Animated GIF Files

Recently, I learned how to make animated GIF files. I have been obsessed with them and I have been making movies with them ever since. Animated GIF files also can be very handy if you want to make an animated avatar. I will teach you how to make these handy picture files the way I make them. (you will need photoshop or perhaps an equivalent image editor)

1. Take snapshots frame by frame of what you want to animate. I have made some GIFs with just 2 frames and one with about 50 so decide how long you want your animation to be. Also, if you want you can also draw your own frames.

a. To take snapshots, you can either use a program especially made for taking snapshots or you can press the "Print Scrn" button on your keyboard. It is located right to the right of the F12 key and at the press of the button all of the contents displayed on the screen will be turned into an image and will be on your clipboard. Then, you can paste it into your favorite image editing program (preferably photoshop) and meticulously crop your image. I personally use a program called "InterVideo WinDVD" that came with my computer. I just press a button and the a screenshot is taken.

2. Open all of your frames with photoshop. Go to the first frame and add the subsequent frames in order as layers. Depending on how large your image is, you might have to make the image smaller.

3. Go to "File" "Save for Web"

Change the file to a GIF and click on "animate". Also, change the quality of the picture if you wish. Now, you can use your GIF file!

One thing I have done with my GIF files is to make a movie out of them. I put the music and pictures together using Windows Movie Maker. This movie has the song "Mezase Pokemon Master" and is completely made of animated GIFs and pictures.