimes i want to bring back the brightness a little bit because i looove contrast! here are my exposure layer settings:

and here's what we've got:

looking pretty good but sydney's skintone is looking a little bit too orange at this point and we don't want that! there are some wonderful tutorials how not to orange wash poc and i highly recommend checking a couple of them out to see which method works best for you, but i personally like using selective color and toning down the warmth of reds and yellows in the scene. for example, these are my settings for the red color, the opacity of this layer is set to 23%:

i do a similar thing with yellow, just messing around with the settings and seeing what looks best.

and then i add some additional layers like color balance and hue/saturation to bring it all together and that's it!

I won't get into the basics of making a gif as this is just a coloring tutorial, but here is my gif after I just crop and resize it:

and here it is after I sharpen it:

sharpen can affect the depth of shadows in a gif, so I do this before I add any coloring, but I know some people color first and only then sharpen, so both ways work!

alright, ready for some fun coloring? let's go!

before adding any adjustment layers, I suggest creating a new group, so all of your coloring changes can neatly sit in one place.

I always start with levels and curves, they often help to make the overall gif more natural if the lighting is too yellow, too dark, etc., it's a very useful guide, especially if you're new to gifmaking. so, let's start by clicking on the levels icon, a new adjustment layer should appear over your gif layers:

the next step is to click on each of these little icons (I usually only use the top and bottom ones) and to select the lightest and the darkest parts of your gif. pick the top one, select the darkest part and then pick bottom one and pick the lightest part, you should see some changes on your gif, sometimes they're subtle, sometimes they're very obvious:

in my gif the lightest part is somewhere near her shoulder where the light hits, the darkest part is her sunglasses (if there are a lot of dark/light parts, I just click around and see whichever looks more subtle. for example, I tried the part on top of her head where the light hit, but it made the gifset too blue because the lighting is yellowish, but since the whole scene is not very yellow, it looked weird so I'm sticking with her shoulder, it just simply looks better overall):

and then I do the same thing with the curve adjustment layer, selecting the darkest and lightest part of my gif just like I did with the levels layer:

while this is a good guide for beginners, it doesn't always fix all the problems. it can be quite harsh, so I recommend setting the opacity to a lower percentage and if it looks a little weird, sliding the arrows to one side and another with each color until it looks better to you:

like I said, it's a good guide but manual work is often needed, don't be afraid to mess around with the settings. for this gif I set levels layer opacity to 60% and curves to 37%.

moving on, I'm adding a selective color adjustment layer to fix how the skintone looks with red and yellow colors. it differs with each scene, sometimes the skin is too yellow and orange, so I add more cyan and less yellow but in this case I chose these settings and I set the opacity of this layer to 35%:

I want to mention that with poc it's very important not to mess around too much with their skin tone and not to white-wash and orange-wash them, there are quite a lot of tutorials on how to avoid doing that.

the next layer I add is exposure, I want to brighten my gif a little bit. you can do that by selecting either brightness or exposure layer like I did:

the scene I'm working with is pretty bright, so I'm not adding too much of exposure, here are my settings:

next up, I want to deepen the shadows a little bit, so I use a gradient map for that:

I use black and white gradient and set the opacity to 10%:

moving on, color balance is another great trick to make the gif look more smooth with one consistent color overall:

if I'm working with scenes that have a lot of green/yellow in them and I want to get rid of that, this is a quick way to slide the arrow to the opposite color and soften it a little bit by adding another color. I usually like to add more magenta to midtones and make the gif have a little bit of a pink look. here are my settings for this specific gif and the opacity of this layer is set to 30%:

and here's what difference it made to the gif:

as you can see, the colors outside the circle are less green on her skin and hair. it's all coming together nicely!

let's move on to the background colors. I add another selective color layer and I'm gonna play with the colors I want to enhance the most. in this case it's green grass and her blue clothes. here are my settings for these colors:

and finally, to enhance the vibrant coloring even more, I like to add one final hue/saturation layer:

here I like to add more saturation to the colors we're focusing on in the background and add around +20 of saturation. I did this to green, cyan and blue colors:

and that's it! here is the finished gif compared to the completely raw one:

this coloring tutorial is very basic, but it works for most scenes I work with, I just sometimes focus on other colors, add more or less layers but the overall process is very similar.