You love animated GIFs, those twisting mini-videos of people experiencing hilarious injuries. Movie clips overlayed with bizarre captions, or dancing images meant to tell a story. In fact, you may have a few GIF ideas of your own. We will tell you about the best tools for creating animated GIFs. So that you can make your friends laugh or to make a point.
There is only one problem with that. When you are recording a video and uploading it to YouTube seems pretty straight-forward, you cannot for the life of you figure out how people make animated GIFs.
Are they code geniuses dedicating their talent to internet comedy? Is there some special GIF software that everybody’s computer has but not yours? Where is this GIF party happening, and why was your invitation lost in the mail?
We have your invitation to the animated GIF party right here and believe me it is a lot easier to get into this party than you think. Read on to learn how to start making your own animated GIFs.
Contents
Ready in Just a GIF
GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format and has been around since, believe it or not, 1987. To put that in perspective, Zac Efron was also born in 1987. That is right, Zac Efron is as old as the technology that you still have not figured out.
Do you feel that sting? That is what almost everyone feels like when they are trying to figure out a technology that’s been around for a while.
If it makes you feel any better, then it was not until much later that GIFs became part of popular culture.
And by then, everyone was pronouncing it absolutely wrong. The acronym GIF was pronounced “Jif” as in “Jif Peanut Butter.” But if you try to use anything but a hard “g,” these days folks will look at you like you were born yesterday.
Yes, GIFs are kind of retro but they are hotter than ever now.
Video Editor, A.K.A. Getting Fancy
Many aspiring web comedians and graphic designers mostly use Photoshop, GIMP, or similar image editors to create GIFs. However there are easier ways to create or edit GIFs, if you have experience with an image editing package. Then you will have more flexibility to create exactly what you visualize.
Video editing tools provide a great deal of control over the content, length, and also quality of the GIF. Making them ideal if you are looking to accomplish something truly breathtaking.
Photoshop and GIMP also make it easier to substantially edit images so your GIF will be a tailor-made masterpiece. But, they are far more complicated than some of the options we will discuss below. Using Photoshop to make a GIF takes about a dozen steps and a reasonably solid grasp of Photoshop.
Not to mention here that Photoshop itself is not at all cheap. Typically running you several hundred dollars over the course of a year. If you are subscribing to the cloud version.
We are going to go out on a limb and say you were looking for something a little more cut and dry. Not to mention inexpensive or free as well.
Online GIF Creator
If you are not familiar with image editing programs Like Photoshop, then you can always go with an online tool. Even if you are a graphic designer. Then you might like the convenience and speed from which you can create an animated GIF along with an online tool.
The programs listed here are but a sampling of what you can find online. Most of them are free of cost, all of them are at least affordable, and they will definitely get the job done for you. So read on for a summary of some of the best GIF creation software.
GIFMaker.Me
If you want something free and easy to use and you are not concerned with video GIFs, then consider GifMaker.me. This service is ideal for making GIFs that rotate a series of images. It is not the most exciting stuff, but it will work.
This tool allows you to create animated GIFs, slideshows, and video animations, accompanied by am audio soundtrack if you’d like.
Just upload the images, toggle the speed, size, also sound (optional) and you are all set to go.
GIFCreator.ME
Now here we have another image only GIF creator. This one stands out a bit though in that it allows you to upload up to 800 images to add as frames into your GIF.
MakeaGIF
This is free of cost service that allows you to make GIFs from YouTube videos, video files, images, and even a live webcam. You just have to choose the video and use the provided tools to edit the length and speed of the GIF. Sound too good to be free. Right? However, MakeaGif will leave an advertisement in the form of a watermark on any completed GIFs.
Although, MakeAGif has these animated GIF source options:
- Pictures to GIF
- YouTube to GIF
- Facebook to GIF
- Video to GIF
- Webcam to GIF
- Just Upload a GIF
If you want to turn a YouTube video into a GIF or a silly picture, for that MakeAGif makes it easy.
IMGFlip
ImgFlip helps you to make basic GIFs from images or videos. Adding images is easy and the timing controls are precise. But, this free service is free for a reason. It is kind of more than a little buggy.
GIF Brewery
GIF Brewery comes highly recommended and with good reason. It provides excellent control over design and style. It lets you add captions, crop images, and also adjust the length and size of the GIF. However, there is good news and also a piece of bad news. The bad news is it costs $5 and it only runs on Macs. The good news is if you are a Mac user, then you can definitely afford the $5.
There you have it. There is no secret formula to being part of the online content creating community. Your favorite GIFs were probably made with similar programs. Now it is your turn to start making other people laugh. Bring out the GIFs and the memes! Let’s go!
GIF Brewery’s power is creating animated GIFs from videos that you upload.
Conclusion
Alright, That was all Folks! I hope you like this article and find it helpful to you, give us your feedback. Also if you guys have further issues and queries related to this article. Then let us know in the comments section below. We will get back to you shortly.
Have a Great Day!
Also See: The New Samsung A20 Supports LTE or Not?
