[WILLOW]

'Sup I'm Logan, and I'm going to teach you how to make animated preview gifs. If you're unsure of what I'm talking about I have a few examples here.

a b c Most people use a static image to display their themes/websites/skins, I am not that kind of person. These give a better preview of what the skin looks like and how it acts, but it is just a preference. Continuing, what you are going to need for this tutorial is PHOTOSHOP and Hypercam. I have not looked into the differences between CS5 and the generations prior, so I am not sure if this will work for all versions of Photoshop.

Now, let us start.

STEP ONE. (FILMING)
Before you can even think of turning your files into a .gif, you are going to need footage. Simply open up Hypercam, select the region you want to film and then start recording. Make sure to STOP the filming when you're finish and find where the clip has been saved.

Directions to find where to look for your clip are above ^ Any other questions or concerns about Hypercam can be brought to me privately through private messaging.

STEP TWO. (LOADING INTO PHOTOSHOP)
Once you have found your footage, open Photoshop. Normally, you open images and the like by simply doing CTRL + O or whatever the MAC variation is. This is not the case with this file we have just created, you're going to need to IMPORT the file into Photoshop. Specifically, you are going to need to import the file and turn the frames into layers. To do this you do: FILE > IMPORT > VIDEO FRAMES TO LAYERS.

Once you have loaded the footage into a Photoshop, a pop-up box will show up and you will have to make several choices. We will start on the right hand side for now, and come back to picking what parts of the video you have filmed that you want.

please click here

(above is a quick .gif on what i usually do)

The first option is titled 'From Beginning to End' if your clip is short and you have filmed precisely what you want, I would say pick this. However, if you have a longer clip, please go with the second option of 'Selected Range Only'. Below that option is an optional box that you can check, it is titled 'Limit to Every # Frames', this option skips frames. If the number says two (I believe that is the default), then every two frames, it will make a layer. It is your choice on if you'd like to use it or not, but I do recommend it if you are planning to simply show beginning to end of the video.

Finally, if you have picked the SECOND option, this paragraph is for you. To the right of the options, you have a preview box. Below the box is a slider where you pick what parts of the video you want. CS6 is different from CS5 (and possibly different from other variations) so I cannot show you how it is done, but below the 'Selected Range Only' option, you will have instructions on what you can do.

STEP THREE. (FINISHING TOUCHES)
Once you have loaded the footage into Photoshop, you would simply save it as a .gif and you would be done, but most image hosting sites do not allow large files to be uploaded. So, we are going to do what Photoshop was meant for to the footage, we are going to edit it. This is optional for those with small image files, but for those with large image files, we are going to resize

I do not edit my .gifs with adjustment layers, if you wish to though, you can. I simply resize my image with CTRL + ALT + I and change the width to 800px. You do not have to do the same, you can make it larger, or smaller, it is up to you. However, I do recommend you keep in mind that though a bigger image provides better quality, a bigger image also takes up more memory and you may not be able to upload it to an image hosting website. Now, we are done!

Anyone questions, concerns, critiques, ect., can
be sent directly to my message box. Any mistakes noticed
can be pointed out to me and will fix them as soon as possible.
Thank-you for your time.