Have you ever heard of animated GIFs before? If not, they are graphics that move. They can be a collection of several images that play like a slideshow, or the same image can be manipulated to create the illusion of movement. These are very popular in micro-video formats on sites like Tumblr and for creating memes. Today’s article explores some of the best software and services you can use to create your own animated GIFs with ease.
Today, most of the businesses leverage various online marketing channels to promote their products and services. Getting more and more people to visit your website and make a purchase is becoming challenging with stiff competition in the market place.
Make A GIF
What We Like
- Easy to create animated GIFs from images and videos.
- Resize all images at once.
- Custom animation speeds.
- No user account required.
What We Don’t Like
- Watermark applied unless you log in.
- High-quality GIFs available only after payment.
- Unhelpful text tool.
Make A GIF lets you create a GIF from multiple images, a video from your computer, a YouTube or Facebook video, or directly from your webcam.
If making a GIF from images, it’s really easy to customize the order of the photos because you can simply rearrange them via drag-and-drop. You can also resize all of the images at once and set a custom animation speed.
It’s also easy to produce a GIF from a video because you just have to choose at what point in the video to start the GIF and then decide how many seconds of it should be used.
A captioning tool is included to add text on top of your GIF, but you can’t preview it before making the GIF or change where on the GIF the text is displayed.
Once created, you can save the GIF to your computer and copy its URL to find it online. You have the option for making your GIF public, unlisted, or private. You can even link directly to the GIF file.
ezgif.com
What We Like
- Make high-quality GIFs.
- Upload multiple images in bulk or in a single zip file.
- No watermarks.
- Optimization features.
What We Don’t Like
- Tool layout on separate pages may take getting used to.
- Interface isn’t as slick as some.
- Must download the GIF when finished (no online save option).
ezgif.com is another online GIF creator. It’s a little strange to use because all the tools are on separate pages, but it actually isn’t hard to use.
You can crop the images, resize the whole GIF, optimize the frames, reverse the photos, flip or rotate the GIF to a particular angle, alter the speed, split the GIF back into its original images, and add text.
There’s also a grayscale, sepia, and monochrome effect you can apply to the entire GIF.
ezgif.com has a free video to GIF converter if you’d rather not use images.
Falco GIF Animator
Falco GIF Animator is a free software to create GIF animation. It lets you add frames from existing images or you can create your own frames. It also has a wizard to make an animated GIF. You can draw on any frame with various tools available like pencil, brush, spray, text etc. You can set the time delay between two frames of your choice. You can apply different effects including brightness, contrast, rotation, flips etc. to your GIFs.
XylemStudio’s AnimateGif
XylemStudio’s AnimateGif is a very small utility to create animated GIFs. It lets you create an animated GIF from JPG, JPEG, PNG, and GIF format. You can use drag and drop method to add frames. You can set the frame delay between images in milliseconds and set the loop option. You can also set quality of the output GIF. It doesn’t require installation and can be used as a portable software.
ImgFlip
What We Like
- Preview of GIF during creation.
- Many options for customizing.
- Can store the GIF online.
What We Don’t Like
- Some custom settings only available for a fee.
- A small watermark is placed on all GIFs.
- Free users are limited to storing GIFs on the site that are less than 4 MB.
ImgFlip shows a preview of your GIF as you’re creating it, which is very helpful. You can make a GIF from images, a video URL, another GIF URL, or a video you upload yourself.
The animation delay, photo order, width, height, and quality can be altered for a GIF made with images. There’s also a text tool, crop option, and the ability to rotate the GIF, reverse it, and change the play count and background color.
When finished, you can download your GIF, share it over a few social media sites, or set it as private so it’s not posted online.
A watermark is displayed on all GIFs made at Imgflip. Also, several of the custom settings for creating a GIF from a video are usable only if you pay for ImgFlip Pro.
Toonator
Toonator allows you to easily draw and bring animated images to life. Create your drawing frame by frame, using the plus icon to add the next frame in your sequence. Once you’ve finished, hit the play button to watch your animation come to life. You can save your image as a file, or copy the HTML code to embed the animation on your site.
Photoscape
PhotoScape is a free multi-purpose photo editor. It has various capabilities including viewer, editor, screen capture, rename, raw converter etc. You can use its Animated GIF feature to create your own animated GIFs. You can add multiple frames in a GIF by adding multiple photos. You can set the time between every frame. You can add various transition effects to your animated GIFs.
Microsoft GIF Animator
Microsoft GIF Animator is a free software to create animated GIF files. You can drag and drop multiple GIF files to create an animated GIF. You can set duration between each frame, re order frames, set transparency, looping etc. easily. It is small in size and is easy to use.
GifApp
GifApp is a free software to create animated GIFs. You can add multiple images to your project for frames. You can set same or different timings for each frame in milliseconds. You can easily remove the unwanted images from the project. You can apply various effects to your images individually. You can preview the results before saving. It has a user friendly interface and is easy to use.
SSuite Gif Animator
SSuite GIF Animator is a free software to create GIF animation. It lets you create animated GIF images easily and quickly. You can add multiple image files of various formats (JPG, JPEG, and BMP) to its list easily. You can set the interval between them in milliseconds. You can save the file as animated GIF in your system. You can use these animated GIFs to your websites also.
Photobie
Photobie is a free image editor with various features. It also has a feature of creating animated GIF from various image files. To make a simple animated GIF, first open all the image files with it. Copy and paste one by one all the layers to one picture and go to animation control panel from Gif_Animation menu. You can set the delay time in milliseconds for each frame. You can save your work in GIF format.
Conclusion:
Animated GIFs are fun and engaging. They are a great way to get a message across in a short period of time. The best thing about them is the wide range of subjects on which you can use gifs. If you are going to create animated gifs, then you need an animated gif maker.