*serious face* Demonstrative speech outline.

“How to Make GIF in Photoshop”

General purpose: To demonstrate

Specific purpose: To demonstrate to my audience on how to make a GIF on Photoshop CS5.

Central idea: Not many people know how to make GIFs (a loop of repeated frames of a video or a set of pictures, etc.) using Photoshop and claimed that it is something really hard to do. Instead, it is actually not that hard and this speech’s main purpose is to teach people the easiest way they can navigate through Photoshop to create these GIFs.

INTRODUCTION

1.         I will first-hand show the audience a few GIFs that I have made; the simplest ones of course. This will act as a hook that might attract their attention, probably wanting to know about my speech. Then, I will show them the more complex ones, but I will remind them that I won’t be teaching them how to do those ones. I will be using only the LCD as my demonstration aid.

2.         GIFs can be found all over the internet, and GIF-making skills are actually no longer a big thing. However, I would still like to teach the basic steps on how to GIF because to me it’s easy, it won’t cost you a penny – unless you’re planning to purchase the original Photoshop CS5 Extended software, which I don’t quite recommend because I think right now, the latest version of Adobe Photoshop CS5 sells for $699 to buy or $199 if you upgrade from a previous version – and you can use those GIFs on sites like Tumblr, Blogger, etc. I’ve been using Tumblr for years now and since then I have been GIFing – GIFing is not even a valid word but at least it’s not a complicated jargon so I hope you’ll let this one pass, Miss Afifa – and I would like to show you lot the most basic way of GIFing using Photoshop.

Transition: Before we move on to the steps, I would like to explain about the ‘thing you’ll need’ for this whole GIFing process.

BODY

1.         This is what you’ll require for GIFing.

·         First of all, you will need Photoshop software. As I have pointed out earlier, you can buy it or you can download the pirated version. I won’t be teaching you how to download the pirated version of Photoshop because I believe you can ask Mr. Google about where to find those. I recommend you the Photoshop CS5 Extended because I will be using that for today’s demo.

·         Next, you’ll need a Quicktime Player. Don’t ask me why because apparently after two ears of doing this I still don’t know why you’ll need this. But it is required.

·         I believe you lot know how to download videos so I’ll skip that part.

·         Make sure you download videos in MP4 format for it to work in Photoshop. For me because my netbook sucks, I have to change it to mov so yeah. If you want to make the GIFs look nicer then download the videos in 720p so you’ll have frames of a higher definition. But most importantly make sure you have a video.

2.         Let’s move on to the steps of making the GIF frames.

·         First, open the Photoshop application, once you have installed it, of course.

·         Click File > Import Video Frames to Layers > Go to the folder where your video file is located. Click on the video, and then click Load.

·         An Import Video to Layers window will pop up, with your video on the right. Check the box Selected Range Only to limit your frames. If you don’t tick that box then Photoshop will GIF the entire video that will create a big file, and it might take a century to load.

·         Check the box Make Frames Animation as well.

·         Click the triangle on the very right of the player, and hold the mouse for as long as you want your GIF to be. Preferably for two or three seconds only because it might produce like 50 to 60 frames and that is enough.

·         Click the Ok button and your frames will appear in a Photoshop Document.

3.         Next, we move on to editing the frames into GIF layers.

           

·         Go to Window > Animation. A small window-like thingy will appear at the bottom. You can scroll and see how many frames you currently have. For me, I’m gonna use it for Tumblr so I’m gonna limit the frames to 50.

·         Delete the unneeded frames, either at the back or at the beginning. This way it won’t disrupt the loop.

·         On the Animation tab, there is a small button at the very right. Click it, then click Select All Frames. All frames will appear with a blue light.

·         At the bottom there will be numbers that says ‘0.04 sec’. That is the speed of the frames. How fast the frames move. 0.04 sec means each frame will appear for only 0.04 sec.

·         Click on the black triangle, then click Other. A Set Frame Delay window will appear. Change the number to 0.07 or 0.08 for the GIF to run smoothly. Not too fast, not too slow.

·         Now we’ll crop the frame into your desired size.

·         Go to the Tools tab and click on the square icon that looks like two triangles merged together. That is the Crop tool. Click and drag it across your frame anyway you want, rectangular or square or anything else. Dotted lines will appear on the image.

·         Once you are satisfied with the proportions, click on the tick sign at the right.

·         Now we shall resize the image to make sure it’s not big. I’m gonna use a basic Tumblr size so that’s gonna be 268px in width. The height can be any you desire.

·         Click on Image > Image Size. An Image Size window will appear. Change the width to 268px and you’ll notice the height will follow it proportionally. It is the same vice versa.

·         Now click on the little play button and see how your GIF moves!

4.         Now we are going to colour the GIF.

·         You can make the GIF look nicer by editing it. Open the Animation tab and click on the last frame. Then click on the Layers tab, then click once on the uppermost layer.

·         To colour a GIF file is hard so I suggest using a .PSD file.

·         What’s a PSD file, you ask? I’m sorry for not explaining this earlier but I don’t think it’s an important part, since we’re only doing the basic steps. PSD file is a set of colouring settings and you can get them anywhere. I get them from Tumblr blogs. A PSD will look like this. (I will open my PSD folder and show the audience)

·         To change the colouring of my GIF, I’ll just drag the PSD folder over the frames and you’ll notice the colour and brightness all will change!

5.         Lastly, we’ll save the GIF file!

·         Firstly, make sure the loop on the left says Forever instead of Once or 3 Times.

·         Click File > Save for Web and Devices. A Save for Web and Devices window will pop up.

·         Click on the tab underneath the word Preset, change it to GIF.

·         Make sure the Looping Options is Forever. Click on the play button to preview your GIF.

·         Then click Save. A Save Optimized As window will appear. You can change your file name as you desire, then click Save.

Voila, your GIF is finished! You can open the folder you saved it in, double click on the file to view it!

CONCLUSION

1.         Making a GIF is not easy, and I’m skipping a few unnecessary parts because those parts are quite complicated for learners. It won’t take only 15 minutes for you to be good at making GIFs, but these are the most basic steps I can teach. If you wish to know more on how to put subtitles or words, or how to make complicated GIFs and all you can search for Photoshop tutorials on the internet. Or you can ask Sabrina, she’s good at this. I’m  not that good, but I can help with a few things.

2.         Remember, patience and perseverance are good traits to keep in mind when you’re navigating Photoshop. Almost all the time, it’s just try and error.