Emoticons and gifs are without a doubt one of the most popular elements on social networks. If you are a creative person, you would surely like to have your own collection of personal gifs to share with your friends, those special gifs that only you understand.
In this article we are going to show you different applications to create an animated gif from videos and photos and also some for editing gifs, in case you want to give your personal touch to a gif that already exists.
You won’t have to have any knowledge of graphic design, they are all online or downloadable applications that can be used by following a few simple instructions.
You’ll instantly become the gif queen or king of your entire group.
Creating GIFs from videos
First we’re going to mention the easiest applications for making a gif from a video clip. Do you have a movie, series or YouTube video you’d like to take a piece of to make a gif from?
Don't miss our ultimate guide on graphic design!
Discover the best online courses, master's degrees, and university programs for a successful career in design with our "Ultimate Guide to Studying Graphic Design: The Best Options for a Successful Career". Shape your future in the creative industry today.View Post Read Later
With these apps you can do it.
Gifs.com
If you want to create a GIF from a YouTube video, Instagram post or Vine, Gifs.com is the perfect tool.
With Gifs.com, all you have to do is paste in the URL of the video you want to turn into a GIF, and you’re all set. The app also features a number of editing tools, such as the ability to add captions and crop the image.
Giphy Gif Maker
Giphy is home to one of the largest collections of GIFs on the internet, but it also has some brilliant tools for creating GIFs. The first of these, GIF Maker, lets you create GIFs directly from video files or YouTube links.
To use GIF Maker, just paste in a video URL or upload a video file, and you can create a GIF and edit it in Giphy’s easy-to-use interface. With GIF Maker, you can choose the point in the video where you want the GIF to start, choose the length and add a title.
Once you’re happy with how your GIF looks, click “Create GIF” and it will be added to Giphy, ready to be shared on any social network.
Creating an animated gif from photos
If you want to go the extra mile and create an animated gif from some of your photos, the following applications will make it very easy
Giphy Slideshow
Slideshow, another tool created by Giphy, allows you to combine your images and GIFs to create animated GIF slideshows.
To get started with Slideshow, you first need to choose the still images or GIFs you’d like to use (you can combine both still images and GIFs). Then, once the images are uploaded, you can choose the order in which they should appear in your GIF and how long the still images will appear in your slideshow before moving on to the next image.
Gifmaker.me
Gifmaker.me is a great free tool that allows you to create animated gifs and slideshows from images. Gifmaker features a useful ‘Control Panel’ that allows you to customize your GIF by changing the size of the canvas, the speed of transitions and the number of times the GIF should repeat.
Imgflip
Imgflip is similar to Gifmaker.me and allows you to create a GIF from multiple images and also convert a video into a GIF. Imgflip also allows you to edit your GIF, adding text, changing the delay and toggling the size of the image. However, to export your final GIF without a watermark, you’ll need to be a Pro member.
How to edit animated gifts
Giphy’s GIF editor is a brilliant tool for editing and enhancing pre-existing GIFs. The free-to-use product gives you the opportunity to add animated stickers, fun filters and captions to your GIFs.
To start editing a GIF, simply choose a GIF to edit by entering a GIF URL or any Giphy link or uploading an image file from your computer. Once your GIF is ready to be edited, you can choose to add any sticker from Giphy’s library and choose from a wide range of filters (such as inverting your GIF or making it black and white), before adding a caption and exporting the finished gif.
Creating Gifts from your computer screen
Cloudapp
Sometimes it can be very useful to create GIFs directly from your computer screen. This technique is great for giving tutorials or guides on how to use a product and is also very useful for customer service.
CloudApp is incredibly useful and surprisingly simple. It allows you to make screen recordings, annotate images, record webcam videos and much more.
Once CloudApp is installed, you can record screencasts, download them as GIFs, and even share them with a unique URL generated for each recording you make.
Recordit
Similar to CloudApp, Recordit allows you to select a section of your screen and create a GIF in seconds. Like Cloud App, it is software that you install on your computer (available for Windows and Mac)
Find inspiration to design your own gifts
You don’t have to be a super creative person to be able to create original and attractive gifs, we are going to show you some gif collections that you can use as a base to create your own quickly, without headaches.
As mentioned above, Giphy not only has tools for creating and editing gifs, it also has one of the largest collections of animated images on the internet that you can download and use.
Whatever you’re looking for, you’ll find the perfect Gif for every occasion.
Do you know any other applications to create an animated gif?
If you use another application, either web or app format to create gifs in a simple way and you think it needs to be on this list, let us know in the comments and we will add it immediately.
