#bellesresources

1. hd videos

always always always try to find the most high quality videos you can find! it doesn’t have to be 4k, 1080 is enough. i rarely download 720p, it can make do but it won’t be as good. so try to find 1080p vids! the quality of the videos make the difference in the world!

for youtube, i just use youtube downloader lol, i think any would suffice.

for downloading movies/tv shows, you can either torrent or use direct download links. here’s a link full of websites to download movies/shows. my personal fave is snahp(.)it and i use jdownloader as well. jdownloader is a download manager, so you can download several videos in one go and just more organized i guess. also i think it can bypass the unnecessary advertisements and/or yk those websites when you click on the download button but takes you somewhere else djsnsk i hope you understand this.

also do have a strong ad block on your browser. i use ublock and adblock on chrome.

2. photoshop

i use photoshop for my gifs. you can use photopea i think but my friend has tried it and for her it didnt delivered the maximum quality you know. there’s a tutorial on how to use photopea tho somewhere on tumblr but i dont have the link sorry:( personally, i’m more comfortable with photoshop.

if you are using window, try to crack it with GenP. you could search for GenP and click on the reddit link. i used genp to crack, im very happy with it. have no trouble until now!

if you use mac, search for adobezii reddit or click here!

3. sharpening

now!!! this is important too!!! you need to sharpen your gifs but be careful to not oversharpen them!! i think i followed this tutorial but i tweaked it at the end. you could use my action here, it consists of double sharpening and a touch of gaussian blur to soften it a bit. play around with sharpening!! find the right way for you!!! i do suggest to use double sharpening, it makes the difference in the world!!

4. coloring

tbh i’m still learning to color my gifs until now. but i think the contrast and brightness play some parts too. i just notice if the gifs are wayyyyy too bright it’ll lose it’s quality, the same when it’s over saturated. so i guess find the balance!!!

5. cropping/sizing

i always crop my gifs first before i sharpen them, i even crop them before i convert them to smart filter. idk but to me it’s better that way. follow the size that tumblr allows to ensure better quality!! since the beginning i set the width to be the tumblr size e.g. 540px with this setting of cropping and the height just kinda follows it. like i calculate what the height would be if i want the aspect ratio to be 3:2 or 5:4. gosh i hope this makes sense

6. exporting

ok so i dont really understand the science behind the option but this page goes into the great details between the difference settings. i almost exclusively use selective and diffusion with 100 dither and 256bit color. as always play around!! not every gif will be suitable with that setting or if you even like that setting.

7. screencapping

i dont really know if you screencap makes the quality better, but i do know it’s just easier to screencap than uh cutting the video in photoshop- especially when you try to gif a movie! i use potplayer (idk if it’s available on mac tho?)

this is my settings for screencap!

after you have your screenshoted scenes, load them onto photoshop like this!

and just do your usual giffing process.

this gif tutorial is incredibly detailed and i recommend to read it if you havent!