On the school computers it has Photoshop CS6 and in Digital Photography class i've been trying to make a signature with a gif. Question: How the ginger crackers do you guys do it? i'm having trouble getting the gif onto the signature and with it playing. Please help me!

Mod Note: this topic is better suited in the Avatar/Signature section, as it isn't a site function, but more or less a graphics question. I moved it for you.

Also, I'm not too good with this sort of thing, so I'll leave the actual question to someone more advanced with siggie making

I am having he same issue. I actually keep a old copy of Photoshop 6.0 (earlier than CS) handy because it has built in imageready to work with gifs. I am curious to see what other people have come up with.

Quick qestion, are you guys copy and pasting gifs or opening the file itself?
I have a youtube video I watched how to do mine if it will help you at all.

I actually find that CS6 is easier for making gifs. Two key points are to make sure you go to Window > Workspace > Motion when editing in order to bring up the timeline that allows you to see each frame, and the second is to be sure to save by going to File > Save For Web. I've noticed that if you don't save the file that way, the gif won't play, even if you save it as a .gif file (I have no idea why).

Here's a short tutorial x

I save my gifs using Mercury's recommendations from this thread x

The problem is that i can't get the gifs onto the actual signature. I can import them into photoshop just fine but getting them onto the signature with multiple frames is proving to be a problem

I'm not 100% sure I understand your issue, but I would just take the signature layers and highlight all of the frames, then paste them.

i have CS3 but here goes! easiest thing to do would be put all the frames in a group layer folder. saves on space too when you're working on the siggie, since you can collapse the group.

simply select the group layer folder, which will select all the frames, then click the move tool( cursor with 4 point arrow plus sign) and this will allow you to move the animation frames to another file and/or resize the frames.

another thing that would help is in the animation frames window, delete everything. make sure you have only the animation frames, and click the downward arrow with 3 horizontal lines, and select the option "make frames from layers" which will recreate the animation.

also if you want to add effects ontop, make sure the effect layers are at the very end of the animation frame window, and use the "match layer across all frames" option. so when it plays, if you add words, the words will be on every frame.

hope this helps!

Unfortunately, from when I've worked in CS6, there doesn't seem to be a "match layer across all frames" option :/ I could be wrong but all my tinkering and google searching for something that does that has turned up with nothing :/

What you have to do is open up your Timeline, like what Henshinyo said, and recreate each layer in that. When you copy over all the layers from the open gif file to the signature file that your working on, it doesn't place those into a timeline gif like it is in the original gif file (or it does but they're all the same layer or something like that but generally it's not how you want it). What you have to do is click on each gif layer, along with whatever picture/text/effects you want to combine it with, and recreate the gif in the Timeline layer by layer. This is how I do it when I work with CS6/CC and it's always worked for me ^^

I don't know of any easier way to do this, trust me I wish I did 

Again, what Henshinyo said about saving the file via File > Save for Web is key when saving your final product because otherwise the gif won't move. It's in the Save for Web window that you can adjust the settings of the gif including pace for all the layers and such. I would recommend though that you adjust your speed settings in the Timeline as you have more flexibility to adjust each layer's speed as you want.

I hope that wasn't too confusing for you   I would make images and such for you but I don't have access to CS6 at the moment xP

If you have any other questions about this or anything else related to PS don't be afraid to ask me  I'd love to help ^^

How do you recreat the gif?

I hope you don't mind me jumping in. ^^;

@SayakaSakura - If you have a gif saved and want to use it, opening it in PS should give the gif's frame animation for you automatically.

Try opening the gif in PS and once it is open, click Window > Timeline. That should bring up the timeline window with the gif's original frame count and frame delay. Like Henshinyo and Mystery pointed out, remember to use the 'Save for web' option if you want to save your work in gif format. =)

I hope this helps!


(@Mystery - Have you tried copying the signature layers into the gif project instead? It’s a faster method if you’re combining an animation with a still project.

If you're placing an animation on top of another animation, the timeline menu options are very nifty. Here's a tutorial. =) )