I don’t know about you, but I love gifs. Whether you pronounce it with a hard “g” or a soft “g,” gifs can make you laugh, summarize your emotions, or add some flair to a photo. So why not turn yourself into a gif?
Creating a gif of yourself can be tricky, but once you get the hang of it, you can elevate your social media game like no other.
Affiliate Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may make a commission if you click on a link and make a purchase.
Set Up Your Filming Location
To set up your filming location to create the most high-quality gif, you will need to make sure you have the following things:
- Good lighting
- Use a ring light, box lights, or natural light
- Plain background
- Get rid of any objects in the background for a cleaner edit
- Camera
- You can use your phone camera or a DSLR
The gifs in this are from a test shoot I did for demo purposes, and aren’t as high quality as they could be.
Record Short Clips
Repeat the same movement a few times, similar to what you would do when filming a boomerang.
I used a ring light for lighting, and just a plain white wall for a backdrop.
Upload Your Clip to Unscreen.com
Just drag and drop your video file to remove the background of up to a five-second clip on unscreen.com for free.
You can just drag your video clip into Unscreen, and then it will auto-remove the background.
It is best to not have anything in the background. Make sure you don’t have gaps in between your arms and body in your movements, because it might not remove that part of the background as cleanly.
Here is what the isolated final image will look like. There is a subtle watermark in the bottom right corner, but I don’t think it is that noticeable. Your image will degrade, but it’s a gif, so it most likely will be used in a small size and will look fine.
Upload Your Edited Gif to Begin Creating
Upload it to Giphy
If you want to use your gif as a sticker in Instagram stories or on other platforms, upload your gif to Giphy.
Make sure you tag it with your blog name or something unique, so you can find it when you search for gifs in Instagram. It may take 12-48 hours for your gif to be searchable there.
I like to add my gifs to Giphy, that way I can host them elsewhere but embed them onto posts (like this), and my website won’t be slowed down.
Upload it to Canva
If you want to make animated Pinterest pins, Instagram stories, and more, upload the gif to Canva and get creative!
And Create!
This is an example of an animated Pinterest pin I created in Canva.
What are Your Thoughts?
Have you used gifs to enhance your branding? Have you turned yourself into a gif? What are your tips? Let me know in the comments!
As always, thanks for reading Domains & Champagne!
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