Welcome to soonhoonsolās gif tutorial!
As a nice anon asked me how I make my gifs, I thought itād be cool to create an in-depth tutorial :) Perhaps this can help some others enter the gif-ing world too!
What weāll be using for this tutorial:
Software: Bandicam, Avisynth, Photoshop CC 2018, Topaz Labs
File Format: .mp4
Operating System: Windows
Disclaimer: This is just my method. Every gif maker works differently and has different preferences. What works for me may not work for you, and thatās completely okay!
Letās get into it!
1. Find the best quality video you can find
This really depends on the content you want to gif. For variety shows, music videos or photoshoots, any video of [1080p] should be sufficient. Try not to use anything below 720p.
For stage performances, fancams tend to have higher resolutions [1440p, 4k]. Use these if your computer can handle it. If not, usually 1080p works fine. The best option would be to download .ts files, which provide clearer and less grainy videos.
For Seventeen, you can get .ts files from The Rosebay on Twitter :)
2. Screen recording
As a Windows user, I donāt have a built-in screen recorder on my laptop. So, I use Bandicam, which is a free screen recording software. The only con to it is that it has a watermark.
To combat the watermark, I always have the boundary box a little bigger than the video itself so that I can crop it out of the gif.
This is what the recording would look like:
Just record the scene(s) that you want to gif so your video file doesnāt end up too large! Your recording should be in .mp4 format.
(You may use pure .ts files in Avisynth but it never worked well for me so I usually screen record the .ts video and move on)
You can find your recorded videos in Documents > Bandicam.
3. Avisynth
I followed THIS tutorial to download Avisynth. This software is really helpful if you want sharp and clear gifs! I recommend to follow the steps in the tutorial as the below method stems from it.
- Once you have downloaded it, open up your recorded video from Step 2 and watch it. Take note of the duration you want to gif. (e.g. from 00:01 to 00:05)
- Drag your video file into normalwebrange.bat. On Windows, you can find this in File Explorer > Local Disk (C:) > video. For other .bat files, you may check out THIS tutorial.
- In the pop-up box, key in the start time for your gif (e.g. 00:00:01). It has to be in hh:mm:ss format. Press āenterā.
- Key in the end timing and press āenterā again. A resizer should pop up in an Internet Browser. I found that Firefox works best for me.
- In the resizer, you may indicate the size of the gif youād like to make. You can also click and drag the video to resize and frame it to your liking. You may refer to THIS post for Tumblr dashboard sizing.
(These are some common gif sizes for stage performances):
1 gif - 540px by 540px (square)
2 gifs - 268px by 350px
3 gifs - 177/178px by 250px
- Under āPreprocessorā, select ādebilinearā for the second box. For the first box, you may pick between qtgmc 30 (same frame rate as video) or qtgmc 60 (doubles the frame rate; smoother).
- You will also see āfastā or āslowā options. These are just how long the video will take to render. āFastā will give you slightly lower quality as compared to āslowā, but usually is good enough.
(You can see that his features are sharper and more defined in theĀ āslowā gif as compared to theĀ āfastā one.)
- Copy the code in the white box. Navigate to the scripting window (it should have popped up with the resizer) and paste the code at line 17. Type a ā#ā before qtgmc on the same line. This will prevent the software from lagging.
- Click on the inverted triangle at the bottom of the screen. Your video will now appear in the scripting window. Drag the slider to the intended starting point of your gif and press the āhomeā key on your keyboard.
- Drag the slider again to the intended ending point of your gif and press the āendā key on your keyboard. This blue area you see is the duration of your gif.
- On an empty line (I usually go to line 8), place your cursor there and click āApplyā in the mini pop-up window. Afterwards, remove the ā#ā from line 17.
- Go to File > Save or press Ctrl + S to save the code. Close the scripting window. The video renderer will pop up. When itās done, it will automatically close by itself.
4. Using Photoshop and Topaz
Iām using my school license for Photoshop 2018, but if you donāt have that, there are plenty of cracked versions for free. I donāt have any to recommend though so Iām sorry about that :(
I followed THIS video tutorial to download Topaz plug-ins for free. I use Topaz DeNoise (the most helpful) and Clean, but you may use others if youād like :)
Alright, letās dive in to the steps!
- Open up Photoshop and go to File > Import > Video Frames to Layers.
- A pop-up will appear. You can find your deinterlaced Avisynth video in File Explorer > Local Disk (C:) > video > temp > video.avi. Follow the settings in the picture and click āOKā.
- Go to Window > Timeline to open up the timeline. You should be able to see your gif spread out in frames. If you press the play button, it should play like a video.
- (Quick optional step I learned from THIS tutorial) Go to Image > Canvas and set the Resample option to āBicubic (smooth gradients)ā.)
- Select the first frame of your gif in the timeline. Shift select the last frame. Go to Window > Layers. Shift select these layers as well.
- With everything selected, click the 3 lines at the top right corner of the timeline. Select āConvert to Video Timelineā.
- At the top of the screen, select Filter > Convert for Smart Filters. Your layers will condense into one layer. Donāt worry, your gif is fine.
- Now itās time to sharpen the gifs. Go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen. Play around with the settings to your liking!
- If youāve downloaded Topaz correctly, it should appear under Filter > Topaz Labs. If a pop-up asks you for an activation key, you may use THESE to activate it for free.
- Go to Filter > Topaz Labs > DeNoise and/or Clean and play with the settings until youāre satisfied.
5. Blurring
If your gifs have captions/logos that are distracting, youād want to blur them out. Donāt be like 2018 me that blurred out the logo frame by frame; itās very tiring. Instead, using this method from @scoupsyās tutorial, youāll save lots of time.
- In the Layers tab (Windows > Layers), select the āNew Layerā icon. It should be blank.
- Select the Brush tool. Make sure the āHardnessā setting is below 20%. This will blend the blurring nicely into the gif.
(For the sake of this tutorial, I will be blurring out the Bandicam logo to show you.)
- Paint over the captions/logos. Make sure this is on the blank layer!
- DuplicateĀ (Right Click > Duplicate) the gif layer and drag it so that itās on top of the blank layer.
- Right click on the duplicate layer and select āCreate Clipping Maskā.
- Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and play around with the settings until youāre satisfied with the level of blurring. Click āOKā.
6. Flattening & Colouring
- Once youāre done with sharpening and/or blurring, click on the 3 lines on at the right corner of the video timeline and go to Convert Frames >Ā Flatten Frames Into Clips.
- Topaz layers and blurring will take some time to render so you can just chill for now~
- When itās done rendering, click again on the 3 lines and go to Convert Frames >Ā Make Frames From Clips.
- Convert it back to the gif timeline by clicking on the 3-box icon at the bottom left of the timeline.
- Select the first frame of your gif. It must be the FIRST.
- Scroll to the top of the layers and select the layer at the top. Any other layers you add should be on top of this layer. VERY IMPORTANT!!
- In the Adjustments Tab (Window > Adjustments), there are many different things to play with. Thereās a high chance you wonāt use everything, but hereās a few of my favourites.
Levels - Adjust the brightness and contrast of your gif in depth.
Hue/Saturation - Useful for changing colours, or switching it to black and white.
Color Balance - Tweak the colours to your liking.
Colour Lookup - Comes with built-in LUTs that you can use as a preset. Great starting point for colouring. Saves time too. You can even download plug-ins for this. 11/10 tool.
Selective Colour - Adjust the vibrancy of specific colours.
- Colouring is completely up to the gifmaker. Go crazy go stupid :D
7. Exporting
Weāre almost to the end!
- Set the timing for your gif.
If you used qtgmc30, the best timing would be 0.04s / 0.05s / 0.06s.
If you used qtgmc60, the best timing would be 0.02s / 0.03s / 0.04s.
- Once youāre satisfied with everything, go to File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy).
- Follow the settings in the picture below:
- Tumblrās gif limit is 10mb per gif. Check the gif size at the bottom left of the pop-up window. Make sure itās below 10mb; the smaller the better.
- Click āSaveā. Choose where youād like to save the gif.
- Done!
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And thatās it! Youāve successfully made a gif! Good job you :D
I hope this tutorial was helpful! Please leave some feedback if it helped, or if you have other methods youād like to share :)
Lastly, if you have any questions, feel free to send in an ask or DM me!! :)
Good luck and happy gif-ing :āD













