#satlun

step 1a: once you obtain your file (this is not a piracy tutorial lmao, but if you google "piracy reddit" you can find a lot of reputable suggestions for sites to peruse), it's time to screencap or clip the scene(s) you want to gif. i would say that, from what i've seen, most gifmakers use screencaps, but i highly prefer taking short video clips (which i keep and usually label for future use/reference), so i'll be showing you that version. if you would prefer to screencap, please check the "beginner tutorials" tag on my resource blog @gifmakerresource

step 1b. i only use windows pcs, so i can't give any specialized info regarding macs, just as a disclaimer. i use the program VLC Media Player, both for clipping scenes and as my regular media player on both my laptop and my desktop. to initially set up vlc's recording capabilities, i used this website (please just ignore all their annoying advertising for movavi).

step 1c. now that vlc is set up to record footage played through it, i open my video clip (ctrl+o) and navigate to the scene i ultimately want to gif. i typically recommend recording an extra 5-10 seconds before and after the clip, especially if you need to convert the clip afterwards.

step 1d (optional). depending on the file format of your episode, you may need to convert the clips you take before photoshop will accept them. for example, a vast majority of the files i download are mkv files, but photoshop works best with mp4 files. for this, i use another program called HandBrake. once downloaded, i add whatever file(s) i need to convert, select the appropriate preset (which is almost always "Super HQ 1080p30 Surround" to maintain as much of the original quality as possible). you can select where the converted files automatically save for organization purposes, just like with vlc.

step 2. now that we have the clip we want to turn into a gif, it's time to bring it into photoshop. to do so, select file -> import video frames to layers. once you select your video clip, photoshop will pop up with a little media player with a few controls. here's what that looks like:

the box on the left that i've highlighted is what you'll adjust depending on whether you want to load in the entire clip or a specific range of the clip. with the way i clip scenes, i have quite literally NEVER used "from beginning to end." instead, i use the toggles on either side of the progress bar (circled in red) to select a specific range. you don't have to be overly precise with this as you can always delete extra frames, so i'll navigate using those little arrows until i roughly have the shot i want to turn into one gif and click okay. i would not recommend checking "limit to every x frames" because while this can help with file size, it will make your gif appear choppy. make sure "make frame animation" is checked.

this is what photoshop looks like after clicking OK:

across the bottom are the frames. make sure that "forever" is selected at the bottom left rather than once or three times. this makes sure that wherever you post your gif, it will play continuously. the 0.04 below each frame is the frame rate -- at this setting, each frame plays for four tenths of a second. this might vary depending on your source material, but i HIGHLY recommend using 0.05-0.06. we're not going to worry about that yet, though, so don't bother changing it right now.

over on the right under "layers" are, you guessed it, each frame's corresponding layer. now, i could go more in-depth on this, but i don't gif using frame animation. i used to a very long time ago (over ten years ago), but i use a series of actions to convert to timeline animation. before doing that, however, i execute a couple more steps first.

step 3 (optional). i may be a slob irl, but i'm extremely organized and neat on my computers, so the first thing i do is use an action i created to select all the layers and put them into a group. to manually do this, you can either click on the first (or last) layer and then click on the last (or first) while holding down shift OR you can go to select -> all layers OR you can use the keyboard shortcut alt+ctrl+a. i just turned this process into an action to save time.

step 4 (optional). delete any excess frames. because i don't bother with being extremely precise with photoshop's media player, i usually have to trim off extra frames at the beginning and/or end of my gif. to delete frames, select the first frame and either hold down control and click each one or hold down shift and click the last one to select everything in between. once the frames you want to delete are selected, click the little trashcan below the frames (near the left side just before the horizontal scrollbar).

note: to watch your gif at any time, simply press the spacebar. press it again to pause.

step 5. while everyone's process is different, i prefer to crop my gif to its final proportions here. there's nothing wrong with doing it later, but sharpening and coloring can take longer at larger dimensions. the width of a single gif in a row on tumblr needs to be 540px. two gifs in a row are both 268px wide. three gifs in a row are 177px, thus making tumblr's gutters (the small transparent spaces separating gifs) 4px.

step 6. this is when i sharpen my gif and convert it to timeline animation. when it comes to sharpening, i think everyone probably does it a little differently. here's how i sharpen my gifs (which i turned into an action to save time) and here's the sharpening tutorials tag on my resource blog. as with most things gifmaking-related, i recommend trial and error. try different things until you find what you like! once again, to save time, i turned that sharpening tutorial (and its base sharpening) and the timeline conversion into a single action.

to convert your gif from frame animation to timeline, you need to select all your layers and all your frames and select "convert to video timeline" from the menu after clicking these three lines:

this is what i have once i've run my action to sharpen and convert:

you can adjust how zoomed in your timeline is with the slider at the bottom and if you're having issues with playback (though especially with larger/longer gifs, it always takes a while to load before playing smoothly) click the gear icon near the top of this screenshot and make sure it's set to 100% and to loop playback.

(group 2 is my vivid sharpening per the tutorial i linked, so if you don't use that, yours won't look exactly like this.)

step 7. time for my favorite part: coloring! now, i'd recommend taking a look at coloring tutorials as every show and every movie is going to be different. even separate scenes in the same episode can have totally different lighting. i have a bad good habit of saving just about every psd (photoshop file that contains all coloring adjustment layers), so there are times where i can just reuse a coloring i've already made rather than having to color each gifset from scratch, but you might be surprised just how much i DO color from scratch.

in several of my other gif tutorials, i explain and go step-by-step through my entire coloring process and why i use the adjustment layers i use, but as i said, what works for one scene may not work for another, so the best thing i can recommend is to familiarize yourself with commonly-utilized adjustment layers. play around with them, see what each one does, and over time, you'll be able to recognize which ones to use and when to use them. the adjustment layers i use are brightness/contrast, curves, selective color, channel mixer, gradient map, vibrance, hue/saturation, photo filter, levels, and exposure. the bolded ones are the ones i use on almost every single coloring.

on the navigation page on my resource blog, you can find a lot of tutorials that are specific to one or more types of adjustment layers and i encourage you to check those out as well as explore the navigation page itself.

here's an overview of my coloring for the pitt:

and here's a visualization for you of what each layer does:

(top to bottom, left to right) no coloring, brightness/contrast, adding curves, adding selective color 1 (black, neutrals, and white), adding selective color 2 (blue and cyan), adding gradient map (b&w set to 25%), fully colored, without vivid sharpening, and a comparison of the original to the full-coloring.

step 8. it's time to save! i HIGHLY recommend using this save action from @anyataylorjoy as it's a total lifesaver. if you save your gif right from here, photoshop will automatically set your frame rate to 0.07. while i used to gif at 0.07, i cannot believe how slow and choppy that looks now. all of my gifs are now 0.05, which is what this action does in part. without this action, you'd have to save your gif here and then open that file, change your frame rate, and re-save.

once this action has finished running, you go to file -> export -> save for web (legacy). here are my save settings, which do make a difference:

just remember, to be uploaded to tumblr, a single gif must be below 10mb in size. # of frames, #of colors, and dimensions all play a big part in the size of your gif. here's the finished gif at 540px:

to sum up, what's most important when trying to make high-quality gifs is the quality of your footage. generally, the larger the file size the better, but you do not have to use 4k instead of 1080p. and a 3gb 1080p file will likely look higher quality than a 300mb 1080p file. sharpening and coloring go into it, yes, but they're probably not going to make or break your gif.