LICECap is great for making quick animated GIFs. What do you use or recommend to record screen captures in GIF format? They’re a great option when using video doesn’t make sense. Last but not least, play with the recording options as there might be a combination that decreases the file size of recordings.Īnimated GIFs are great for a few laughs, but they’re also an excellent way to show how something works. Animation such as scrolling and page browsing should be kept to a minimum. Resize the recording window so it’s only as big as necessary. Keep the recording as short and small as possible. When you insert it into a post, make sure to use the full size image since animated GIFs don’t scale as well as JPG files. Once you’re satisfied with the recording, upload the GIF file to the WordPress media library. On the bottom left of the recording window, you’ll see the size of the frame, timestamp, and the amount of FPS. When the countdown reaches 0, LICEcap begins recording movement within the frame. Once everything is configured, click the save button and a three second countdown begins. Since animated GIFs should be as short and small as possible, the lack of a frame editor isn’t a big deal. LICEcap doesn’t have an editor to manage frames so if you make a mistake, you’ll have to start over. This way, you won’t see the mouse cursor move off the screen to click the pause button. I recommend checking the box to use Control + Alt + P to pause the recording. I don’t know what most of the options do and LICEcap doesn’t have any documentation outside of this discussion forum. There’s also configuration settings that allow you to manipulate the recording. When you hit the record button, you’ll be prompted to name the file and select where it will be saved. You can also adjust the max frames per second, but keep in mind that the higher the number, the larger the file size will be. You can adjust the frame manually by dragging the edges with your mouse cursor, or you can type in an exact size. LICEcap has an adjustable frame that you place over the content you want to record. ![]() I used LICEcap by Çockos Incorporated, which is free, GPL licensed software available for Windows and OSX. You can also set the looping options in this window to play ‘Once’, ‘Forever’ or a specified number of times.When I wrote about enhanced plugin installs being removed from WordPress 4.2 last week, a few readers asked how I created the animated image that shows how shiny updates work. Try reducing the number of colours to bring the file size down. The window below is displayed, allowing you to alter the settings to get the right balance between file size and quality. When saving your final animation, go to ‘File’, ‘Export’ and ‘Save for Web’. If you’re going to loop your animation it’s good idea to have a pause on the last frame of 1-2 seconds – so set this individually. To do this select all frames, click on the time at the bottom, select a predefined time from the list or ‘Other’ to enter your own. We changed this to ‘No delay’ for a smoother animation. You can also change the delay time of each frame to suit your animation. To do this, open the GIF and using the timeline window delete any redundant frames by selecting the frame and clicking on the bin icon. The outputted GIF from LICEcap can be edited in Adobe Photoshop to remove any unwanted screens and refine the animation. Simply hit ‘Stop’ when you’re finished and the GIF will be saved in your selected location. ![]() We set the MAX FPS to 24, which is a standard rate for animation. Once installed, all you need to do is resize the recording window to fit the content you wish to capture, set the maximum frames per second (MAX FPS) and hit ‘Record’. Stripping back the colours in your photography can result in a ‘grungy’ look, which can be very effective as the example below shows: However, it doesn’t mean you should rule out using photos completely. ![]() If you create a GIF from a detailed photograph you are likely to notice a reduction in quality. As a result, they work best with images that contain simple shapes and a limited colour palette, as the example below shows: GIF files can only contain a maximum of 256 colours. When to use GIFs?īefore you begin, you should assess whether your content is suitable for this purpose. We found this to be really useful in allowing us to quickly create animated GIFS which we’ve used to demo content on our website and in presentations. LICEcap is a free piece of software that allows you to record your screen, with the option to output as a GIF file. Following on from our blog on ‘Making animated GIFs in Adobe After Effects’ we recently found another handy tool to aid GIF creation, this time for screen capture.
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