Make an Animated Twitter Avatar

You've probably seen your friends or other Twitter users with a sweet animated avatar. Usually of cats. Or someone falling down the stairs. While this used to be possible, Twitter has closed this functionality down. However, the steps to making animated GIF files is still valid, so if you wish to make one, read on!

Steps

Photoshop CS5

  1. Launch Photoshop. From the File menu, select Import > Video Frames to Layers... Click on "Video Frames to Layers".
    • Note: this can only be done in Photoshop CS5 32 bits version. Mac users do this by right-clicking on the Photoshop application, and selecting Get Info. There should be a check box there to open in 32 bits).
    • Select your video and click on Load.
    • Select the range of frames to import. To select only a few frames, check "Selected Frames Only." This option will allow your GIF to be converted much faster.
    • Your video will be converted into layers.
  2. Go the bottom left on the animation frames and check "Forever." This will ensure you that the animation will loop forever.
    • Use the Crop tool to remove any part of the movie that is not needed for the GIF. The more you trim away and reduce, the faster the GIF will be.
  3. Reduce the image size of the video. To do this go to "Image," then "Image Size" and choose the new dimensions. Keep the horizontal and vertical linked so that the image doesn't distort. If you are resizing, it's recommended that you choose half the dimensions of the original GIF.
  4. Export the video. Go to File and click on Save for Web and Devices. This will optimize your image.
    • Change the setting to "GIF" to make sure it's animated. Look to see if the animation appears correct in your browser by clicking Preview at the left bottom. If you want to change anything, you can always click Cancel and go back to Photoshop.
    • Click Save if everything looks fine. Fill in the file name and save it.
    • See How to Make an Animated GIF from a Video in Photoshop CS5 for more detailed information.

Do It Online

  1. Use an online tool. There are several free websites that let you make your own animated GIFs from multiple saved images or webcam shots. Some of the popular ones are 3fram.es (3fram.es), Picasion (picasion.com), and Gickr (gickr.com).

Things You'll Need

  • Internet access
  • Animated GIF file

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