I’ve been using GIMP on and off for many years now, but it was always to edit and improve an image. I mean, it’s called the GNU Image Manipulation Program after all. However, one thing I think we can all agree on is that gifs are far too cool in this day and age to miss out on. I truly love a good gif, so I wanted to see if I could create a gif. Considering GeekOut UK is coming to a close soon, I’ve been thinking on what the future brings and the one thing that’ll be staying is the GeekOut Discord server. So after getting a Nitro sub because, why the hell not, I love and support Discord, I decided to animate our logo.
In terms of an animation, the above is fairly basic. However, I can teach you the basics of what you need to create your own gif. I’ll teach you briefly about the steps you need to take in order to create your own gif. However, the first thing I’d like to explain is that although I’ll show you how to make a simple spinning animation, the rest will be up to you to do. If you have an idea for a gif, figure out what it is first, then follow along with this guide.
Layers
We’ll assume you have an image already. If not, go ahead and create a circle. You’re going to need to make each frame you want. In doing that, you create layers. I’d recommend naming each layer after the frame number, such as frame 1, frame 2 etc. To make the animation work, you’re going to need to tell each frame how long you want that particular frame to be displayed for. To do this, when naming each layer, call it something like “frame 1 (100ms)”, which keeps that frame up for 0.1 seconds. Just remember that an animation is effectively a sequence of images. You can record footage and convert it into a gif, but if you’re working with a logo, or perhaps you’re making an insane meme gif, then this may be the best way for you.
Each frame will need to be updated to what you want in that frame. For instance, the above was simply made by duplicating the previous frame, then with the Rotate Tool, I typed in “20” in the Angle, then hit OK. By doing this, each frame will rotate 20 degrees. This means we needed a total of 18 frames (18 (frames) by 20 (angle) being 360 degrees, a full circle). So I started with the base, duplicated it, used the Rotate Tool to rotate 20 degrees, pressed OK and did it again.
As a warning, your file will get pretty big the more frames it has. That’s because you’re effectively making a duplicate image each and every time.
Animating
With the above setup, you now go Filters > Animation > Optimise for GIF. This will convert your file into a much smaller, much more condensed file. The above gif comes in at less than 1mb in size, so I’m fairly happy how it turned out, even considering how large the actual file is. The last thing you’ll want to do though is to check to see how well your animation has gone. Once you’ve optimised your animation, go to Filters > Animation > Playback. This will play your animation back for you once you hit play in the new window. Enjoy the fruits of your labour.
That’s it, a fairly simple tutorial today, I hope you all come up with some pretty cool stuff. Yeah, that’s it. Have a good day now! And leave a comment if you enjoyed this tutorial, or let us know what you thought on Facebook and Twitter.
