Story
by
Europeana Foundation
Always wanted to make an animated GIF, but didn’t know how? We have something for you!
In the coming weeks, we will be showing some easy GIF-making techniques to help you create your GIF IT UP entry.
You will be eligible for a special prize for first-time GIF-makers. In this category, the jury will focus on content selection and originality of the idea rather than technical execution. So go for it!
In this first tutorial, you will learn how to make a GIF from a vintage video. We’ll use vintage cinema newsreels from Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid (Dutch Institute for Sound and Vision).
1. Choose your material
Go to our selection of openly licensed videos.
There are a lot of them and they cover and variety of topics: local news, events and celebrations, famous people and locations. Watch a few videos (if you experience issues you might need to click on ‘View at Netherlands Institute For Sound And Vision’ on the right side of the page to see them on the website of open images).
While watching videos, remember that you only need a few seconds long extract to create your GIF. Try something that will speak to your audience like expressing emotions or showing movement. You can also search for something unusual, funny or surprising to catch their attention.
Curation is the most important element of this exercise, so do your best! Download the video and get ready for GIF-making.
2. Create your GIF There are a lot of free tools available online. We present two that on top of creating a GIF from a video, offer some extra options which would help to make your GIF better.
Upload your video, choose start and end time and press ‘Convert to GIF’.
Once your GIF is ready, you can optimize it to reduce the file size (GIF IT UP entries should be smaller than 2MB) and try different effects. When you’re happy with the result, press save.
To make a GIF using GIPHY Maker, you need a video maximum 20 seconds long. So before starting, you might need to cut it elsewhere, for example using online video cutter tool. Upload your video, choose the starting point and duration with sliders.
In the next step, you can add some effects, stickers and captions. Once you're done, you upload your GIF to GIPHY - it's ready for sharing online. You can also download it from GIPHY.
3. Participate in GIF IT UP
Go to gifitup.net upload your GIF and fill all the requested information in. That’s it, your first #GIFITUP2018 submission is ready!
Feel like making another GIF? Come back next week for another simple tutorial!