Photoshop: Create an animated GIF

With animated GIF files, you can easily and quickly create a photo book in Photoshop. All you need is a little creativity.

Create a photo book in Photoshop – how to make animated GIFs

To make your photo book a real success, choose the GIF files you want to animate in Photoshop carefully in advance. Make sure that the GIF images are the same size and complement each other well to create a nice story. Only if the images harmonize perfectly with each other will you be able to create a truly successful photo book with Photoshop.

• Select images: After you have selected the appropriate images for your photo book, save them in a separate folder. Then open Photoshop and upload the images via the path: “File ☻ Scripts ☻ Load Files into Stack”.

• Activate the timeline window: To open the timeline window, go to the “Window” menu and select “Timeline”.

• Image animation: To animate the frames, select “Create frame animation” from the timeline window drop-down menu.

• Create frames layers: You create the layers for the frames by clicking on the menu symbol in the timeline window and then selecting “Create frames from layers”. Photoshop then converts each layer into a frame.

• Set the display duration: You can set an individual display duration for each frame if you wish. To do this, simply click on the arrow next to the frame and then set the display duration.

• Loop options: If you want your animation to repeat continuously, enable the “Set to infinity” option for looped playback.

• Preview the GIF animation: To check in advance whether your photo album is really successful before you present it to the “public”, click on the image editing program’s “Play” button.

• Exporting GIFs in Photoshop: Once your photo album is ready, save it: “File ☻ Export ☻ Save for Web (Legacy)”. Select the “GIF 128 Dithering” option and check again to make sure that the repeat setting is set to “unlimited”. Don’t forget to click “Save” when you’re done.

• Tip: If you don’t have Photoshop, don’t worry. There are some very good graphics programs that are free.

Create animated gif in Photoshop – how to do it right

If you have a slightly older version of Photoshop on your computer, proceed as follows to create a GIF animation in the graphics program:

• First, you have to open all the image files that will later form the animation in a separate layer in a Photoshop file. This will enable you to access the individual frames precisely later on.

• Then open the “Timeline” window if it is not already open. To do this, click on “Window” in the menu and then on “Timeline”.

• Now click on the “Create Video Timeline” button. The layers now appear here with a purple box that you can enlarge as you like. This allows you to control how long an image element should be displayed and when the next one appears. You can then use the position marker to jump to specific points in time or to get a preview of the finished GIF animation.

• Once you have arranged the individual images as desired, click on “File” in the Photoshop menu and then on “Save for Web…” to create the GIF file.

• In the window that now opens, you can see a preview of the animation in the bottom left corner. In the bottom right corner, under “Animation”, you can set how often the animation should repeat. To create the GIF file, click on “Save…”, select the storage location and confirm by clicking on “Save”.