ohh, okay! no problem :) glad you found it helpful!
hmm…that’s weird! well, you can also filter just by going to Filters > Enhance > Sharpen for every layer. just make sure you use the same level of sharpness for each layer :)
Sorry…I have tried to answer this like 3 times w/ a picture, but my computer hates me. Does your program have the Filter All Layers option? (Filters > Filter All Layers) Is the option faded out so it isn’t clickable?
awwww, you’re welcome!! i’m so glad people are actually using it hahah :)
no, it shouldn’t! :)
no problem! when you’re saving the gif, do you see where it says “Delay between frames where unspecified”? change the time there from 100 to something less than 100 if you want it be faster. :)
1. Download VLC Media Player and Gimp.
2. Insert a DVD into your computer and open it using VLC. Then go to Tools > Preferences > Hotkeys. Find the action that says “Take video snapshot.” The current hotkey is “Shift + S,” but you can change it by double clicking the “Shift + S” and holding down the new hotkeys you want. Once you are done, press “Save.”
3. Next, go back to Tools > Preferences. This time, press Video instead of Hotkeys. In the area labeled “Video Snapshots,” press “Browse” and then choose the folder you want all your screencaps to automatically be in. If you want, create a new folder called Gifs for this purpose. You can leave the prefix and format sections the same, or you can change them. Just try different options and see what works for you. Once you’re done, press “Save.”
4. Go back to the main screen on VLC and find the section you want to cap. Start the video a few seconds before this section. Press “Shift + S” or whatever key you chose to be your “Video Snapshot” hotkey. Keep holding the hotkey(s) down until the section you want to cap is finished. Your screen should show white words flashing across the top.
5. Now that you have your screencaps, check to make sure they are in the right folder. They should be in the folder you specified in Step 3.
6. Open Gimp. Go to File > Open as Layers. Select the folders where your caps are stored and then select all the caps you will be using in your gif by holding down control and selecting each one. Click “open.”
7. The image will now open. Before you forget, press Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Layers. This way your layers will show up in a dialog box on the side. You can access them more easily this way. Your iamge contains several layers, depending on how many caps are in it. If the image is too big or it needs to be cropped, use the following tools:
Crop tool: Select the icon second from the right, third down. As seen in this picture, some caps contain black borders. Use the crop tool to select the area you want in your gif. Click once in the left corner of the image, then drag the border until it reaches where you want it to. Click again and your image (including all its layers) will no longer contain those borders.
Scale image: Go to Image > Scale Image. Type in 500 for the width, and the height should automatically change so the two are proportional. Don’t change anything else. Press “scale.”
7. Now it’s time to have some fun with your gif! First, try pressing Filters > Animation > Playback. This will give you a preview of what your gif will look like (minus all your colorings, which will be added next). If the timing seems off, I can’t help you there. VLC gives me the same problem! One quick fix is to change the speed of the gif from 100 to 120 (we’ll do this later).
8. Try adding some color to your gif. Play around with options like sharpen, brightness/contrast, and curves. There is no set level that looks good with every gif. You just have to try different things until you like your result. For this gif, I am going to go to Colors > Brightness and Contrast. I will change the Brightness to 84 and the Contrast to 74. If I like this setting, I can press the + sign in the right corner, name it, and add it to my presets. This makes it a lot easier to add the setting to every layer. To access presets, just click the presets button then find the setting you just created. You may be wondering how to add this setting to every layer…click your first layer (in the Layers dialog box) then follow the steps listed above. Unclick the eye next to the layer you just finished, then repeat until you have put the effect on all your layers.
Tip: Gifs look better in high quality, so sharpen them! Go to Filters > Filter all layers > plug-in-sharpen. Press “Apply Constant” and then “Okay” and “Continue” in the dialog boxes that subsequently pop up.
9. Once you’re finished playing around with the colors, double check how your gif looks. (Filters > Animation > Playback) If you want to add text, press the text tool. Create a text box and then type in the desired text. Press close and then change the color/size of your text. If you make your text white, then you might want to create a black border. Press “Path from text” at the bottom of the left toolbar and then go to Edit > Stroke Path. Change the line width to a value like 0.7. Press Stroke. You now have text on one layer, but you want it on all of them. Go to the layers dialog box and right click on the text layer. Press “Duplicate Layer.” Drag the duplicated layer under your first image layer. Do this for all your layers. Once you’re done, right click on each text layer and press “Merge Down.” Do this for all your layers, then check if the text shows constantly by using the Playback feature.
10. If your gif now looks the way you want it to, it’s time to save. Press File > Save As and then find the folder where you want to save your gif. Make sure the extension name says gif at the end. Press Save and then in the dialog box that pops up, select Save as Animation then Export. If a box saying something about cropping and borders pops up, just keep clicking “okay.” IMPORTANT NOTE: Sometimes VLC caps strangely, so your gif may look disjointed. In order to diminish the effect, play with the timing of your gif. Where it says “Delay between frames where unspecified,” change the value from 100 to something like 120 or even higher. Press save.
11. Go to the folder where your gif is saved and make sure it is about 950 kb or less. If it isn’t, go back to your Gimp project and delete a few layers. Once you have previewed your gif using Windows Explorer, upload it to tumblr.
Good luck! If you don’t get how to make gifs at first, don’t give up. The only way to get better is to practice and experiment. If you have any questions, feel free to message me!
P.S. If you need to see photos, also message me. I can post them if needed, but they took up too much space in this post.
