4 simple ways to make creative GIFs

GIF-making is a fun, creative way to explore digital cultural heritage. Here’s a quick guide to four techniques to make your first GIF, with links to step-by-step tutorials.

1. Adding stickers and effects

Playing with animated stickers is the easiest way to start your adventure with GIF-making. Using GIPHY, you can upload a static image or existing GIF to customise.

Choose a piece of public domain art and start decorating. From googly eyes to weather animations, the options are endless. You can even add text or draw on your GIF to make it unique.

2. Creating GIFs from vintage videos

Making a GIF from historical footage is another great option.

Select an openly licensed video from sources like the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision. Choose a segment that captures movement or emotion, then upload it to a tool like Ezgif or GIPHY GIF Maker. These allow you to trim the video and add effects.

3. Playing with colours

You can add an eye-catching element to your animation by switching colours. This technique works great with elements that can be turned on and off, like lamps.

Choose an openly licensed image, like one of Jules Chéret’s posters. Using software like Photoshop, GIMP or Pixlr Editor, duplicate the image layer and isolate the part you want to change. Adjust the brightness, contrast, hue, and saturation to achieve your desired effect. After saving your edited image, combine it with the original and experiment with animation speeds to highlight the changes.

4. Turning a series of photos into a GIF

You can easily turn a sequence of photos into a moving image.

Find a series of pictures that depict phases of movement - some great examples are by Eadweard Muybridge. After cropping the images using a tool like Pixlr Editor, save each frame separately. Upload these frames to an online GIF editor like Ezgif and arrange them in the desired order - your GIF is ready!

GIF IT UP

Each October, we invite cultural heritage enthusiasts to create new GIFs from open access digital collections. We welcome more experienced animators as well as the first-timers to enter the GIF IT UP competition. Great prizes are on offer for the best entries, as judged by the public and our jury of creative experts.