How to Make Animated GIFs in AVI Files

Animated GIFs playback up to 24 images per second.

Graphical Interchange Format files are a lossless form of image compression that can contain up to 256 colors per pixel. Lossless compression refers to the fact that no pixels are removed from the image while compressing it to the GIF format. Because of the GIF's format to retain pixels, these files can be combined together to provide a smooth animation effect. Animated GIF files can be created from AVI video files and Adobe Photoshop.

Instructions

1. Creating GIF Files from AVI Movies

   • 1
     Launch VirtualDub and open the video file that you'd like to use for your animated GIF.
   • 2
     Select the start and end points of the scene that you would like to use as your animated GIF with the "Mark in" and "Mark out" buttons. Longer scenes will require more time to render and will create larger animated GIF files.
   • 3
     Create a new folder on your desktop and label it "Animated GIF." In VirtualDub press "File" then select "Export" and finally "Image Sequence." Save the files to the "Animated GIF" folder that you created on your desktop. The GIF files will save in numerical sequence.

   Animating GIF Files

   • 4
     Launch Adobe Photoshop and click "File" and select "Scripts" then "Load files into stack" to load the GIF files that you created in the last section. Click "Folder" from the selection menu and load the "Animated GIF" folder on your desktop. Drag the frames into numerical order if needed.
   • 5
     Click “Window” select the “Animation” option to open the animation timeline. Select the "Timeline options" button and click “Make frames from layers.” The timeline options will also allow you to alter the speed of the animation frame by frame.
   • 6
     Click “File” and “Save for web and devices” to save your animated GIF file.