Making animated GIFs

How this Forum Works - Questions and Answers

Moderator: ame

Post Reply
User avatar
ame
Moderator
Posts: 75821
Joined: April 7th, 2009, 10:26 pm
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact:

Making animated GIFs

Post by ame »

Animated GIFs
are a way to show several pictures in row so that they form a kind of slow-motion film or video. in 'real' film the still pictures change so rapidly that our brains conceive them as 'moving' picture. in animated gifs the consecutive pictures follow each other so slowly that we see them separately.

NOTE: the perceivable changing from one picture to the next may make an uncomfortable impression in the viewer, especially if the pictures differ considerably from each other.
this may happen especially when the difference in the light levels of the pictures is large or the change in colours between the pictures is large. if in addition the pictures will also change quickly this will make the GIf-picture flash and flicker in a very unpleasant way which may lead to migraine or nausea in the viewer. in some sensitive people this may even trigger an epileptic event.
therefore the GIFs must be made very carefully, choosing pictures which don't differ too much from each other and setting the speed of their changing slow enough.
if in doubt whether the speed of changing is too high it is better to choose slower speed.

in the following i shall collect in one place descriptions of how GIFs can be made. these description have already been posted in different place in the Technical questions topic. i hope that it will be easier to find them here.
User avatar
ame
Moderator
Posts: 75821
Joined: April 7th, 2009, 10:26 pm
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact:

Post by ame »

Making an animated GIF with PICASION

here's the address of Picasion: http://picasion.com/get-photo/
it's really easy to use: just add pictures. registration is not needed, neither a host for the animations. in the pictures below are shown the things you can and need to do.

add pictures in the 'image slots' 1, 2, 3, ... from your PC-file (it's practical to put the pictures in the same folder because Picasion will remember the folder that was used). you can add more than 3 pictures if you click "Add one more..." (black arrow). maximum number is 10 pictures (which is sometimes too restrictive).

then you can select size of the GIF by clicking the row under "Size". 450 is largest and that is not very big so i usually use it. i think that the default size 300 is too tiny.
Image

then you can select how fast pictures change by clicking the row under "Speed" in the picture below. i prefer "slow" especially for pictures which differ somewhat from each other, because then the gif will not flicker much and it's nicer to watch. the more different the pictures are from each other the slower the gif should be. if in doubt about the speed it is always better to select slower.

Image

finally click "Create animation" (or enter) and soon the gif will be ready and you'll see preview. if it is not ok, then you'll have to start over from beginning. if the gif is ok click on the second line to get the direct link to the gif and it will turn blue. click ctrl-C to copy the code and then just paste the code with ctrl-V in your post inside img-branckets like this (i've removed the outermost brackets):
img]http://i.picasion.com/pic79/32c723e1c6a ... e38277.gif[/img

and here's the gif in action. the size in this example is 450 and speed is 'slow'.
Image


Image
here the size 450, speed normal (500 ms = 0.5 s)
User avatar
ame
Moderator
Posts: 75821
Joined: April 7th, 2009, 10:26 pm
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact:

Post by ame »

Making an animated GIF with The Animated GIF-maker

this GIF-maker can be found in this address: http://www.myspacegens.com/handler.php? ... matedimage

what's irritating there is that they have pop-up advertisements so you'll need patience to close those windows before you can proceed.

the use is rather straightforward. in step number 3: to "upload pictures" first click "ADD", then browse your files and select your pictures, then click "upload". when uploading is finished click "OK" and then "SUBMIT". (before submitting you can fix the speed to you liking in step number 2. their default speed was too quick if i remember right.)

after some processing the GIF is ready. then you'll need to download it to your computer and then upload it to some photo service (e.g. in the Bucket). from there you get the picture code which can be posted here in a mail.

the whole GIF-making process with the GIF-maker is more complicated than with Picasion but there's the advantage that you can submit a maximum of a 100 pictures! the default picture size is also larger than the max-size of Picasion gifs, which is an advantage, too.

here's an example of a GIF made with Animated GIF-maker.

Image
pictures by Alice, taken on Dec 5th at about 9 am.
size normal, speed slow (1000 ms = 1 s)
in retrospect the speed here is too quick for my present taste, though i have used slower than their default speed. the seal looks almost hyperactive. :mrgreen:
if i made this GIF again, i'd use 1.5 s or even 2 s.
User avatar
ame
Moderator
Posts: 75821
Joined: April 7th, 2009, 10:26 pm
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact:

Post by ame »

aita has found yet two other GIF-makers. thank you aita! :thumbs: :wave:
the first GIF-maker which she writes about below is the same as i described above.
aita wrote:Photobucket - the maximum limit is 25 MB. once my 90 images - exceeded the limit. (So, PNG images can fit in a lot less than the JPEG images.)
http://www.myspacegens.com/handler.php? ... matedimage
This website is good, you can EDIT the gif. Just I chose smaller size and it was the right size for Photobucket.

My favorite is (the fastest and most convenient) http://makeagif.com/
there 20 images at a time.
Size: Biggest Cropped - almost full screen. Size 800x450 gif - looks like 800x600 image
Margossa commented the second, the MakeAGif.
Margossa wrote:I use makeagif.com too.
I use http://makeagif.com/ because this program is very easy to use.
1 step - add pictures (from "my computer", no need before upload pictures to Photobucket or Picassa or other picture service) after push "continue" button
2 step - create a gif (you can change speed and size pictures (I use 800x450 pixels) and animated gif is ready.
Now can choose a link which can copy to post (It is below animated gif on the website).
When I have a lot of pictures I divide for parts each of 20 pictures.
:wave:
User avatar
ame
Moderator
Posts: 75821
Joined: April 7th, 2009, 10:26 pm
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact:

Post by ame »

Making animated GIFs with MakeAGif

you'll find it here: http://makeagif.com/

this is a straightforward gif-maker which aita and Margossa have found. no registration or signing-up is required.
i made a gif of how to use this gif-maker. :D
here the speed of pictures is 7000 ms = 7 s. i hope it is slow enough.
Image

here's another sample.
Image

i think these gifs can be posted directly on the board, if they are made slow enough. i tried first 750 ms first but changed to 1.2 s. i think that slower speed is always better than faster, especially if pictures differ from each other. here i didn't change the size of pictures so they remained original (width 768). maximum number of pictures is 20. that should be enough for most purposes.

i changed width to 500 and left height open ...hmm... no change. :puzzled:
maybe the height should also be given but then one should calculate proper height so that the ratio will not change. too complicated. i guess it's best to resize pictures with Paint (or something) so that the aspect ratio is maintained before making the gif.

posting the gif is simple: copy the code from the "Message board"-box when the gif is ready and then paste it directly in the message here.
User avatar
ame
Moderator
Posts: 75821
Joined: April 7th, 2009, 10:26 pm
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact:

Post by ame »

today i tried another Gif maker called GIFMaker.me.

clever name for a gif maker and it can be found here: http://gifmaker.me/
Image

it is very simple to use: first click the upload-button and select the pictures from your computer.
then select the parameters for your gif on the right side panel (see picture below).
Image

don't change the aspect ratio ( the ratio of width to height) of the pictures or otherwise the pictures are going to look funny. the maximum size for pictures on this forum is 800 width and 600 height, so these measurement should not be exceeded. either select a suitable percentage or give fixed pixel measurements. both width and height are needed.you can find the correct measurements using for example Paint to resize one picture to correct width/height or percentage.

then select a suitable animation speed. usually it is safer to select a slow speed, especially if pictures differ considerably from each other. if pictures don't differ much then 1 s to 1.5 s is ok. 1000 ms = 1 s.

when selections are ready click Create GIF animation below the control panel. when the gif is ready download it to your computer. then you'll need to upload the gif to some photohost like Photobucket. copy the image code of the gif in the same way as you copy the code of an ordinary single picture and paste the code in your post inside the img-brackets in the normal way.

below i have replaced the inner ] and [ with } and { so that the format can be seen.
[img}http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/ss54 ... 2.gif{/img]

the result:
Image

the advantage of this gifmaker is that it allows more pictures in a gif then MakeAGif where the maximum number is 20. the maximum number of pictures is 100. the disadvantage is the slightly more complicated procedure of downloading to pc - uploading to photohost before one can post the gif. from MakeAGif you get the gif's image code directly.
User avatar
ame
Moderator
Posts: 75821
Joined: April 7th, 2009, 10:26 pm
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact:

Post by ame »

i realized later that the re-scaling the picture size down to 800x600 is not necessary before making gifs with this gif-maker if one uses a photohost which rescales the pictures automatically to 800-pixel-width upon uploading pictures. this saves a lot of trouble and time. :thumbs:

just
- upload your pictures to the gif-maker as they are (they all need to be the same size though; otherwise the result will be a bit funny).
- create the gif.
- download it to your pc, preferably with an understandable name; the gif-maker offers a code with arbitrarily chosen letters and numbers like Y-tube. sometimes an ordinal number in the end is practical if you need to re-make the gif with different speed perhaps.
- upload to the photohost.
- and copy the address and post it on the board.
User avatar
ame
Moderator
Posts: 75821
Joined: April 7th, 2009, 10:26 pm
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact:

Post by ame »

earlier the photohost picr.de did not host gifs but now it is possible. i don't know since when, but yesterday i noticed that Crissy had made a gif and uploaded it to picr.de.
Crissy wrote: January 2nd, 2020, 10:24 am Good morning all :wave:

09:58:32-36 juvenile eagle flew to the upper branch on the left and then flew away

Image
ame wrote: January 2nd, 2020, 7:30 pmCrissy, how did you make this gif? i can see that it is hosted at picr.de, the same host that i have been using sing the bucket failure. earlier picr.de was not able to host gifs.
i tried to make a gif of Raimis rearranging sticks on the nest this afternoon but it will not 'move'. :puzzled:
the address of Crissy's gif in the above post is https://up.picr.de/37576986pr.gif.
when i click it a window with the working gif opens.
i'll try my gif:
https://up.picr.de/37580731hq.gif
... only one picture opens. :slap:

so i tried to do a gif myself, too, but with no success.
this started a little discussion about how to make gifs. i'll copy the comments here since this is actually the topic where this discussion belongs to.
User avatar
ame
Moderator
Posts: 75821
Joined: April 7th, 2009, 10:26 pm
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact:

Post by ame »

Crissy wrote: January 2nd, 2020, 8:22 pm Ame :hi:

Firstly i made the usual recording from YT stream with my video recording software. Then i used this website https://ezgif.com/video-to-gif to convert my video file to gif file. This site lets to download gif file to computer, but there is no option to share gif directly with a link. Luckily https://picr.de/ accepts gif files to form an image, that i can share in the forum. I believe there are easier ways to share gifs, but thats my crazy version :rotf:
I did use https://giphy.com/ before, but it does not accept my video formating anymore and is rather slow while converting gifs with longer duration :puzzled:
User avatar
ame
Moderator
Posts: 75821
Joined: April 7th, 2009, 10:26 pm
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact:

Post by ame »

ame wrote: January 2nd, 2020, 9:19 pm Crissy, i tried your method, but a bit differently. i made individual pictures myself, uploaded them and made a gif, and finally saved it back in my pc. when i open the gif with window photo viewer (or what-ever-it's-called) the pictures change as i wish. i uploaded the gif to picr.de and it's there but no pictures changing. what may be the reason? :puzzled:
Image

in the 'old' times picr.de didn't host gifs at all. do you have some special account there?
User avatar
ame
Moderator
Posts: 75821
Joined: April 7th, 2009, 10:26 pm
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact:

Post by ame »

Crissy wrote: January 2nd, 2020, 10:01 pm No, I have the usual account. The picr.de website says Zulässige Bildformate: gif, jpeg, pdf und png., meaning Permitted image formats: gif, jpeg, pdf and png. It is written on the right column, i never paid any attention to this, but now it is clear, why gif files are going through. I tried now as you described, uploaded 2 pics, made gif out of them, downloaded and then uploaded to picr.de and result is
Image

Did you make gif with some different kind of tool or with the site i suggested? And does your gif have .gif format? Because my gif files on the computer open only with web browser, they dont work in Windows photo viewer, so maybe thats the reason :unsure:
i'll try the address of Crissy's second gif:
https://up.picr.de/37580338pf.gif
and it works!
User avatar
ame
Moderator
Posts: 75821
Joined: April 7th, 2009, 10:26 pm
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact:

Post by ame »

ame wrote: January 2nd, 2020, 10:08 pm i made the simplest way in ezgif:
https://ezgif.com/maker/ezgif-2-097f4c3e-gif näääh: "file not found" here but it's there where i made it originally.

and it should be in gif-format.
[img https://up.picr.de/37580348pb.gif[ /img]

it does not work..? :puzzled:
Image

i'm too tired. i need new brain.
good night! :wave:
Sonchik wrote: January 2nd, 2020, 10:20 pm It is strange. :puzzled: I have two ways of looking at pictures in the windows and everywhere I see moving pictures.
I make gif with the same programs I record videos with. These ready-made gif I upload to photochosting, which supports the gif format. I'm not converting anything.
User avatar
ame
Moderator
Posts: 75821
Joined: April 7th, 2009, 10:26 pm
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact:

Post by ame »

Nordri wrote: January 3rd, 2020, 12:10 am I use this option-
https://online-converting.com/
select https://online-converting.com/image/convert2gif/

it is better to use the Russian page in the converter (it is simpler and faster) https://online-converting.ru/video/conv ... eo-to-gif/
when the name of the finished GIF appears at the bottom of the page (in 10-20 seconds), you need to click on it and the GIF will load into your computer. .and GIF upload here -https://vfl.ru/.
you need to strive for the GIFs to be small (no more than 10-15 MB). And it will be inconvenient for many to watch the page on the LK forum (the GIF will be loaded automatically for each page viewer)
I found for myself the best option for GIF forums, set when converting on the site-
size 480X270, 15 frames per second.
Image

**but a lot of GIF on the forum page is also not good. The page will be difficult to view. :bash: In many forums, gif is prohibited. Or only as links
User avatar
ame
Moderator
Posts: 75821
Joined: April 7th, 2009, 10:26 pm
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact:

Post by ame »

Liz01 wrote: January 3rd, 2020, 7:16 am ...
8:16 EDIT: My brain is working a bit.
ame, :hi:
Make Animated GIFs from Videos using PotPlayer :D
https://www.journeybytes.com/make-anima ... potplayer/
User avatar
ame
Moderator
Posts: 75821
Joined: April 7th, 2009, 10:26 pm
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact:

Post by ame »

this is a test to see if Crissy's gif works when i upload it to picr.de. the pictures don't change in the picr.de but here the gif is rolling.
Image

and this is Crissy's original gif
Image

then i made (again) my own gif. it moves on my screen when i open it Windiws photos.
then i uploaded it to picr.de.
it's not changing. :puzzled:
so it is not my account in picr.de which is not working since it can show Crissy's gif.
Image
User avatar
ame
Moderator
Posts: 75821
Joined: April 7th, 2009, 10:26 pm
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact:

Post by ame »

next trial using https://gifmaker.me/ which i have used many times before:
Image

the same result, no changing. :slap:

picr.de says that the maximum size of the images is 24 Megapixel. i wonder what that means?
i reduced the size of the pictures in the gif to 800x450 pixel-square (which is the forum's maximum size) before making the gif at GifMaker.me.
yippee, it works! :loveshower:
my gifs were too big for picr.de. :laugh:
Image
User avatar
ame
Moderator
Posts: 75821
Joined: April 7th, 2009, 10:26 pm
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact:

Post by ame »

i made the same gif in ezgif.com. this is made with delay 1.5 seconds, i.e. each picture is shown for 1.5 seconds. the above gif is made with delay 1.2 s. you can compare which one looks better. i usually like the slower more. if pictures differ a lot from each other then less that 1 s is not advisable.
Image

there one needs to upload pictures first, then decide what the speed (delay as they call it) of the gif is, i.e. how long each picture will show. the more different the consecutive pictures are the longer the delay should be (the gif changes slowlier; a fast blinking gif is not pleasant to watch like Nordri wrote :nod: ).
when the gif is processed ezgif asks if you wish to optimize the gif in some respect. here you should press "Resize" and give a good size (maximum 800 px wide and 450 px high for this forum). after the gif is resized then you click "Save" and give your gif some name. after that you can upload the gif to the photohost which you are using, provided that it accepts gif-format.
simple! :thumbs:
User avatar
Liz01
Registered user
Posts: 72118
Joined: January 21st, 2014, 2:06 pm
Location: Germany

Post by Liz01 »

A simple online program to reduce the GIF file

https://www.iloveimg.com/de/bild-skalie ... -skalieren

test - from 43 MB to 19 MB
OK is not the best test. But it works easy and fast
Image
User avatar
ame
Moderator
Posts: 75821
Joined: April 7th, 2009, 10:26 pm
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact:

Post by ame »

thanks Liz!
does this same program make the gifs before or after rescaling the size?
it would seem like the most practical solution to make both things in the same place.
both ezgif.com and GifMaker.me can do it.
Post Reply

Return to “Questions and Help”