#pushing that 10mb gif limit here

[noonaracha]

S-CLASS :: VMAs 2023

[cal-kestis]

HOW TO: Do A Crystallize Gif Transition

Hi! I was asked to explain how I did the transition effect in this gifset, so here's a quick tutorial! Disclaimer: This tutorial assumes you have an intermediate understanding of gif-making in Photoshop using Video Timeline and requires the use of keyframes.

PHASE 1: THE GIFS

1.1 – Determine how many frames you need. Since you need at least 2 scenes for a transition, consider limiting the amount of frames you'll use per scene. For a transition between 2 scenes that's 540x540px, I would recommend no more than 30 frames per scene (for a final gif that's 60 frames). Even that may be pushing it depending on your coloring. Just be sure to consider the dimensions and colors of your gifs in relation to the amount of frames to keep your final gif under Tumblr's 10MB limit.

1.2 – Import frames, crop, resize, convert to smart object for Video Timeline, color, blend, etc. Do this as you normally would! If you need a tutorial for the basics, here's my tutorial. :) Please note, the methods in this tutorial only work with gifs that are converted into smart objects in the Video Timeline workspace.

Tip A: I recommend using scenes where there's a lot of one color (or scenes where you can manipulate it to look like that). The crystallize filter on a gif creates A LOT of movement that can feel a bit chaotic. Having your gif be primarily one color reduces the eye strain a bit imo.

Tip B: I like how this effect looks with blended scenes because it allows me to use different "crystal" sizes (more on this in Step 2.2). Check out the USERGIF Resource Directory for plenty of blending tutorials!

1.3 – Move all your gifs into one document, group into folders, and arrange. Once everything's in one doc, keep everything organized in a group folder! I have just two scenes, so that's Folder 1 & 2. Within those folders are the gifs I blended, which I labeled by gif color. Then, simply drag Folder 2 so it continues right after Folder 1. (Make sure none of your adjustment layers from Folder 2 accidentally affect Folder 1! You can do this by clipping your adjustment layers to match the length of the gif as I did, or using clipping masks.)

(Ignore that lone Hue/Saturation layer lol. I decided last-minute that I wanted my gif to lean more pink than red.)

PHASE 2: THE FILTERS

2.1 – Duplicate each scene. We're going to use opacity keyframe animations on these duplicated scenes that allow it to go from "normal" to "effect" and vice versa. The filters will only be applied to the duplicates. In the screenshot below, all of my duplicates are highlighted:

2.2 – Apply the Crystallize Filter. Above your sharpening settings, apply this filter by going to Filter → Pixelate → Crystallize. On the pink gifs, I made the crystals bigger (cell size: 45), and on the black and white gifs, I did a cell size of 25.

The different sizes help break up the uniformity of the crystals imo, creating more of a mosaic-like look, which is what I wanted to match my gifset concept.

2.3 – Apply the Oil Paint Filter (Optional). Filter > Stylize > Oil Paint. Here are my settings (they're the same for both crystal cell sizes):

Brush – Stylization: 0.1, Cleanliness: 8.6, Scale: 0.1, Bristle Detail: 0.3 Lighting – Angle: -60, Shine: 0.7

This filter helps soften the cells a bit while adding some texture (left: no oil paint; right: with oil paint):

2.4 – Repeat steps 2.2 & 2.3 on all duplicated scenes.

PHASE 3: THE KEYFRAMES

3.1 – Add opacity keyframes. The very start and end of each scene needs an opacity keyframe set to 100% opacity. Move 0.09 seconds from each of those points, and place another opacity keyframe, this time set to 0% opacity. We're basically making the crystals fade in and out. Please reference the screenshot below for keyframe placement:

If you need more info on opacity keyframes, check out Phase 2 from this fade transition tutorial I did on usergif.

3.2 – Repeat step 3.1 on all duplicated scenes. All the keyframes in Folder 1 should line up exactly and all the keyframes in Folder 2 should line up exactly!

PHASE 4: THE DUPLICATES

4.1 – Convert back to Frame Animation. If you're not sure how to do this, I've written out the steps here. I rec the action linked in my general gif tutorial which I shared earlier!

4.2 – Delete duplicate frames. Whenever you use keyframe animations, you'll get duplicate frames. That's just how it works, unfortunately. If you follow my steps exactly (specifically the 0.09-second spacing, which follows my tried-and-true 0.03-second rule), you'll have a total of 12 duplicate frames exactly — 3 duplicates per keyframe section. Just manually delete them! You can spot the duplicates by eye, but with this spacing, it's usually the 2nd, 5th, and 8th frame for each transition section. The selected frames below were my duplicates:

If you want to learn more about why there are duplicates and the math behind it all, I explained it in more detail in this ask.

4.3 – Export and you're done!

I hope this tutorial helps! Let me know if you have any questions :)

[oddishblossom]

Hey I have a question? How do you produce such high-quality gifs. It's so cool and I've been trying but it usually just doesn't come out well

Thanks! I’ve been making gifs for about 2 years, so I’m by no means a pro. Sometimes it feels like I’m just throwing things at the video until it looks the way I want it to look.

I didn’t use any guides, so it took a lot of trial and error to learn. Just to compare, here’s the first gif I ever made!

My advice for starting to get into gif-making is, you gotta really choose a media or character you love because the process is time consuming and it can be frustrating if it doesn't end up the way you wanted right away. Plus, you’re gonna stare at the same picture for like a loooong time. Over time, I’ve gotten a lot faster at making sets. Like that killua x start over gifset only took me an hour to make, but I barely edited that one. I normally spend a few days on each set.

I still don’t completely get photoshop, so I don’t feel like I can give a tutorial for it. But I do make a lot of gifs on my phone so here’s a more in depth look at that.

For starters, I always get video footage in 1080P. Either download or record the footage you want to turn into gifs. I’m gonna use Killua as an example. Here’s a picture of what the clip looks like before I’ve done anything.

I find that the shorter the clip, the easier it is to make it smooth and crisp. This clip is only 5 seconds long. I try to keep my clips 5 seconds or shorter. I can do longer clips, but then I’d have to shorten the frames used and the speed of the gif (frames per second), which I don’t like doing. Next, I crop it. You want to crop before you start editing.

After that, I can start recoloring. There’s a couple good apps I like using for this. VideoDay and InShot are pretty good, but they’re pay to use. The free one Apple provides in the photos app is good, too. I’ve got a different coloring style for most of my sets. But I mainly focus on making dark colors darker, making colors more saturated so they pop, and brightening the video. On VideoDay & Inshot you can find this setting under Filter. Then go to Adjust. This is what it looks like after boosting up the contrast, saturation, brightness, shadows, and definition. Mess around with different settings until you come up with something you like.

Now, I recolor it a second time with filters. Sometimes I use Inshot or VideoDay, but I mostly use the app ImgPlay. ImgPlay is what I’ll be using to actually turn this video into a gif. I use different filters depending on what colors I want to stand out. CL2 and HW3 are a couple favorites. For this set I use HW3. Then I added more contrast, saturation, and sharpened it as high as it could go.

Now that it looks pretty, time to make it move smoothly. Through a lot of trial and error, I’ve found that these settings work okay. I have it set to 90 frames for this clip. For frames, I usually try to keep it within 80-90 frames (or 30-80 if it’s a shorter clip). If I push it past that, like say 100 frames, it’ll start to look blurry once I condense it.

For speed, I either use .04 seconds or .05 seconds. For frames per second, I always go with 20 FPS at least. This will push up the frame count, so you’ll need to make the clip shorter. You can do that by using the slide bar or that little area with 9 squares in the top right corner.

Now it’s time to export! Just click on save and GIF size. Set the loop to infinity and size to 10 MB. Tumblr has a limit on GIF size, so it needs to be 10MB or under. You can also click on GIF dithering to make the colors blend a bit more.

And we’re done! Hope it wasn’t too confusing and that I explained myself clearly! There’s a lot more cool effects you can do once you get the hang of video editing. This is by no means a strict guide or anything! Heck, even I don’t follow this exactly and I try changing things around, seeing what works and what doesn’t. Gif-making can be super fun, so I hope you keep at it! 😊💖