{"id":2095,"date":"2025-10-09T19:26:53","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T19:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/palette.ecuad.ca\/comdtech\/?p=2095"},"modified":"2025-10-27T22:32:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T22:32:17","slug":"frame-by-frame-gif-animations-in-photoshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/palette.ecuad.ca\/comdtech\/2025\/10\/09\/frame-by-frame-gif-animations-in-photoshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Frame by Frame GIF Animations in Photoshop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s a step-by-step guide to making a simple frame by frame animation in Photoshop, and saving it as either a GIF or a video. This corresponds to an in-class tutorial for COMD 200, and was last updated Fall 2025.<\/p>\n

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What’s\u00a0Frame By Frame Animation?<\/h2>\n

Film, video, and animation all work by showing a series of images that give the illusion of motion or change over time. For example, think about flip book animations, film strips, or how you can pause videos and see one still image. Each still image is called a frame<\/strong>, and the number of frames that play per second is the\u00a0frame rate<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Frame by frame animation means we’re\u00a0preparing artwork for each individual frame, rather than using software that automatically generates in-between frames based on changes to 2D or 3D objects.<\/p>\n

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A sequence of eight frames.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another common use of frame by frame animation besides drawings and graphics:\u00a0stop-motion animation<\/strong>, where you animate a series of photos,\u00a0and move\/change the objects or subjects a little bit between each image. It’s often done with clay, or figurines & models…and sometimes just done for style or special effects in scenes with human actors.<\/p>\n

Setting Up A Frame Animation in Photoshop<\/h2>\n

We’re going to use the series of scissor images above for this example. COMD 200: the folder will be available to download on your class Moodle.<\/p>\n

\"\"You can even see a rough version of the animation by viewing them in order in the Finder window’s image preview. However, we want to make an animation that’s contained in one file and plays automatically.<\/p>\n

New Document<\/h3>\n

\"\"\u00a0Let’s make a new blank document in Photoshop for this animation. This sample is going to be 500 x 500 pixels to match the size of the scissor images.<\/p>\n

This is all based on knowing the GIF will be viewed on a screen: 72ppi is the minimum resolution for screens, RGB is the color mode for screens, and pixels are the most relevant unit for screens. We don’t want to see CMYK or inches\/mm here \u2013 those are for print.<\/p>\n

You might find it easiest to switch to Photoshop’s “Motion” workspace (go to Window > Workspace in the menu.) If not, the windows you’ll need to have open for this are Layers and Timeline.<\/p>\n

Bringing In The Images<\/h3>\n

Now, we’re going to select\u00a0all<\/em> the scissor images in that folder, and just drag them into the new Photoshop file. Drag the 8 files onto the canvas, then just keep pressing return (enter) until they’re all placed.<\/p>\n

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Notice that this places each image in the new document as a layer, and that’s not the same as opening each image file in Photoshop. The layers are\u00a0smart objects<\/strong>, which means that they can update if you make changes to the original .png files, and the\u00a0layer artwork can’t be directly edited. If you want to break the link and make a smart object into a regular Photoshop layer, right-click it (control-click on a Mac keyboard) and choose\u00a0Rasterize<\/strong>, or select the layer and go to Layer > Rasterize > Smart Object in the menu. Smart objects are not necessary for making an animation: this is just a convenient way to bring in a folder full of pre-made images as a stack of layers. The steps to animate these layers would be the same if we had just drawn each of them directly in this Photoshop file.<\/p>\n

Create Frames<\/h3>\n

So far, the Timeline window looks empty, and there’s a\u00a0dropdown menu in the center with a choice between\u00a0Create Frame Animation <\/strong>and\u00a0Create Video Timeline.\u00a0<\/strong>Click\u00a0Create Frame Animation.<\/strong> (We’re going to ignore the Photoshop Video Timeline for this tutorial. We’ll do our timeline animations for COMD 200’s next motion project in After Effects instead. AE can do everything the PS timeline can do, but it’s far more powerful and flexible.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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We start with\u00a0only one frame, and that’s fine. Click the menu at the top right corner of the Timeline window, and choose Make Frames From Layers.<\/p>\n

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Now, there are 8 frames, one for each layer:<\/p>\n

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Frames can be selected, dragged to change order, duplicated,\u00a0or deleted. Watch what happens to Layers when you click on frames to select them: the matching layer turns visible, and all the others turn invisible. It’s possible to change the layer visibility so that more than one layer is visible in a frame (for example: using a background layer that is visible in all frames.) Adding new layers won’t automatically add new frames.<\/p>\n

At this point, you can press the space bar or the play button to play the animation.\u00a0It looks okay, but let’s adjust the timing:<\/p>\n

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Click on the arrow underneath a frame to change its duration. I’ve selected all the frames together, because I want them all to appear for the same length of time…but you can also adjust these times individually to make certain frames last longer.<\/p>\n

Other options in the Timeline window:<\/p>\n