How to Make Animated Gifs From Videos

Visual content is one of the most important social media trends today. In fact, even three days later, people remember 65% of the visual content they’ve seen.

Animated GIFs are a huge part of this visual content wave. This Graphics Interchange Format has been around since 1987, but it’s not going away anytime soon. 

Content creators love animated GIFs because they are quicker, easier, and cheaper to make than full videos. Despite this, the amount of information that can be packed into short animated GIFs is incredible.

If you’re wondering how to make an animated GIF from your favorite videos for your social media sites, check out the guide below.

How to Use Photoshop

Photoshop has a learning curve, but you’ll get the best animated GIFs with this software.

From the Photoshop menu, go to File, then Import, then Video Frames to Layers. During this step, you can edit the length of your GIF and adjust the frame rate to accommodate file size. Don’t forget to check the Make Frame Animation box before clicking OK.

Finally, hit File, then Import, then Save for Web. Again, you’ll have some editing options like adjusting color and image size. Once you hit Done, your GIF is ready to go.

How to Use Giphy

Of all the options out there, Giphy is the easiest to use.

In the top, right corner of the page, look for the “Create” button. Clicking this will lead you to a page to enter a URL. You can choose a video URL from a video hosting site – most commonly YouTube or Vimeo. You can also upload your own video.

Once you enter the video URL or upload your video file, you can edit your GIF. Enter the specific time for the beginning of your GIF in minutes and seconds. The end time is decided by the duration time you set.

The best thing about Giphy is not only that it’s free, but that you don’t even need to make an account to use it. Feel free to add tags and captions before you create your GIF.

How to Use Make a GIF

This option is intermediate in difficulty, but perfect for someone who wants more control and custom options for their animated GIF. This website, however, requires you to make an account. Thankfully, it’s a simple process and can be done through your Facebook or Twitter.

With Make a GIF, you have the added options of making an animated GIF with pictures or your webcam. Once your media is uploaded, you can edit the start time and GIF length, add stickers, add or remove audio, pick a category, and add tags.

The free version of this website creates GIFs with lower image quality and a watermark, but it’s good practice before you decide to upgrade.

Make Your Own Animated GIFs

The best thing about making your own animated GIFs is that it’s quick, easy, and cheap. Visual content is more important than ever before and GIFs are one of the most popular styles on the web.

There’s no better way to express feeling than through a GIF. You can also summarize events and processes in a much more interactive way.

To learn about more Adobe Photoshop tips and tricks, don’t forget to stop by our blog page.