How to Make a Jack Sparrow Wig: Tutorial >>

.gif tutorial

This is my first time ever making something like this, so, if it’s not perfect or I left something out, I am sorry!

You will need both VLC Media Player and Adobe Photoshop downloaded to fully understand and follow this tutorial. In this case, I’m using Photoshop CS5.

1. VLC media player doesn’t have a region code block, so you can pretty much play any DVD and most file types (it’s actually really great to have in general, not just for this). So, open the file/disc you’ll be making the .gif from in VLC.

2. Pause when you have decided on the part you wish to use.

3. Use the VLC screenshot option to save the first frame:

4. To move to the next frame, press ‘e’ and repeat the previous step to screenshot this frame. Continue doing this until you have 8-15 frames. (the amount of frames you will be able to use depends on how lenient Photoshop is about making the gif under 500KB. In this case, I’m using 12.)

5. If you are using a PC, I am pretty sure you will find your frames in your ‘Pictures’ folder. I am using a Mac and my frames were found on my desktop.

6. Open Photoshop. File - Scripts - Load files into stack.

7. Click ‘Browse’ and select your screenshots (PS will arrange them for you in numerical order).

8. Photoshop has now created a layer for each of your screenshots.

9. You will now need to make your layers into frames, and then also reverse the frames so that they play in the correct order. To do this, click the drop-down option at the end right of the Animation tab.

10. You now change the delay of each frame - I chose to make it 0.1 for this .gif. Click the little black downward triangle beneath each frame to do so. Make sure you do this for each frame. You can play around with this - maybe 0.2 works better for the .gif you are making, or maybe doing every other frame 0.2/0.3/etc. See what works.

11. Now here is where you can have some fun with this! You can crop, colour and edit the .gif to make sure that it not only looks fabulous, but doesn’t exceed the max file size of 500KB for Tumblr. [Note: darker colours and filters always work better as they reduce colours and consequently the overall size of the file.] Make sure you edit from the Layers tab. Just a warning, depending on the amount of frames, you could need to cut down on the size a fair bit.

12. Once you’re happy with the way the gif looks, save it.

13. You can now take a few extra measures to reduce the size of the .gif if it’s still over 500KB. You can edit the Lossy (reduces the size a fair bit, but also leaves a grainy effect which isn’t always attractive), the number of colours (fewer colours, fewers KB’s) and various other aspects. If you are wanting to make gifs at a larger size, make sure the width of the gif is 500KB. Depending on how much you’ve cropped it, the height could vary. 

14. Once you’ve got your gif to 500KB or under, save!

15. Final product:

I really hope this makes enough sense and you are all able follow it and make your own .gifs! However, if there are still things you’re unsure of, or if you have any further questions, please don’t be afraid to ask.

Good luck!