3 Ways to Export GIFs from After Effects - AE Fundamentals

In this After Effects Fundamentals lesson, you'll learn how to export (render, in After Effects language) your animation as a .gif file. GIFs can be useful on the web because they play automatically and can loop forever.
There are 3 ways to render a GIF, but it can't be done with After Effects alone. You'll need either Adobe Media Encoder or Adobe Photoshop (both are included in a Creative Cloud subscription) or a paid After Effects script called GifGun. All 3 ways are covered in this video.
In this video:
0:32 Adobe Media Encoder
2:56 Adobe Photoshop
8:03 GifGun, purchase here: aescripts.com/gifgun
10:42 More About GIFs
➡️ Check out the visual notes that accompany this video to help you quickly remember how to do something in After Effects: www.meganfriesth.com/aefundam...
➡️ Optimize Animated GIFs for Quality & File Size: • 9 Secrets to Better Lo...
➡️ Learn how to make seamlessly looping animations: www.meganfriesth.com/class/lo...
My website: www.animationexplained.com
Instagram: / animationexplained
Pinterest: / explanimated
Get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: www.skillshare.com/animatione...

[@andysartz]

Great video! Easy to follow, gives options, and mostly important: totally works! Thank you for sharing. 😊

[@PressureGrafix]

Thank you for this! Extremely helpful

[@juliebenedetto8341]

Exporting image sequence is a game changer!

[@werckie]

Thank you so much! I have trouble exporting through Media Encoder (Dynamic Link error that I am unable to fix), and your method of using Photoshop instead worked very well, plus you have a llot of control over the output size and quality.

[@animation-explained]

Glad it helped!

[@HenryReyes9]

Thank you so much, just what I need it and then some more

[@chrismorris553]

Thanks! The Photoshop method is by far the best for keeping file size down. Especially for animations.

[@animation-explained]

Agreed!

[@ivywalsh66]

Thank you for this! Super helpful :)

[@musicalworld7327]

png sequence is the master class OMG i got the expected quality

[@KrisDaFu]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

[@zordon7607]

Thank yoouuu!! life saver!

[@nathanmollan8308]

This was so helpful! Thank you!

[@animation-explained]

I'm so glad!

[@bookssummaries2023-mp3yy]

great stuff. thx

[@Shodan-0101]

Very Nice!!

[@theoptimistic9282]

Thanks a lot! The photoshop method really worked like a charm. Thanks a lot 🙏

[@animation-explained]

Glad to hear!😊

[@DmitriMironov]

Thanks!

[@gentleman055]

amazing I like the 2nd method, thanks

[@animation-explained]

Glad you like it!

[@shaheerrahman87]

Thank you! The PNG sequence idea really helped!

[@animation-explained]

Glad it helped!

[@Faust1169]

It's Jif .... "J" @@animation-explained

[@srinivasnahak3473]

Your video waas super helpful!

[@animation-explained]

I'm so glad!

[@MohanaKumar-xy5xm]

Thank you mam. It was helpful. ✌️

[@animation-explained]

Glad to hear that 😀

[@TanvirAhmed-xr8il]

amazing video

[@animation-explained]

Thanks!

[@Doffu]

That worked great! Thanks. I was wondering if you know of any good ways to handle motion blur when using alpha transparency? I like to use the effect and the animations look good but once transformed into a gif, the semi-transparent pixels of the blur become white (or other solid 100% opacity colors). Maybe there's a way to preserve some degree of transparency? I've definitely seen this effect in other peoples animated gifs.

[@Doffu]

Never mind, found the answer... in Photoshop you turn on the Diffusion Transparency Dither setting (or any of the other transparency dithers) and it will handle the motion blur issue. Motion blur away! 😋

[@animation-explained]

@@DoffuGlad you figured it out!

[@sheetalkumarpathak8017]

hello mam when i export giff in image there is getting small dots

[@1Dolo2]

Hi, is there a way to set the Media Encoder gif to only play once?

[@animation-explained]

Unfortunately, I don't think so.

[@Hereticzaat]

I got an even faster way. Use the frame rate setting in your composition. Export your animation as an H.264 MP4 video with no audio in media encoder. Export that mp4 into a folder. Open photoshop, navigate to file>import>video to frames. Then, save export to web and legacy…. You got yourself a gif in the desired frame rate you want. I usually work in 12, 24, 29.97, or 30 frames (rarely 15 but it happens)

[@animation-explained]

Yes, that works! You can also export a .mp4 directly from After Effects instead of using Media Encoder, which can be even faster. I like exporting a PNG sequence instead of a .mp4 because it tends to be better quality, but either work!

[@commentbot9510]

I chose rgb+alpha for a transparent background but there is a white outline around my animation. Why is this?

[@animation-explained]

This post explains why that happens and what you can do about it: graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/15549/how-can-i-remove-the-white-pixels-around-the-edges-when-exporting-a-transparent

[@jacobsyrytsia3365]

no need to pay for gifgun, there is a free script aejuice export gif

[@VerBanana]

when i did the photoshop method, it only imported 1 image out of the entire sequence. does anybody know what happened?

[@animation-explained]

When opening the images in Photoshop, make sure you have “Image Sequence” checked. This is shown at 5:00 in the video. If that wasn’t the issue, let me know and we can keep troubleshooting.

[@VerBanana]

@@animation-explained thanks for the suggestion but it wasn't the issue :< i had a sequence of 800 images and i lowered it to 400 in case it was a file processing issue but the problem persisted and I'm baffled.

[@westfield90]

It’s so frustrating that the media encounter limits its export options and exports at such an incredible large file size. This is completely unforgivable.

[@animation-explained]

I agree - GIFs can be frustrating in general!

[@sdfaasf7574]

Pretty cool but where is the answer to a question: how do you get a really worked gif with good quality and small size?

[@animation-explained]

This video should help answer that question: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6uvqZduedCKqs0