There are many times when making GIFs is the best option when you want to share a moment on social media or email it to friends and family. However, finding the perfect GIF can be difficult as they either loop too quickly or cut off before the action happens. Thankfully, Photoshop provides an easy way to make your own GIF loops that look seamless and natural. In this guide, I will walk you through the process of creating your own looping animations with easy-to-follow steps and screenshots. Let’s get started!
How to Make a Seamless Loop Gif Photoshop?
The process of making a seamless looping gif can be simple or complicated depending on the tools used. This tutorial will show you how to use Adobe Photoshop CC 2018.
1) Go to File > New and create an animated gif with a dimension of 1920×1080 pixels
2) Create your first frame by selecting the pen tool and drawing out an object (I used three circles). You can change the color of the object by clicking on Create new fill or adjustment layer from the menu bar that pops up.
3) Add another frame by clicking Add Frame from the same menu bar as before. Repeat steps 1-3 for each frame you want in your gif. I did this until I had nine frames. To speed up the process of adding frames, hold Shift while dragging to copy the last frame over to make it into a new one. Once all frames are made, click Animation then select Make Frames From Layers from the menu bar that pops up at the top of your screen.
Create your photo
Take your photo and open it up in Photoshop. Select the Layers tab on the top left-hand side of your screen. From there, click on the Create new layer icon at the bottom of your screen. When you click this icon, you will create a blank layer that sits above your original photo. This is where you want to place the animated gifs that will repeat seamlessly when the animation is complete. You can now drag and drop these gifs into this new layer or import them from a different file if need be. The important thing is to make sure that each frame of the gif loops seamlessly so that it looks like one continuous image once it’s completed. After your gif has been imported, select File from the top menu and choose Save for Web (Legacy) . In this window, go to Preset options and choose Make Seamless . Then simply hit save!
Trim it down
In order to make the perfect, seamless loop GIF in Photoshop, you’ll need an animation app that can export frames as PNG images. It doesn’t matter which one you use–Photoshop has a way of converting them into its own format. Let’s use Adobe After Effects for this tutorial. Open your project and select File>Export>Export Frames>Create Image Sequence (.png). Once it exports all the frames as pngs, open up the folder and find the images that were exported. Now open up Photoshop (make sure you have the right version). Click File > Import > Movies and Images > Select Files (Locate where your pngs are) and then click Open.
Resize it
While there are many tools for doing this, one of the best is LICEcap. It’s an application that lets you record video to a file and export it as an animated GIF. But before you can use it, you’ll need to install the latest LICEcap version on your Windows PC. Once that’s done, open up LICEcap and click Record Video when the window pops up. You’ll be able to see everything happening on your screen—including yourself if you’re recording video of yourself—and then press Stop Recording when you’re finished. From there, go ahead and select Save Video File As… from the menu at the top of LICEcap.
Export it
- Select an area of your video that will serve as the loop point. This is usually around the center of your video frame, or at a pivot point in motion (a person throwing a ball, for example). Zoom into this section and crop it to the size you want the final file to be.
- In order for your video to loop properly, it needs two copies of itself: one before the start point (to act as the first half of your animation) and one after it (to act as the second). You’ll need two copies of your cropped section from step 1: one on top of another with some space between them. Label these layers loop and start.
Create the GIF using Photoshop
- Open up Photoshop and select File > New.
- To create the animation, go to Window > Layers… and click on the icon that is a square with an arrow pointing towards it. Now double-click on Layer 1 and rename it Animation.
- To animate your GIF you will need two frames (or images). Click on Layer 2 under Animation and then select File > Import… Choose the file you want to use for frame one of your animation (the first frame).
- Repeat step 3 but this time choose the second frame of your animation (the last frame). You should now have two layers: Layer 1 with an image at the top and layer 2 with an image at the bottom.
Edit the GIF using VLC media player
In order to create the perfect looping GIF, we need to know what frame rate it should be set at. This is determined by the speed of movement. Generally speaking, you want your frame rate to be at or around 24 frames per second (fps). To find this out with VLC media player, simply hit ‘CTRL+L’ or go into the menu and hit View > Show Properties. Here you will be able to find your frame rate.
You’ll also need a video editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro X that has the capability of exporting animated GIFs. If you’re going with Final Cut Pro X then navigate to File > Export > Media and select Animated Image from the drop-down list on the right-hand side of screen.
Conclusion
Making a gif is relatively simple. In Adobe Photoshop, go to File > Open and find your video file. Click on the timeline at the bottom of the window that has 0:00 written on it. Make sure you are on frame 0. On the right side of your screen, you’ll see an arrow pointing up or down. To make it run seamlessly, drag this little arrow around until it reaches 1:00 (or whatever time you want). Once you do that, head over to File > Save for Web & Devices. Under Preset pop-up menu select GIF 128 Dithered (no transparency). Click Save and you’re done! Read more for these type of blogs.
