Photoshop - How To Convert Video to GIF

This video explains how to easily convert a regular video file into a GIF using Photoshop and Virtualdub.

K-Lite Codec Pack
http://goo.gl/rgmV

Virtual Dub x86 (avoid using 64 bit version)
http://goo.gl/JgaLa

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Closed Caption:

hello everyone my name's Randy and in
this video I'm going to show you how to
turn this a regular video fall into this
an animated gif now there is a few
pieces of software that we need to use
the first one is k-lite codec pack this
allows you to open any kind of video
fallen existence
it's a bit like using VLC player
acceptance those codex so that your
computer can read anything the next
piece of hardware that we need is
virtualdub and finally we need photoshop
cs5 or earlier you might have problems
with earlier versions are you cs5 so
this is what I can give instructions for
now these two pieces of software khalid
and virtualdub for free if you have
older versions of Photoshop you might
find that you have a program called
image ready
this is the program that you need to use
in cs5 image ready gets incorporated
into Photoshop which is why i'm just
using Photoshop already so check the
description of the video i will have
links to those two pieces of software as
for photoshop you can get it for like a
hundred and fifty bucks if you've got a
student license which you can get pretty
game easily so what you need to do now
is open up virtual done open and we're
going to find a video phone and drag it
into virtualdub now I've got this quick
30 second clip which is a small same
from Black Hawk Down my favorite movie
and you're going to try to find the
place where you want your advertiser
style so you're going to scrub your way
there you're going to press the left and
one any keyboard to jump between frames
now as you can see i only want this part
where the Blackhawks stance so we're
going to get to that point so from one
friend to the next this is where I want
to start going to press right this will
select from the beginning to this point
we're going to delete then we're going
to drag through and find what we want to
stop so as you can see that i don't want
that to go back
right and I'm gonna press left drag all
the way down is right and delete so now
my image sequence is only going to be
comprised of this part of the movie
which is what I want now we're going to
make a folder on our desktop we'll just
call it anything i'll call this Saudi HD
dash over time we're going to press file
export as image sequence set your phone
then i'll just call it the hd4 Black
Hawk Down set your fault I'm jpg beyond
85% will give you great quality
especially if you are converting a very
large video maybe you're using the
bluray 1080p or 720p video they will use
up a shitload of space when you convert
them so try to use JPEG to keep file
sizing conversion time low then you're
going to select the folder that you need
to save it to so we've selected BHD
evidence folder that we created when we
press ok now in mind since that took a
couple seconds you might find that yours
takes a couple minutes just depends on a
lot of different variables try to keep
them small ok so once that finishes your
folder will now be full of these frames
this is a garbage train we can do that
if we press right on a keyboard now when
we go through it you'll actually see
that we've got the making so at first
for absolutely no reason start again
you'll find that we have the makings of
an avatari we've got an animation going
so that looks great so now what we're
going to do is get these into Photoshop
to do so bundled photoshop is a piece of
software called Adobe bridge which
consideration i thought was absolutely
useless but he announced to use find the
folder that has the images inside of it
in this case- BHD avatar press control a
to select all of them or you can
highlight up to you then press tools
photoshop load files into Photoshop
layers now as i was talking about before
you want to try to keep your Falls small
because as you'll quickly see this takes
a while
see it's making each individual frame
and layer so even though I'm on an SSD
and even
no the Falls only come out to two
megabytes you can see how damn slow this
is it's a very very slow script so try
to keep things small so that this
doesn't take too long so now we've got
everything loaded into Photoshop looks
good what we now need to do is turn our
layers into usable animation frames
first thing that you need to do is press
window and make sure that animation is
ticked so that you have this thing at
the bottom it will probably be on
measurement log by default just click on
animation frames tab so what we need to
do is select the lowest layer for all
the way to the lot top and press and
hold shift on your keyboard and then
click the first layer will select
everything now click this little arrow
here and press make frames from layers
what this does is convert all your
layers into an actual animation if we
just click play now what you'll see is
that the avatar is playing and we're
pretty much knew already done now as you
can see the water is actually traveling
the wrong direction it's loaded it in
reverse we don't want that to fix this
is very simple just click on the first
time scroll all the way to the bottom
and then press and hold shift and click
on the last one that will select
everything click on this arrow and click
reverse frames so now what we got
whoopsie top display as you can see now
it's playing correctly which is good
now what we need to do is get it
edited and looking good now you can
spend a lot of time on this to try to
make it look smooth it's always good to
have your your gif ending and starting
very smoothly so that people can't see
that that jagged end and beginning you
want to try to make it mesh together so
it looks nice and smooth and people
can't really spot when the gift stops
and when it starts so make sure that
this is set to forever that means loop
you give forever and ever and we're
going to click on the first friend here
we're going to go to the end and we're
going to try to find a frame which
matches this closely as you can see
frame 75 and frame one double two
similar but frame 1 and from 76 what
pretty damn similar actually go back you
can see this bill any change at all so
that's good
again you can spend hours on this i'm
not going to go through that I'm just
trying to get it looking good in this
video as quickly as possible
now what you need to do is I want my
gift to stop a frame 76 I want to get
rid of everything often so click on
frame 77 press and hold shift click on
your last frame and then press this
little garbage can and i'll delete that
now if I press play my gif is they're
pretty damn smooth you really can't spot
when it stops starts and obviously you
can spend comments and make it look
absolutely perfect but again I'm not
going to do that in this video so what
we need to do is set the speed at which
our gift place now if you want your gift
to play just as quickly as a standard
movie select the first frame for all the
way to the end press and hold shift like
the last one press this little arrow on
any of the frames and click other now
you set the speed at which you give
place 0.05 is the lowest that you want
to sit if you set your speed to 0.1
seconds or anything like that it
actually won't play very well if you put
no delay even though there is no doing
it should play instantly if you open it
up in chrome or firefox internet
explorer it will not play correctly you
need to set it at an actual speed so
0.05 is the lowest that I would make it
there . or 678 if you want to slow it
down to also deserve . or five
and we're done next we need to do is
resize it now if I leave this gift at
608 x 240 pixels it will actually
probably be larger than the original
video itself gifts take up an absolutely
massive amount of space so try to keep
things small you can go ahead and resize
it you can go ahead and crop it you know
crop it like this and press crop and
it'll make you your gift small you can
do whatever you want just get it a good
size and resize it down to something
small so in this instance I'll put a
hundred fifty x 61 just so you guys can
actually see what's in front of you
already
now all we need to do is get our vat
already or gift ready sorry for the
conversion process so we're going to
click on file and save for web and
devices
this will bring up this window now just
a quick mention even though we've said
it is 0.05 if we press play heat this is
not how you give will actually look when
it's playing at 0.05 per frame to
actually see a real preview of how quick
your gift will play you need to click
file save for web and devices and play
it from within this window so I press
play key this is exactly how i gif is
going to look and just to sort of prove
a point if i go ahead and select all of
it and press no delight and Chris play
like they see this is how it looks when
in fact no delay should actually look
like this so this window will not show
your real preview just to mention that
because a lot of people seem to forget
that
select all other 0.05 ok
file save for web and devices ok so
here's a preview of how i advertised
going to look when we're pretty much
done now what we need to do is get the
file size down now if I said it to 256
colors you'll see that are advertised
going to be 530 8.1 kilobytes that's the
estimated size
the thing is this image is virtually
made up of blue black and white that's
pretty much all the shades that we got
here so we can actually drop it down to
let's say 32 colors and it'll still look
virtually the same now obviously if you
go to low like a 504 colors
you'll see the diffusion and look quite
ugly so you want to try to get it as low
colors as possible without sacrificing
quality so 16 colors will probably make
it look pretty much perfect just like
the original movie but if you want to
try to get it for a specific size let's
say you're on a form and the form says
you have attacking only be three hundred
kilobytes what you can do is click on
this arrow here and press optimized to
file size Levon defaults and then type
in the size that you want so in this
instance unless a I need my avatar to be
exactly 180 kilobytes all our press ok
and what photoshop will do is it'll
automatically try to figure out the best
way to drop your file size to the size
that you specified without sacrificing
too much quality so it's decided 12
colors with selective diffusion will
give me the best results so if I testing
out this is exactly how my avatar is
going to look it's only a hundred and
seventy-three k which is absolutely
perfect that's what i want so happy with
this
everything looks good leave all the
options as default playing around with
them we'll just give us results unless
you sort of have a good idea of what you
doing so this looks good i'm going to go
ahead and press save and I save it to my
desktop and call it my avatar and
possession so we're done so now if we
close this
nope here's my fault i'm going to
properties it is only a hundred
seventy-three kilobytes if i open it
here is my other type . and we've just
now converted a regular avi file into a
gift in a matter of minutes and it looks
absolutely great
so just like everything else to do with
image editing there is some
experimentation you can play around no
settings are locked in installing you
can sort of experiment try to find what
works best for you and obviously if you
do find something that works well please
let me know in the comments but other
than that please feel free to comment
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much for watching video take a