#like its not even the tumblr gradient its just they straight up Do Not Load and are replaced with the word 'Image'

[bgs-cave-o-thots]

has anyone else's tumblr just been absolute dogshit at loading images lately

[thatmattattack]

GIF TUTORIAL WITH PHOTOSHOP 2017 CC & POTPLAYER Alright, I've been asked a few times how I make my gifs and what kinds of adjustments I use on them, so since I have plenty of free time right now I thought I'd give this tutorial thing a shot. Please note that the last Photoshop-related tutorial I wrote was probably in 2009 or 2010 --- in other words, if you have no idea what I'm talking about then feel free to message me about it. Moving on, this is what you need for this tutorial to work properly: - Photoshop (I'm using CC 2017, but 2014-2016 should work about the same as well as CS3-CS6) - PotPlayer (you can download it here or use your preferred software, but I really do recommend this player) - A movie, TV show, or Youtube videos that you would like to gif (I recommend torlock for movies/television shows and eztv for television shows. I don't usually download Youtube videos, but I've heard that keepvid is a good source for downloading them.) - HD quality or better (you want to at least get 720p when you can because the results are going to be best then; however, it is still possible to use this tutorial if you are using media from years gone by where 720 was but a dream.) - You will need to download this action in order to sharpen the gifs you make. - Finally, I use my own colorings, but there is a good variety to choose from on itsphotoshop Today, we will be creating this gif:

To start, open PotPlayer and load up the media you are wanting to gif. Then, find the scene that you want to gif and pause the video before right-clicking on the player and doing just as the below image shows:

Then configure this menu to your preferences. I recommend capturing the frames in PNG format at 100% quality; however, you can use JPEG if you would like. I also like to capture every single image, but I know this can be time consuming (more on ways around that later*), so doing every second frame will also work. Also, it's very important that you set the "Number of Frames" to 99,999 because the number of frames does add up quickly and it would suck to have to start all over again.

*This is a completely optional step, but if you want things to go slightly faster with capturing I cannot recommend setting the playback speed of the episode to slightly faster. You can do this by right-clicking "Playback" and then selecting "Speed" and clicking on the "Up" option. Even easier, you can simply use the keys C (speed up), Z (back to normal), and X (speed down). It should be noted that depending on the hardware that your computer has this might hog a lot of energy and actually slow things down, so only continue doing this if it actually works with your device.

Now, just sit the "Start" button and watch (or browse Tumblr, maybe go get a cup of coffee, whatever) as the scene is captured and open up Photoshop in the background if you haven't already. Once you're finished capturing, click on "File" and follow along with the image below:

You should get a dialogue box that looks something like this:

From there, click on "Browse" and locate and select the screencaps that you want to use before clicking on "OK." I suggest using "Select All" or CTRL while right-clicking each image if you don't want to go insane during this process.

Depending on how many images you've selected, what Photoshop version you're using, the device you're working with, and about a million other things, the process of actually stacking the images on top of each other could take anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes or longer. If it's the latter, this would be a great time to go get a snack or respond to emails, but you do you.

Once everything has settled down, click on "Window" and select "Timeline" from the menu. It should be towards the bottom and look a little something like this:

Now, do the following:

1. Click on the upper far-right icon that looks like a bunch of horizontal lines. 2. From that menu, click on "Make Frames From Layers" and wait. 3. Click on the same icon and select from the menu "Select All Frames" and then "Reverse Frames" 4. Where it says "Once" in the bottom left of the Timeline, click on it and change it to "Forever" or else your gif will only play once when you upload it to Tumblr. 5. Then, while all of the frames are still selected, click on the section that reads "0.00" and then "Other." 6. Finally, enter in your preferred time-rate. Personally, I usually go for 0.11 right off the bat, but anything from 0.10-0.17 can work or be necessary, so don't be afraid to play around with it.

It should now look like this:

At this point, you should crop the image with your preferred method and size it according to Tumblr's standards (old or new). You can read more about those dimensions here.

For this I will be using the 500px size, which looks like this:

Now comes the exciting part! I want you to download that sharpening action that I linked to earlier and make sure the Actions menu is visible (if it is, click on "Windows" and then "Actions"). Then, click on the horizontal lined icon and select "Load Actions" where you can then choose the sharpening gif action. It should load onto Photoshop immediately, but you may need to restart the software if it does not.

Make sure the first frame and last layer are the only two frames or layers highlighted and from the Timeline menu click on "Flatten Frames Into Layers." Now, click on the little play button in the Actions menu and let it do its magic. If your gif has less than 120 frames, which most do, then click on "Stop" when a dialogue box comes up unless you want the final product to look like something out of somebody's nightmare.

At this point, it's time to add coloring. You can use a PSD from the link I provided earlier or somewhere else, but I will be briefly describing my coloring process below (and with more pictures!)

THE BEGINNING

The first thing I like to do is create an adjustment layer known as "Curves" and expand the the line to the top like so. This does not always work with the image I'm working with, but generally speaking, it's a good place to begin because everything has already been brightened. Additionally, there is nothing wrong with seeing what the "Auto" option offers because sometimes it's spot on.

Moving forward, I like to use an exposure adjustment layer. I almost always use a variation of the image below, but feel free to tinker with it!

Finally, I use a vibrance adjustment layer. Overall, the values on this kind of adjustment depend heavily on how much color the initial image has; however, I will say that I usually choose increasing the saturation level more over increasing the vibrance level more because it aids more in enhancing what's already there. For this gif, I went with 3 for the saturation and 1 for the vibrance and this is the result so far:

THE COLOURING

In this phase, I make use of a variety of different adjustment layers. Perhaps the most important, however, is the selective colour adjustment layer. This adjustment layer is fantastic at changing the shades and tones of colours in the image. In general, I like to keep the reds/yellows up enough to make sure the face and skin don't lose their human colour and I'm a sucker for using A LOT of blues and cyans in my gifs.

Below, I have listed the values that I used for this gif with regard to selective coloring and photo filter, but really, it's mostly about making sure things look good and taking chances because, unlike in life, you can always undo it.

What happens next is dependent on how happy I am with the brightness and colours of the gif so far. Occasionally I will add another curves adjustment layer and a levels adjustment layer; however, I'm pretty satisfied with this gif so far, so I'm going to head straight to the last two colour processes instead. They are, respectfully, the black and white adjustment layer and the gradient fill layer.

It might seem contradictory for me to use a black and white adjustment layer on my gifs, but I just really like how it makes them look. I start by creating the adjustment layer and then click on "Auto" before selecting "Luminosity" from the Layer Type drop-down menu. I'm not a big fan of how it made the yellow look in the jacket hanging in the background, so I erase parts of it with a low-opacity eraser and it's good as new while still keeping the parts that I like. You can also lower the opacity of the entire layer if you so choose.

The last step for this colouring now involves selecting "New Fill Layer" and "Gradient" and having another dialogue box pop up. For gifs, I recommend using a Soft Light layer type set between 10-50 opacity. I also recommend using the included preset selection titled "Photogentic Toning" because it does what it says on the tin. For this gif, I created two gradient fill layers with the first being at 35% opacity and the second being at 20% opacity.

And this is what my gif looks like at this point:

THE FINALE

Finally! The gif is created and it's ready to be exported to gif form so it can actually work on Tumblr. Please note that Tumblr only allows gifs that are 2 M or under, so toying around with how many frames you can have in a specific gif and whether to use pattern or diffusion and so on can be a real pain sometimes. Because of this, it's a good idea to check how big the file will be as soon as you get it cropped and timelined.

For this gif, I decided to go with the following settings:

In conclusion, here are the two gifs (before and after) alongside each other:

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it was helpful to you!