Guide to GIFS: Editing, creating, etc!

STRAGGLER'S COMPLETE .GIF GUIDE

Contents
Sec 1- Introduction

Sec 2- How to create a .GIF

Sec 3- How to split and edit a .GIF

Sec 4- Conclusion and tips

Section 1- Introduction

Hello everyone. I'm sure you all know what a .gif file is, but if you don't, my current avatar is an example of one. It's basically a compilation of a few, or many, images that move from one to the next like an animation, in a cycle. The name, GIF, stands for Graphical Interchange Format. Now that you know what a GIF is, I'm going to tell you how to make and edit your own.

Sec 2- How to create a .GIF

To create a .GIF, we must create and compile the images that we want to animate. Now, there are a couple programs you can do this with.

To create an image, you can use a program such as Microsoft Paint, but I personally prefer this one, it's called Photofiltre:

http://photofiltre.en.softonic.com/

This program allows you to easily paste and edit pictures, and it has a lot of cool features.

I'm going to just go through and show you how to create your own GIF now.

First off, we need an image. You can use any image you want, it all depends on what sort of .gif you want to make. You can use stuff from your desktop, the internet, or draw your own. That's what I'm going to be doing. So first, we can just go on photofiltre or paint or whatever you want, and start a new document/project. My GIF is going to have 3 images in it. Now, in order to tie these three images together, I use a free internet program called GIFerator. The link can be found here:
http://giferator.com/

Now, here's my one image. When I save it, I must save it as a .gif file, or else it won't work.


Here's my second of three:


And my 3rd:


Now, time for the fun part. Putting them all together as an animated GIF!
First, make sure all the images you are using are saved as .GIF images.


Okay next, go on the giferator site, select the gif images that you want to be animated, and then click "Create Animated GIF". The GIFerator will compile the images together into an animation, and viola:
View attachment stragglereal.gif
To slow down the change rate, just put in more frames. I put in two frames per change, so I put the "straggler" file twice, the "is" file twice and the "awesome" file twice, which is 2x slower than just putting each once. It's up to you as to how fast you want it to be. Now that we can make them, let's edit them.


Sec 3- How to split and edit a .GIF

Okay in this part, I'm going to show you two basic types of editing for a .gif. The first is resizing, which is a problem for some people who want to put .gifs in their avatars or sigs which are too big or too small. An easy way to resize any .gif is to save the .gif file on to your computer, then use this program, called GIF Resizer, and change the dimensions. The download can be found here: http://www.soft32.com/Download/Free/GiF_Resizer/4-232092-1.html

It's very good. To change the size of your .gif, simply change the dimensions of the height and width, and make a new file name:
Be sure to select Good Quality, the .gif will come out much better if you do.


There, now you can easily resize all your .gifs!

Okay, the last thing I'm going to teach you how to do is splitting and editing the frames of your .gif. Again, we're going to use the online GIFerator program for this, because it's very easy. You're going to have the images you put into the .gif back to you now, on the screen, like so:


To edit an image in the .gif, just copy it, and paste it onto an image editing program, such as Photofiltre. Here, you can edit the slides with new colors, text, effects, whatever.


Now, re-save these as .gif files and put them back on the GIFerator site like I showed you before, and re-animate! Now you have an edited .gif image!

The image I edited is too big to fit on Sythe D:, There's a size limit to .gifs that you can post on a thread, but there's a much larger limit for gifs in a sig or avatar. You get the picture, it'd look like my first one only colorful

Well, now you know how to edit and resize .gifs!


Sec 4- Conclusion and tips

And that's my .gif guide. As you can see, editing a .gif is a lot trickier than editing an image, because you have to account for each frame. It's not all that hard, but still a bit harder. GIFerator is a really good program to use, and you don't have to download it either because it's right online.

Oh yeah: To post a .gif in a Sythe post, just go to the paperclip thing on your control panel (manage attachments), find the .gif, and upload & post. Make sure it's not too big D:

When editing a .gif, be careful that the frames match. If you edit each one differently, and you want to keep a static image, it'll look funny. Try to be consistent.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post or PM me. That concludes my guide, hope you learned a bit .

 

nice guide m8. i like it cuz its understandable

 

Easy to understand for simple computer users; I suggest you clean up the pictures a bit, or re-size them because they look a little rushed. Otherwise, good guide for simple GIF Making.

 

Thanks. I'm on my iPod right now but I'll fix the pics when I get back on a computer.

 

Creation of gif
The image file within you
Embodies Spirit

 

dude great guide 8/10 but i cant seem to get my .gif as my avatar or sig? could you pm or post on here how to get it from giferator.com to here?,thanks a bunch

 

Just right click on it and hit save image as, and then use that image for your avatar.

 

but it saves it as a bitmap is that ok?

edit:well i saved it but when i put it as my avatar it says invalid image file?

 

I really liked this guide. It's well explained, and simple for beginners.
If you want an additional way to make .gif's please read my guide.

Make sure your uploading it at a host that support .gif's, like imageshack.us.

 

oh haha forgot to do that thanks

 

Great guide thanks i made one 10/10

 

hey giferator isnt working does anyone know of any others places to make .gifs?

 

Try my method, let me know how it works!

 

i dont have gimp,is it free?

 

Very understandable and easy to follow.