B r e n d h a

– 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!

In this tutorial I'm gonna show u how to create an illusion of high quality and film grain in your gifs just by using smart filters, coloring, and noise! This works on 720p, 480p, 360p, and 144p resolutions

1. So to start make the gif base

I am using a scene from qb vii in (a terrible) 360p

(I use the timeline version of making gifs sorry 😅)

2. Add 'unsharp mask' filter

filter -> sharpen -> unsharp mask...

Amount: between 50-110% (no higher than 110)

Radius: between 1.0-2.0 pixels

Threshold: 2 levels

3. Add 'smart sharpen' filters

filter -> sharpen -> smart sharpen...

I like to add 2 layers of smart sharpen with these settings. So overall you will have 3 layers of sharpening; unsharp mask, smart sharpen, smart sharpen 2. THIS IS OPTIONAL. Sometimes you won't need the second layer of smart sharpening but that's up to u (:

4. Add the 'add noise' filter

filter -> noise -> add noise...

the add noise filter helps soften out the hard pixels of the video and creates a film grain effect. play around with the amount to see what works best for you but I wouldn't go higher than 4%. AND GO BY DECIMALS! don't just use 1, 2, 3, 4. try out like 2.5% or 3.6%, etc. In the end i used 3.4% of noise for this gif

5. Color your gif

edit it and use any coloring u like! try to push the shadows and add more black in your 'selective color' adjustment layer just to give your gif more contrast (for an even sharper look)

6. Save!

once you're satisfied with how your gif looks, save for web and you're done! here are my save for web settings

My results!

360p video:

480p video w 3% noise:

(put too much contrast on these gifs but oh well u get the idea 😂)

End notes/tips!

obviously this trick won't work on every low quality movie

play around with the sharpening, noise, and color settings to find the best version for u!

the higher the quality (720p, 1080p dvd) the less noise you will need to add (1 to 2.5%)

gifs look even better if they are put into 2 column posts instead of a single column (268x instead of 540x)

the noise filter does mute the fine/sharp details of the gif so take it easy on the noise. only add in small increments!

and lastly - this is fake HD, it won't turn your 480p video into a crisp blu-ray 1080p quality. it just gives an illusion of higher quality (: