The Canadian that Dances in Ohio

1. Choose your gif

I'll use this one:

2. Grab an overlay template

I've made these two from existing frames. Choose one and save the image as PNG.

⚠️BEFORE YOU START⚠️ This method relies on the overlay color being very distinctly different from colors found in the the gif itself. That means you might have to hue-shift or recolor your overlay. Usually pure neons (such as red #ff0000, green #00ff00, blue #0000ff, yellow #ffff00, cyan #00ffff, or magenta #ff00ff) work well, but if you love bright eyestrain you're better off using pure black (#000000) or white (#ffffff). Now is the time to adjust this if needed. I personally use FireAlpaca for pixel art and image editing. -------------------- The internal dimensions of these are 99x55px (left) and 93x52px (right). Meaning that's as small as your gif can be with the overlay still properly overlapping.

These frames are made with a 2px margin of error, so it's still possible to fully cover a 103x59px/97x56px gif (2px on each side).

3. Open Ezgif and upload your gif to be resized

-------------------- I'll be using the 99x55px template, so I'll enter those dimensions here:

HOWEVER. I recommend leaving the height blank. The gif I'm using (like most gifs out there) has an aspect ratio that's incompatible with the overlay, so it will have to be altered. I prefer doing this as a separate step because it gives me more control over the final product. -------------------- Otherwise you can just enter both values and choose a resizing method here:

If you do this, you can skip step 4. -------------------- Okay, let's get back on track. Click the "Resize image!" button underneath.

4. Make further adjustments (optional)

As you can see, the resulting gif doesn't fully match the needed dimensions (99x55px), so it needs to be cropped. Select the "Crop" button below. --------------------

Here I'm inputting the needed dimensions, making sure to leave the height alone because it's already correct. -------------------- Once you do this, a dotted frame will appear inside your gif:

Drag it until you're satisfied with the cropping and click "Crop image!" at the bottom Pro tip: If available, use your touchpad to zoom in on the Ezgif website. This makes it much easier to see small details. "Ctrl +" also works but not nearly as well. Here comes the fun part!

5. Add your overlay

Select "Add image":

-------------------- Click the 'Extend canvas size' button:

-------------------- Once it loads, drag and drop your overlay into the upload files box:

Click "Upload image!". Pro tip: if you want to make several versions of this stamp or otherwise experiment with it later, you can save the extended canvas version of it to your device now. That way you won't have to waste time remaking it up to this point. -------------------- You'll see the overlay appearing as a frame in the top left corner of your gif like this:

-------------------- Zoom in on it, and drag the green frame until it covers all edges of the gif evenly. Like so:

-------------------- It helps to use the Top and Left adjustments to help position the overlay (this is its distance from the top left corner of the canvas, in pixels)

Only adjust the overlay on the first frame of your gif! All following frames are affected by changes to the previous. -------------------- Once you're happy with it, scroll aaaaaaall the way down and click "Create animation!"

We're almost done now.

6. Convert overlay to transparency

After you've applied your overlay, select "Effects":

-------------------- Find the "Replace color with transparency" panel. Tick "custom (HEX)" and un-tick "clean up edges":

-------------------- Click on the white box next to "custom (HEX)" and select the color of your overlay:

I made my overlays pure green (#00ff00 or RGB 0, 255, 0), because it's easily visible and not present in the rest of my gif. Your overlay may be a different color. Do not eyeball this! You need to input the exact shade. Go into your drawing or image editing software of choice, open the frame and find the color with the eyedropper tool if you need to. Or use an online 'color from image' tool. -------------------- Once you're done, click "Apply selected!". Your gif should look something like this:

Sharp edges! Yay! Last thing we need to do is crop all the extra stuff, so let's-

7. Crop leftover transparency

Select the "Crop" button, like in step 4. --------------------

Tick "trim transparent pixels around the image" and click "Crop image!" --------------------

Now just and save the gif to your device. --------------------

Done!

Here's the finished stamp: