How to make a happy birthday GIF.

Discover the simple, straightforward process of creating a Happy Birthday GIF that your friends, family, and followers are sure to love.

Ready to learn how to make a GIF? These days GIFs are considered a must-know skill for success in digital endeavors. GIFs can help tell a complex story in a fun and easy way. This comes in handy for all sorts of things, but especially for gifts and birthday celebrations.

Continue reading to learn how to make a Happy Birthday GIF.

What is a GIF?

Whether it’s sketched out, captured on your phone, or taken with a DSLR, a GIF is a looped animation of images that are put together to add movement to a series. GIFs are great tools for storytelling, digital marketing, and time-lapses.

How to make a birthday GIF.

Creating a GIF can be a great birthday gift - here's how you can make your own.

  • Sketch out your Happy Birthday GIF idea to get the process going.
  • Open images in Photoshop and make sure that each is filed as its own layer. Unlock your original layer.
  • Open your Timeline Panel by selecting Window > Timeline, click Create Frame Animation from the dropdown menu. Click Make Frames From Layers.
  • Give each frame the same timing by clicking the first frame, holding Shift, then clicking the last frame — set the interval to 0.1 seconds.
  • Select the dropdown menu under the timeline and click Forever for continuous play.
  • Export your GIF by selecting File > Export Save for Web (Legacy), then set the GIF as the Export Format and Forever as the looping option.

Now you’re ready to share your happy birthday GIF with the world.

The best way to create GIFs.

Discover more photography tips that will help you to make even more amazing GIFs. Ready to create the best birthday GIFs and more with the right tools? Get started right now — explore all you can do with Adobe Photoshop today.