With animated GIF files, you can easily create a photo book in Photoshop without spending a lot of time. All you need is a little creativity.
Create a photo book in Photoshop – this is how animated GIFs work
To make your photo book a real success, carefully select the GIF files that you want to animate in Photoshop in advance. Make sure the GIF images are the same size and complement each other well to create a nice story. Only if the images harmonize perfectly with each other will you be able to create a truly successful photo book with Photoshop.
- Select imagesn: After you have selected the right images for your photo book, first save them in a separate folder. Then open Photoshop and upload the images via the path: “File > Scripts > Load files into batch”.
- Enable timeline window: To open the timeline window, call up the timeline via the “Window” menu item.
- Image Animation: To animate the frames, select Create Frame Animation from the Timeline window drop-down menu.
- Create frames layers: You create the layers for the frames by clicking on the menu icon in the timeline window and then selecting “Create frames from layers”. Photoshop then converts each individual layer into a frame.
- Set display duration: If necessary, you can set an individual display duration for each frame. All you have to do is click on the arrow next to the frame and then set the display duration.
- Loop options: If you want your animation to repeat continuously, enable the “Set unlimited” option for loop playback.
- GIF animation preview: To check in advance whether your photo album is really successful before presenting it to the “public”, click on the “Play button” of the image editing program.
- Export GIF to Photoshop: When your photo album is ready, save it: “File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy)”. If you choose the “GIF 128 Dithering” option, check again whether the loop playback is set to “Unlimited”. Don't forget to click “Save” when finished.
- Tip: If you don't have Photoshop, that's no problem. There are some very good graphics programs that are free.
Create an animated gif in Photoshop – this is how it works
If you have a slightly older version of Photoshop on your computer, follow these steps to create a GIF animation in the graphics program:
- To begin, you need to open all the image files that will later form the animation into their own layer in a Photoshop file. This way you can access the individual frames later.
- Then open the “Timeline” window if you don't already have it open. To do this, click on the “Window” item in the menu and then on “Timeline”.
- Now click on the “Create video timeline” button. Now the layers appear here with a purple box that you can enlarge as desired. This allows you to control how long an image element should be displayed and when the next one appears. You can then use the position marker to jump to specific points in time or even get a preview of the finished GIF animation.
- Once you have arranged the individual images as desired, click on “File” in the Photoshop menu and then click on “Save for Web…” to create the GIF file.
- In the window that has now opened, you can see a preview of the animation at the bottom left, and at the bottom right you can set how often the animation should repeat under “Animation”. To create the GIF file, click “Save…”, select the storage location and confirm with “Save”.