A Howto With lots of Pics--Making Animated GIFs and how to get them into your post

Writing a post and have something to show that would be perfect to use a moving picture for? An 'animated GIF' is just a series of pics shown in sequence to show some movement, or maybe a short movie, but with much less memory being used. (not to mention time to upload)

Well, I had the same thought when writing my little workout series. There were several times when a moving GIF would show just what I was talking about. I had seen some before on other posts, but didn't think I could do that without some fancy software or some advanced video skills. Turns out everything needed is free online and the entire process is pretty easy. Let me go through it here..

For my post on workouts: traps and shoulders, I wanted to show the shrug, the exercise I do.. so I did that the only way I know how.. with a side by side picture of me at the start and end of the move:

That was before I Iooked online for how to make a moving GIF and discovered that it's very simple, and the free tools are online, too. First thing is to take all the pics you will use to make the animated GIF and upload them to this free online GIF maker..

https://ezgif.com/maker

Here's the site, and where to click in order to browse for the pics, which should be on your computer already.

so I would find my two pics (which are usually in my pictures folder, but this time I have them on desktop so I can find them fast)

(just press ctrl, next to spacebar, as you click on each pic.. this selects more that just 1 file.. adds it the group, then click on 'open')

now click on 'upload!' (it takes a few seconds)

this is what I got..

as it says here, my images are not all the same size. Unless that is what you want, go ahead and click on 'Resize' now.

On this screen, you can choose to skip or make copies of the pics and more editing, but I choose just to use this simple two pic animted GIF. I'll click the 'Animate it!' button.

After clicking, you can see the animated GIF by scrolling down that page. (your computer might take a little time to make the animation.. the overall time depends on how many pics you are using and the speed of your internet connection) My animated GIF came out ok, but it's way faster than I want..

I choose the 'speed' button to change the GIF's speed. I'll throttle it down to 40 % of it's current speed, then click 'Apply!'

Much better. (again, scroll down on that same page to find the new animated GIF) Click on 'Save' and take note of where it saves that animated GIF file and also the name of the file. (mine saves to desktop)

Now, you might think that you could simply drag the new pic file onto your post, just like you can for regular pic files, but there is one more step needed. (don't try and be like, huh? oh man, did I waste all my time making the stupid GIF and now I can't even load it onto my post?!?!) All you need is to host the GIF file online first. There are many such pic hosting sites, but they usually require a fee or at least for you to register first. (what humbug) I found one that is fast and free.. just go here,

https://giphy.com/upload

Click on 'Browse'

Find your animated GIF file, click on it, then click on 'open'

Click 'Upload GIF's', and after a few more seconds, your GIF is hosted.

Click on 'Copy link' to get to your final window that gives you what you want..

Copy this link (right click and 'copy') and paste it (right click and 'paste') in your post where you want it to go.

Yay! Our animated GIF is done. Now go make 10 more to get the process down!! :P