How to Make an Animated Gif in Photoshop (CS3)

I’m still pretty new to gif making but I wanted to share what I’ve discovered.  Anyone with more tips is welcome to share in the comment section!  Below I've shared two gifs and a still shot I captured this week with our dead butterfly.  For my previous self portrait I had used a fan to move the wings.  For these I just lay next to my husband out of the shot and blew on the butterfly while pressing a shutter release cable.  Using a tripod helped tremendously, but you can make gifs with handheld shots also. A great example can be found on The Image is Found Blog.  They post fun gifs often!

Because I don't have video capability I'm considering making gifs more often.  A huge inspiration is the Cinemagraph site.  Just wow!

OK, Lets get started.

1.  Make sure all documents you will be layering are the exact same size.  For my blog I usually make them all 650 pixels across.  Save and number them in the order you want them to proceed in your animation.

2. Open your first file.

3. Go to “file” and select “place” then choose your next file.  This should automatically align.  Press enter to proceed then repeat this step with as many files as you desire.

4. Select all layers in the layer palette.

5. Go to “window” in the top menu bar and select “animation”

6. When the animation bar opens it will be either in “timeline” or “frame animation”  mode.  If it’s in timeline you will want to convert to “frame animation" as shown below in the animation palette.



7. Now in the animation palette you will want to select “make frames from layers” (The same menu we were just using pictured above.)

8. Click on the arrow under each frame to choose the timing. You can choose all the frames at once if you hold down the shift key.



9. If you want the gif to play on a continual loop you can change the “once” to “forever" in the bottom left corner of the animation palette.

10. Press the play button preview your progress until you are satisfied with the results.

11. To save go to “file” and choose “save for web and devices”.  Click “save” in the newly opened window. 

12. Alternately you can save as a video if you go to “file” then “export” and “render video”.  I know less about this option but it may be worth playing around with.