How to Make an Animated GIF in PSE

This post is specially made for those of you who asked how I made that animated gif of Breck swimming!

I only have PSE, so that's what I used. 

I searched YouTube and found many videos, but most were sooooo boring and/or had bad audio. So I'll just type it out, because I'm quite certain that reading this will be more clear and take you less time! ;)

If you have regular Photoshop, not Elements, go here for a great tut!

The steps between the two are completely different.

1. This will be obvious, but take lots - as in 20+ - consecutive shots of whatever it is you want to make a 'movie' of. I used the continuous release option on my camera to make things easy.

2. You'll now need to edit and/or resize all of the images exactly the same way. An easy way to do this is to do a batch edit. You can do this by going to: File > Process Multiple Files

(note: you'll want small files. Mine were sized to 400 pixels wide)

3. As far as I've found, Elements does not offer near the ease of layering all your photos as Photoshop does. This part takes a lot of time because you have to do it manually.

Start by opening your files. I opened about 10 at a time to keep things more organized.

Start with image #1 and drag all other images, in order, onto that #1 image. This will build your layers in order. 

(the starting layer will be on the bottom and the last layer will be on top)

4. Once all your layers are in one file, go to: File > Save for Web 

(you can also use the shortcut: ctrl+alt+shift+s)

If you get a yellow triangle error, your photos are too big. Simply go to: Image > Resize > Image Size and make your file smaller.

If your photos are the correct size, you'll be taken to the Save for Web menu screen.

From here you'll want to select GIF from the drop down box.

Just below that is a check box option for animate. Check it.

Next, towards the very bottom you can select the speed at which your animation will play.

You'll have to play with this to get the speed that works best for you.

You can figure this out by previewing it. This option is even further down and titled Preview In:

My options box did not have any browser as an option, so I had to find one.

If you also need to do this, here's the path I followed using Windows 7:

Other > Computer > C: > Windows > explorer (the application, not a file folder.)

5. Once you set your speed, click OK at the top of the Save for Web menu screen. And save as normal.

6. I uploaded my animation file directly to blogger, but then it wasn't showing the animation. So, I clicked on my image to make it bigger, and for whatever reason the animation played in that window, so I simply copied and pasted it into my blog post. 

And that's it!

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment or email.

...I hope this little tutorial is clearer than mud. ;)