How to create an animated gif in Photoshop cs6 (Easy)

Learn how to make animated gifs in Photoshop.

In this tutorial, we will animate Mario coming out from a pipe.

1.  Create a new document.  Lets create a 200 x 300 pixel image.

2.  Now create two new layers. One for Mario and one for the pipe. 

3.  On the pipe layer, draw a pipe like shown...on the Mario layer, draw Mario like shown. 

     The Mario layer should be right below the pipe layer.

Pipe layer

Mario layer

Now for the animating! 

4.  Click on the Mario layer to select him and drag him behind the pipe. He should be hidden.  Lock the pipe layer since we won't be animating it.

5.  Make sure you have your timeline window open. If not then go to Window > Timeline.  

6.  On the timeline bar, you should see a little square with its corner bent. This is the new frame button. Click it once to create another frame.

7.  Click on the Mario layer to select him and drag Mario so that just his head pops out from the pipe.

8.  Create another frame by clicking the New Frame button. Then repeat step 7 but this time drag Mario more up so that now his body is showing.

9. Create another frame and move Mario so that now he is completely standing on the pipe.

10.  Mario is now ready for some action!  You should now have four frames of animation but don't press the play button yet.  We need to adjust the timing of each frame.  

       

On each frame, you should see a little upside down triangle. Open this and select 0.2 from the list. Do this for the first, second, and third frame. For the fourth frame, select 1.0.  This means the first three frames will play for 0.2 of a second and the fourth frame will play for one second. 

11.  Press your space bar or the play button on the timeline bar.  Mario should look like he is coming out from the pipe.

*If your animation isn't continuously looping then on the left of the timeline bar will be an upside down triangle that probably says "Once" or "3 times". Change this to "forever".

Congratulations if you made it this far! You now have made your very first Gif in Photoshop!

Saving...

To save your GIF go to File > Save for web. 

A window will pop up. Just make sure you have GIF selected for the file type and Forever under Looping Options.

Click Save. Another window will pop up. Type in a name for your GIF and the format should be set to Images Only. Hit save again. 

When you become pro you can make stuff like this

I'll make a tutorial on this another time :)