#m:ps

Taking Caps:

Open your video in kmplayer. Go to the scene that you want to gif. Right click the screen then go to capture>frame extraction (or press ctrl+g). 

make sure to change the file location by clicking the little folder. i have a specific folder for frames to make it easier to find when i put the frames into ps. these settings are pretty common (i think) and personally, i think they look the best. 

when you get to the scene that you want to gif, press “start” a little before and then when its done, press “stop” a little after the section you want to gif. this makes sure that you have all the frames from that scene possible. all of your frames will be extracted to the folder that you chose earlier. go to that folder and delete the frames that you don’t want.

GIF MAKING:

the first step is to open photoshop. then go to file>script>load multiple DICOM files and select the folder that has your frames. 

OR you can go to files>script>load files into stack and click “browse” and then find the folder that has your frames. select all of them and click ok

once your frames have loaded, make sure that your animation bar is up; it’s going to be at the bottom of your screen and looks like this: 

if you dont see it, go to window>animation and it’ll show up! click the little arrow w/the lines in the upper right hand corner of the animation bar and select “make frames from layers”

all of your caps are going to load into the animation bar. 

if you loaded multiple files into stack, you’re going to have to reverse frames. using that triangle w/the lines, select all frames. then, click the triangle again and select “reverse frames”

next, we’re going to crop the gif. go to the toolbar and select the crop tool (c)

for cropping, you have a few options. first, you can use the old dimensions (500px, 245px, or 160px) or the new dimensions (540px, 268px, or 177px). i tend to use the old dimensions more often, but tbh i dont think it matters that much. now, the height can be anything. that being said, here are patterns i tend to follow:

2 gifs side by side: 245x260

4 gifs: 245x245

6 gifs: 245x180

8 gifs: 245x135

9 gifs: 160x160

3,5,or 7 gifs: 500x245

once you’ve cropped it to how you want, you’re going to resize it. my photoshop does it automatically when i crop, but if yours doesn’t, you’ll go to image>image size and then make it the dimensions you want. click ok and zoom in/out (ctrl+ or ctrl-) so that you can see it at 100%.

next, you’re going to convert to timeline animation by clicking the little animation button at the bottom righthand corner of the animation bar

then, select all of the caps in the sidebar, either by shift+ clicking all of the frames or ctrl+alt+a. 

then, click the arrow with the lines and select “convert to smart object”

SHARPENING:

this is where we sharpen our gifs. go to filter>sharpen>smart sharpen. these are my settings:

FRAME DELAY:

you can leave your gif in the timeline animation, but the frame rate is .07 and that’s a little slow for me. 

go to the arrow w/the lines in the upper right hand of the animation bar and select “flatten frames into layers”

then click the “convert to frame animation” in the bottom right of the animation bar. 

if this box shows up just click “continue”

your animation bar is going to look like this:

click “make frames from layers” the same way that you did during the first step. this will load all of your frames. then, in the bottom left, click where it says “once” and change it to say “forever”

then, go to the arrow w/3 lines again and click “select all frames”

then, click the little arrow beneath a frame and select “other” to change the frame rate. i usually make it .05 or .06. 

and that’s it for the basic gif! 

here’s a little secret: you don’t have to do this for every gif you make. i’ve made an action that will do almost the entire gif making process, which will begin after you crop it and will end at the frame delay. you can find the link to that action here. i use this action because im lazy and it cuts off a lot of time lol.

to use an action: go to window>actions. then, click the arrow w/tje lines and click “load action”. select the action from wherever you downloaded it to and click “okay”

then, click the action you want to use and press play

COLORING:

now we’ll start coloring! you can either color it from scratch, or you can use a psd. if you want to use a psd, i suggest searching through @itsphotoshop or @yeahps to find a coloring that you like. you can also look through my psd tag

if you want to color from scratch, keep reading:

first thing you need to do is make sure that you’re top frame is selected, so that the coloring goes onto all of your frames. please be aware that coloring is going to be different for every scene/show/movie/etc. so, this coloring tutorial is pretty much the order and general idea of what i would do to color a gif. if you want help with a specific scene or type of coloring, let me know and i’ll try to help out!

first, make sure you’re adjustments window is up. go to window>adjustments

first i do curves, brightness, and levels to make it brighter and introduce contrasts: 

then color balance

another curve

selective color

curve & levels:

another color balance:

another selective color

exposure (be careful with this one! it can change a gif pretty quickly. i know most ppl dont use/like it, but i do lol)

selective color

and another color balance at the bottom of the coloring

this is what the gif looks like now

TEXT:

Finally, we’re going to add text to the gif. 

select the text tool from the toolbox (t) and click anywhere on your gif. 

Type (or paste) your dialogue. Make sure that your text is centered and white (you use white for your first/main speaker and yellow for your second speaker) 

go to window>character to see your text options. these are my settings:

next, you’re going to center the text. to do this, you’re going to have the “move tool” selected (v). you’re going to select all (ctrl+a) and press these two options on your top toolbar.

then, deselect your layers (ctrl+d). then, move you’re text up using the up/down keys on your keyboard. i suggest moving it up about 6 times, but it’s your own preference. 

on your layers sidebar, click the “unify position” and “unify style” so that you’re text is the same on every frame (ignore the typo in my text layer lol)

then, right click on your text layer and select “blending options”

these are my preferences for drop shadow and stroke

again, i created a font action that does everything for me. you can download it here. just type/paste your text and press “play” on the action, it’ll position and style the text for you. 

to save your gif, go to file>save for web and devices. these are my settings:

remember to make sure that your gif has to be less than 2mb or it won’t play on tumblr!