This is really useful when you want to make a gif out of a live-shot video and not meant for graphic exports like the one in my example. If you set Dither on, Photoshop will add noise to your GIF and will considerably lower the size of your GIF file. For example, in my video, I need only 4 or 8 colors because I have only black and white colors and I don’t need that many shades of grey. Colorsĭepending on what type of GIF you want to make, the number of Colors per picture is really important for the size and quality of the image. Every option will influence the final size of the GIF and the quality, so let’s go through the most important ones: Color Reduction Algorithmįor GIF you have to make sure that Color Reduction Algorithm is always set on Selective. Once you are inside the save for web window, you are presented with a lot of options to choose from. For newer versions of Photoshop, the path will be File > Save for Web. When you are ready to save your GIF, simply go to File > Export > Save for Web(Legacy). Therefore, you can colorize and scale your video just like you would do with an image. Lots of Photoshop’s functions are still available to you. You can now adjust your video clip as you see fit. Open Photoshop and import your exported video clip by navigating to File > Open and selecting the video clip. Step 2: Importing the Video File in Photoshop Therefore, a little bit of stutter effect will not bother anyone in a small preview of a logo animation or animated graphic with simple shapes and will give you the possibility to export smaller size files. The purpose of a GIF is to enable you to upload lots of stuff online without any strain on the servers and not to give a good quality view of something. This will help a lot with the looping.įor a smaller size GIF, you need to lower the Frame Rate (FPS) of the exported video to something between 12-15 frames per second. Make sure the first frame of the video is identical to the last. In my example, I am using Apple Prores 422 (HQ). Your first step is to finish creating your After Effects project and to export it with whatever video format you want. GIF Creation With After Effects and Photoshop Step 1: Exporting the After Effects Project
Now that we know exactly what it is and a bit of history about it, let’s find out how to make one using After Effects and Photoshop. The limit of the palette is set at 256 per image. GIFs are well-suited for simple images such as logos or graphics with solid areas of color and less suitable for live-action videos because of the color palette limitation. Since its birth, it has become widely used all over the World Wide WEB (WEB) due to its small sizes, broad support, and flexibility between applications and operating systems. It was developed by a team at CompuServe on 15 June 1987. GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format and it is a bitmap image format. By reducing the frame rate, you will reduce the final size of the GIF.
Pro Tip: If the GIF size is still too large, go back in After Effects and change the video Frame Rate (FPS) to something between 12-15 frames per second. Select a GIF preset, a destination, and hit Save.Render the After Effects project with whatever video format you want.Quick Guide on how to make a GIF with After Effects and Photoshop: Let us cut to the chase and jump right inside the action to see how to make a GIF with After Effects and Photoshop. This is exactly what this article will be about. There will be lots of situations where you will be asked to deliver a smaller-size file with better quality.
While it is easy, it doesn’t work all the time. You can easily move your export inside Adobe Media Encoder, select GIF, and hit that render button. Lately, a lot of clients are asking for GIF files of their projects to post on social media.