Have you ever wondered how long GIFs you see on websites like Imgur are created? A lot of times, creators shoot videos, convert the whole thing into an animated GIF and then overlay the text to make it interesting.

Now this post will show you how to create those fancy GIFs from start to finish, but it will teach you how to record a video and at least convert it into animated GIF. I will write another post about how you can add text and graphics to your GIF.

I will use Photoshop CC for this tutorial as it gives you more control over the final product in terms of size, quality, frames, etc.

Convert videos before importing

Before you begin, you may need to convert your video into a file format that Adobe Photoshop will support. For example, I took a video from my iPhone and downloaded it to my computer. I then tried to import the video into Photoshop, but got the following error:

Could not complete the Video Frames to Layers command because the file has no video frames.

The video is an MOV file, but the codec that Apple uses is not supported in Photoshop. To fix this type of problem, you need to download a program like HandBrake to convert videos.

It is very easy to use HandBrake. Just click File - Choose source and select your video file. At this point, all you really have to do is click Start coding button. By default, it will use 1080p30 fast The reservation you see is listed on the right. They have many presets, so choose the one that suits you. Note that you can reduce the GIF resolution in Photoshop later, so you don't need to do that in HandBrake.

Once it has been converted into an MP4 file using the H.264 video codec, we can now import it into Photoshop.

Import videos and create GIFs in Photoshop

Open Photoshop CC and click File, later Import And after that Frame video into layers.

Select your video file and click Open. This will bring up a dialog box with a small preview of the video and a few options.

Now if you want the whole video as animated GIF, go ahead and leave the radio button to From start to finish. If you only need a part, choose Only selected range and then use the clipping controls below the video to select the range.

Also, to reduce the size of the final GIF as much as possible, you can also limit the number of frames. For example, if you check the box and leave it in two frames, that means Photoshop will remove all other frames from the video.

Finally, you need to make sure Create animated frames The box is checked. Click OK and your video will be imported as a series of frames in Photoshop. If the program has a problem, you may need to lower the video quality further before trying to import.

Now all we have to do is save the frames as animated GIFs. To do this in Photoshop CC, you need to click File - Export - Saving for the web (heritage). Note that before saving it as a GIF, you can edit and delete frames as you like.

On this dialog, there is a bunch of options that you will have to play around. Most of them will affect the quality of the GIF, which you will be able to see in the left preview area. The right pane is where you will make most of the adjustments.

At the top, you will see a drop down list called Reserve. You can click on it and choose one of the presets or you can adjust the values yourself. Selecting one of the presets will reduce the quality of the GIF, but will also make it smaller. Make sure that PRESENT is selected in the drop down list below Reserve.

Below Size photo, you can adjust the final output resolution for your GIF. So if your video is 1920 × 1080 or 4K, you'll probably want to drop it significantly here. In the Animation section, you can choose Forever, Once or Custom for Optional ring. By default, the GIF will loop continuously. You can use the controls at the bottom to play GIFs to see what it looks like.

Click Save and choose a location to save your GIF. That is a saying about it. Photoshop makes it easy to create animated GIFs from videos and lets you adjust the settings to make it just right. Also, read my article on how to create animated GIFs from images in Photoshop. Enjoy!