How to Create an Animated GIF in Photoshop

Many of us are familiar with GIFs or “Graphics Interchange Format.” We see them all over the web in forms of small video animated clips. A GIF is a compressed image file format. They have wide support and portability and the ability to compress files effectively and be easily transmitted across different internet platforms. The primary purpose of the GIF file is to create a simple, compressed file, in the form of a video animation without needing the viewers to press the “play” button or deal with a huge video file that takes longer to load. In this tutorial, we are going to show you how to make a GIF in Photoshop.

Courtesy – Animated Text Effect 

There are a lot of things you can do with a GIF in Photoshop. However, here you will see how to animate some text in a banner advertisement.

Firstly, open a new document. You can set a common banner ad size that of 300 by 250 pixels. Before opening Photoshop, prepare a couple of JPEG files that will compose the separate frames of the GIF and make sure they are the same dimensions and put them into a folder together. Now, go to File> Scripts> Load Files into Stack. When the “Load Layers” window pops up, click browse to select and open your image files and then click OK. This should import the files you selected as individual layers in your document. Rearrange the layers into the correct order, if necessary. Now go to Windows> Animation or Window> Timeline regardless of your version. Make sure all your layers are selected, click on the tab in the top right corner of the animation window and select “Make Frames from Layers.” Go back to the button in the top right corner of the Animation window and from the drop-down menu, click “Select All Frames.”

Now, you can edit them with consistency. Set time log by clicking on any one of those black arrows and select any length of time on the list or click “Other” to customize it. Decide how many times you want the animation to loop from the “Select Looping Options” button by going into the bottom right corner of the Animation Window. ‘3 times’ is standard for typical banner advertisements. After the animation loops 3 times, it will stop on the last frame in the Animation window, remain there and be a still image. Make sure you select what image you want your audience to see after the animation is done.

Once you are happy with the frame order, timing and loop repetition, you need to click File> Save for Web & Devices, set the file format to .gif and save. When it is posted on the web, the animation will play. That sums up the process.