Before we begin, this is a BASIC GIF making tutorial. This tutorial won’t explain how to do colouring or anything fancy, it’ll just explain the basics on how I make my gifs. As .MP4 and .Mov only work with my version of Photoshop, I will only be using those formats. If you can get AVI to work with your version, that’s great, use it, but for this tutorial, I will be using .MP4 files. 

Programs that I use:
- Photoshop CS5 (This should work with any Photoshop package)
- Youtube Downloader HD

Optional:
- Boilsoft Video Splitter (IF you want to split the video)
- AVS Video Converter (IF you need to convert the video file to .MP4 or .Mov)

I will not give the links to the files. If you want them you’ll have to find yourself, just like I did.

**Using a 720p or 1080p video file will improve the quality of your gif dramatically.I highly recommend you only use these files to make gifs, if you don’t have it, try looking for one on Youtube.

Before we begin: Download the video you wish to use. For this tutorial I’ll be downloading the ‘Final Fantasy XIII Opening’ and in order to rip it from youtube, I’ll be using ‘Youtube Downloader HD’. Simply right-click and copy the URL from Youtube, Open Youtube Downloader HD and paste the URL into the ‘Video URL’ box (remove the &hd=1 part of the URL). BE SURE TO SELECT 720P OR 1080P! SEE IMAGE. I also selected it in .mp4 format.

Step 1:

Go to File > Import > Video Frames to Layers and select the video file you wish to use from your directory.

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Select ‘Select Range Only’ and then hold Shift whilst moving the slider or clicking the arrows. When you’ve chosen the part of the video you want, change the number of frames by ending a number in the ‘Limit to Every __ Frames’ input.IMPORTANT NOTE: DO NOT exceed 5 frames as your animation will become choppy and weird looking. I normally stick to 2-4 frames, 5 if it’s a long animation.

Step 2:

Before I reduce the image size, I like to remove the annoying black lines you tend to get with HD videos. The way I do it is by going to Image > Canvas Size and reducing the size by a few pixel (SEE IMAGE). Alternatively, you can use the ‘Crop’ tool. Once you’ve done that go to Image > Image Size and change the length to 500px. The height will automatically change so you don’t need to make changes to it.

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Step 3:
In the ‘Animation’ toolbox below, change the animation speed. To do that, Select all the animation and click on the little arrow besides the seconds. e.g. ‘0.2 sec’ and then select ‘Other..’

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IMPORTANT NOTE: Each browser is different and because of that you need to change the speed to adjust to each browser. As I use Google Chrome, I use anything from 0.14 to 0.2 seconds depending on the file.

Step 4:
Fiddle around with the colouring, I won’t be doing any for this tutorial so have fun and experiment! You will also need to reduce the number of frames. Normally, 500px files can have up to 15 frames, maybe 16 depending. Any more than that and you will probably have a hard time getting it under 500k without playing with the colour and/or size

Step 5:
Once you’ve finished, go to File > Save for Web & Devices. Here’s the annoying part, YOU MUST MAKE SURE THAT THE FILE IS UNDER 500KB! If it isn’t it willNOT work on Tumblr. Because the gif I’ve made is OVER 500kb, I will have to reduce the colours. You can also reduce the image size if you want (after fiddling with it, I decided to reduce the height by 20px).

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If you can’t get the file under 500kb, consider the following:
- Use ‘Pattern’ instead of ‘Diffusion’, in most cases, it reduces the size of the image.
- Tweak with the Brightness/Contrast. The darker the image, the less KB it’ll be. 
- Reduce the frames. Even deleting one frame can reduce the size.
- Reduce the colours. Do not go below 60 unless it’s a black and white gif. You MIGHT get away with 34 but the image has to be dark enough.

STEP 6:
Once you’ve finished and you want to take a look at your gif before saving, Select ‘Preview’ and it’ll give you a preview of your gif. Once you’ve finished, select Save. :) 

I hope this has helped you. Again, this is just a basic tutorial.