For this tutorial, you need to download VLC Media Player and Photoshop CS5.
I’ll also be using Windows Vista so it might vary a bit for Mac users or Windows 7, I don’t know.
1) Download the video you would like to gif and open it with VLC.
2) Check your Preferences (under Tools in the file menu). You only have to do this once so you can skip this step the next time you’re making a gif.
Click Hotkeys and search for “snapshot.” Make sure hotkey for “Take video snapshot” is set to “s.”
It could be set to anything but I set it to s because it’s easy to remember and pressing one key to capture is easier than three.
Also choose where to save the “snapshots” under Video and make sure you check the sequential numbering box.
3) Now, play the video stopping right before the part you want to animate.
Hold “s” as the part you want to make into a gif plays. It should look like this.
4) Open Photoshop. Go to File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack.
Change Use: Files to Use: Folder and browse to find the folder where you stored your snapshots.
5) Open the Animation window. (In the file menu, under Window.) Then click the arrow at the corner and choose to Make Frames From Layers.
Photoshop should load the snapshots in order but backwards. To fix that, select all frames and choose Reverse Frames.
6) Now all you have to do to cut out parts of the gif is highlight extra frames (in the Animation window not the Layers window) by holding either the Ctrl or Shift keys and click the trash can. Do this at the beginning and end until your end result is just the part you want to gif.
7) Click play to preview the gif and change the speed by selecting all frames and changing the speed on any of the frames.
8) Once you’re satisfied with your result, go ahead and save your gif by going to File > Save for Web & Devices, not just Save or Save As…
The Save window should look like this (except for the yellow parts which are just highlighted for importance). Make sure the looping is set to “forever.”
Tumblr doesn’t play gifs that are wider than 500px wide or bigger than 500kb. So under image size change the width to 500 or less if it’s not already. That should lower the size a bit. Luckily, this gif was only 381kb but if your gif is bigger than that you can lower it by
- going back and deleting even more frames (usually anything over 20 or 25 is too big)
- lowering the width or height
- lowering the colors
- changing the dither to pattern
Once your gif is small enough go ahead and click save. It should be able to upload to tumblr and animate
