This is going to be a short-fun tutorial on how to create an animated GIF from a series of still frames in Photoshop! I just recently learned how to do this and thought it would be amazing to share, so if you're curious in learning a fun new creative skill, this read is for you! You will need a laptop or a desktop for this to work. I will demonstrate how to import from both Lightroom and from your Desktop into Photoshop.
I named this one "twirling oreos" because she was so happy she had oreos in her hand!
1. Start with a series of still consecutive images on your desktop or in Lightroom
In my demonstation I will be using a series of 16 images to create mine.
From Lightroom:
Begin in the "Library" section of the app. Locate your images, select the first one, then go to the last image, and while holding shift click the last one.
Now that you have all of your images selected: go to "Photo", "Edit In", and "Open as Layers in Photoshop"
This will prompt photoshop to upload all of your images into layers in a single file. Be patient, this could take a minute!
From your Desktop:
Here I have all my images labeled in order on my desktop:
Next, open Photoshop. Click "File", "Scripts", and select "Load Files into Stack..."
Next, a small window will pop up. Select "Browse". Locate then click, hold shit and select all the image files, click "Open" Also check the box that says "Attempt to Automatically Align Images". Finally click "Ok".
This will prompt photoshop to upload all of your images into layers in a single file. Be patient, this could take a minute!
2. You got your images in Photoshop. Now, let's convert the images!
After all of the images are finished loading into PS, it should look something like this:
Now what we need to do is make sure we open up our Photoshop "Timeline". To do that go to "Window" at the top, and scroll down to check "Timeline".
After we check this scroll to the bottom of the screen in the middle and you will see a small box with a drop down arrow. Click this arrow and select "Create Frame Animation". And, AFTER selecting this you are going to again click "Create Frame Animation", but this time clicking it as if it were a button, instead of clicking the arrow. You will then see a single image appear on the bottom left:
3. Creating frames from layers
Now that we've selected to Create our Frame Animation, we notice that only one of our images is showing on the left. It gave us one of our images, but we need all of them. To get these we are going to stay at the bottom and go over to the menu on the right side with the horizontal lines, click it, and then select "Make Frames from Layers".
Now you see all of the photos magically appear! You will see a play button on the bottom left. Click this button and enjoy your hard work! Now if for some reason your video is playing backwards, then you failed, start over and try again. Just kidding! It's a simple fix. So from here, if your video is playing backwards, go back to the same menu with the horizontal lines and click "Reverse Frames".
Now your GIF will be playing in the right direction! Great job! Also if you notice a little white border around your movie, that's ok, you can just crop it as you normally would a photo! Now from here we are ready to export our GIF.
4. Exporting
From here we are going to export our file onto your desktop, then use the GIPHY app to upload onto your phone!
In Photoshop start by clicking "File", scroll down to "Export", then scroll over to "Save for Web (Legacy)..."
After you click this there are a few things you need to make sure of. First: at the top "Preset" needs to be set as "GIF 128 Dithered". Second: "Colors" should be "256". Finally: "Looping Options" should be set to "Forever". Ok you are good to go now hit "Save" and save the file to somewhere it is easy for you to find. I saved mine on my desktop.
5. Sending the GIF to your phone and uploading it for use!
Ok now for the step we've all been waiting for! Once you've exported, all you have to do is send the file to your phone. Now if you are a Mac user i recommend simply airdropping it. If you have Windows, I would Bluetooth it to your phone. Once you have it on your phone, download the GIPHY app, or any GIF app, I just prefer GIPHY for how easy and user friendly is was. You can then upload your GIF. The app also gives you the option to publish it publicly or keeping it private. You can add text in the app as well!