Open the pictures in a new tab/window for a larger and clearer view! :D
Programmes used: Photoshop Creations Suite 5 (Should work in the lower ones too so don't fret :P)
Difficulty level: Medium (you'd need basic gif making skills!)
End product:
1. Okay, first things first. Make the two avis you'd like to merge/overlay. One will be the base avi and the other, the overlay one. Make sure your base avi has a lot of dark parts and shadows, the kind of effect I'm going to show you doesn't really work on light gifs. If I ever figure out how to make light gifs merge I will tell you 🤣 Yeah, so make the base avis and save them.
Both the gifs should have the same number of frames!
2. Now open the avis in PS and you should have something like this (picture below :P)
3. Then, open a new file of whatever size you'd like your gif to be. In my case, its the same size as Dean's gif which I will be using as a base. So open a new file.
4. Now, select all the frames of the base gif and click the arrow on the side of the frame animation box. In the picture below, I'm referring to the light red highlighted circle at the bottom right of the image :) So, click that arrow and click, copy frames.
5. Now, go to the new file and click the same arrow and click paste frames. A dialogue box should appear, tick the options that are ticked in the picture below, i.e Paste Over Selection and Link Added Layers.
6. Now, once the frames have been pasted, select all the layers of the gif by right-clicking on any one layer and selecting "Select Similar Layers". Now, group these layers (Ctrl+G). Do the same in the other avi ( the one you use for overlay!) also. Image:
7. Now, select all the frames of the overlay gif and copy-paste them as you did in step number 5, with the same settings! Move and/or resize the gifs around, to your liking, like this. (Image below)
Now, in my case, shifted the base gif completely to the right and in each frame I had to make the background black, because otherwise it plays like this (image below)
To make each frame black, before you paste your base gif in the new file, make the file's background whatever color you want to make it, and then duplicate it the same number of times as the number of frames. (Image below) Then you can paste the base gif and continue with the process. The red highlighted circle is the button which allows you to duplicate frames.
8. Now that we've got both the gifs the way we want them, mine are like this (image below!)
9. Now, you'll see in the red circle, that the group containing Sam's gif has been selected, and the layers are in a "Pass Through" mode. Click on that bar and change the mode to lighten/lighten color/ screen, whatever works for you. Your gif will now look something akin to this. (Image below)
10. There! Your gif is done! At least that's how I did mine...you could play around with settings and see what you come up with! :) Now just save the gif as you normally do and if you want to add extra effects/textures, do that!
Phew, that too super long 😳 Don't hesitate to ask questions and I hop you understood what I said 😆
🤗
xoxo
Shiv Shakti
