How to make a GIF from photos

Decide the sequence before you start. Rename the files 01, 02, 03 and so on, or at least know the order you want them in, because you will bring them in one at a time. Between eight and thirty images is a comfortable range for a short loop; you can always drop some later.

For stop-motion, shots taken from a fixed position — a phone propped against something, moving the subject a little between each — give by far the smoothest result. Handheld bursts work too but expect the frame to jump around.

Open the canvas size selector in the sidebar and pick the shape closest to your images — 4:3 for most phone photos held upright as landscape, 16:9 for widescreen, square for anything you plan to crop. Getting the shape right now saves fighting with letterboxing later.

Keep the size modest. A 480- or 640-pixel-wide canvas is plenty for a GIF, and photographic frames get heavy fast — see making a GIF file smaller for why.

Use the Import button in the sidebar to choose a file from your device, or paste one straight from the clipboard with Ctrl/⌘+V. The image drops onto the canvas as a floating selection you can drag, scale from the corners, and rotate. Position it, then apply it to lock it into the frame.

Nothing is uploaded — the photo is read and processed in the browser tab, the same as everything else in the studio.

Add a blank frame, then import the next photo into it. Repeat for the whole set. Adding a blank frame rather than a copied one keeps each picture on its own frame with nothing bleeding through from the last.

If the framing shifts between shots, turn on ghost frames (onion skinning). The previous photo shows through faintly while you position the new one, so you can line up a horizon, a table edge or a character and keep the animation from lurching.

Frame rate decides how fast the photos advance. For motion — a person waving, an object being built up — 8 to 12 frames per second looks natural. For a slideshow feel where each image should be read, drop to 2 or 3 frames per second, or leave the rate higher and put a hold on each frame so it lingers for several beats.

If one shot deserves more time — an establishing photo, a punchline — give just that frame a longer hold rather than duplicating it.

Delete any frames that do not earn their place, trim dead air from the start and end, and check the loop by playing it a few times. Then export as an animated GIF.

Because the frames are photographic, the GIF may be large. If it is heavier than you want, a smaller canvas and fewer frames are the fastest fixes, or export as MP4 instead of GIF where the destination accepts video. You can also draw directly on any frame — add a caption, circle something, paint out a distraction — before exporting.