To make your own gifs, you will need an Animation software like Microsoft Gif Animator or Gif Movie Gear - Gamani Productions - (I use Adobe Image Ready) and a graphics software, like Paintshop Pro (my preference goes to Adobe Photoshop). I go further into this subject in the "Which software" section.

What is an animated gif ?

An animated gif is a group of pictures or drawings which, when viewed one after the other, at a given speed provide the illusion of movement.

To create your own animations, you will first need to create your drawings or "frames" of your mini movie in a graphics software and then assemble them in an animation software to produce your animated sequence.

Step 1 : make the frames

The less pictures you use, the better it is ! The animated gif will then load more quickly. It's possible to make an animated gif with only 3 or 4 images. Here's an example :

sequence 1

sequence 2

sequence 3

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