3 min read
·Originally posted on Mar 29, 2018
This blog post: An attempt at giving you the gift of making and sharing the homemade GIF.
In the modern age, making a homemade GIF is simple if you have the right tools and a basic understanding of how to craft your GIF.
I have found it hard to find user-friendly and low-cost tools. I have also come across challenges formatting my GIFs to fit to the platform I’m trying to share on(Twitter, FB, Instagram, etc). Hence, this post.
Here I will address some best practices and the tools I’ve come to know and use for all my homemade GIF making needs. Enjoy!
Things to keep in mind for your GIF:
- Keep it 10 seconds or less — If a picture is a thousand words, a GIF hits the millions. Made up of image frames, your GIF is intended to share a quick message in a more compelling way than a stagnant image. GIFs aren’t intended to last long- plus you need to make sure it’s not HUGE because then it won’t fit on the internet.
- Pace Your Messaging— Keep it simple and consider how much the audience can absorb in 10 seconds. Stick to one main message. Make sure any words are large enough to read and get enough allotted time so the person does not have to struggle to interpret the information.
- Optimize for Looping — Remember, GIFs usually loop- or are optimal when they loop. Plan for a looping 10 seconds or less of media.
- Keep Purpose in Mind Throughout the Process — Make your GIF fun! Unless, of course, it’s intended to convey How-To information…then make it informative.
- Review Your GIF Before Optimizing— While your GIF is still in the content editing phases, review the content and clip out any unnecessary parts of the video. Pretend you are your audience as you watch it play and consider the following questions: What is the main message? How is the pacing? Are there any confusing or unnecessary scenes or images? Will people think this GIF is cool, inspiring, or informative?
If you can create a focused message and keep it short, you are on your way to winning the art of GIF making.
Here are the tools I use:
GifFox ($4.99) — https://gifox.io/
I’ve tried different screen recording tools but often times there is either a paywall or the UX is not friendly and does not provide enough flexibility to
Open Broadcaster Software (Free)— https://obsproject.com/
Also known as OBS, Open Broadcaster Software is another way to record your screen. While this website is designed for live broadcasters and video recording, you can also take screen clips or live clips and then convert the content into a GIF using external progams.
iPhone Camera —
Chances are you are either reading this from your smartphone or you smartphone is hanging out within arms reach as you read this sentence. In the modern age of digital media, your smartphone’s camera is one of your most powerful outreach tools. You can capture anything on camera, video, and even livestream content straight from the phone. The audio and visuals from your phone are phenomenal and all it takes is a bit of conversion using an external GIF to get a recorded mp4 or mov to your desired GIF format.
FileConvert (Free)— https://www.online-convert.com/
Need to convert that .mov or .mp4 to .gif? FileConvert has your back. In less than a minute or two it spits out your video into a GIF. Make sure to check the file size. If it’s larger than 5MB, some sites like Twitter won’t accept it. Need to parse down the size?Don’t worry, there’s a site for that too… read on…
EZGIF (Free) — https://ezgif.com/optimize
Once you have your GIF, you can consider EZGIF your Gif sandbox. If I need a GIF resized or adjusted I pop it through EZGIF and compress it through the option of my choice. Options are: Lossy GIF compression, color reduction, removing every nth frame, or optimizing the transparency. Other options include resizing the image or cutting the duration of the animation.
I’ll loop back as I find additional tools or resources to help me with my GIF goals. If you have any feedback on this post or resources to share, please get in touch!
Cheers,
Ileana
Earth to You 