How to Create a Before/After Animated GIF

▶ Download the practice files for this tutorial (free with a PHLEARN account): phlearn.com/tutorial/create-before-after-gif-ph…

Before-and-after images are a great way to show off your editing work, and turning them into an animated GIF makes the transformation impossible to miss on social media.

In this tutorial, we build a simple two-frame animated GIF from a retouched photo using Apply Image, Smart Objects, and Photoshop's Timeline panel, then export it correctly so it plays smoothly anywhere online.

CHAPTERS
00:00 What Is A Before After GIF
02:00 Create The After Layer
04:26 Copy Layers Into New Document
06:56 Convert To Smart Objects
08:39 Create Frame Animation Timeline
10:54 Set Loop And Frame Delay
13:09 Export As An Animated GIF

THE STEPS
1. On a new layer, use Image, Apply Image (Merged, RGB, 100% opacity, Invert off) to flatten your after image
2. Create a new document sized for the web, then drag both before and after layers into it
3. Make sure both layers land in the exact same position
4. Convert both layers to Smart Objects before resizing to avoid losing quality
5. Open Window, Timeline, click Create Frame Animation, then duplicate the frame and toggle layer visibility
6. Set the loop to Forever and adjust each frame's delay until the timing feels right
7. Export with File, Export, Save for Web as a GIF, checking Perceptual, Diffusion, and Convert to sRGB
8. Open the exported file in a browser to confirm the animation plays correctly

Read the full tutorial here: phlearn.com/tutorial/create-before-after-gif-photoshop

―

PHLEARN PRO: every PRO tutorial, one membership
◦ 200+ in-depth courses and masterclasses on Photoshop, Lightroom and photography
◦ 1,000+ downloadable PSDs, RAW images and sample files to follow along
◦ Presets, Photoshop actions and LUTs included
◦ New PRO tutorials every month, streamed in 4K with captions and chapters
◦ Rated 4.93/5 by 3,900+ students
◦ Cancel anytime, 100% money-back guarantee
▶ phlearn.com/pro

―――――――――――――――

Follow PHLEARN:
Instagram: instagram.com/phlearn/
Facebook: facebook.com/phlearn
Twitter: twitter.com/phlearn

#photoshoptutorial #photoshopgif #phlearn