Learnin' with Fish: Super Cool Gif Art (The Ed Helms Experience)

Want to learn how to make something like that or even better? Fire up your favorite image editing program and open this spoiler:

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Hooray! Please post all the super cool gif art you make following that method right here, and tell me about any changes or new ideas you come up with.

Open this next spoiler for some bonus Ed Helms super cool gif art:

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Don't forget to download GIMP! It's Photoshop but free and open-source, so no one with access to a computer has an excuse for not having a copy.

So not only are you applying the filter to every new image, you also increase the value of the filter. So the first edited frame has filter levels [1], the second is the original image with the filter applied twice at [1, 2], the third [1, 2, 3]... Not just [1], [2], [3] or [1], [1, 1], [1, 1, 1].
(know what I mean?)

Yes, that's exactly right. Of course, you don't have to do it that way, that's just the way that I've found works best for me. It gets the effect going faster and smoother, respectively, than [1], [2], [3] or [1], [1], [1], as you put 'em, but it all comes down to personal preference in the end; there are thousands of different ways to make an animation like this feel, through implementing very minor changes in the procedure, and practice is the only way to settle on the feeling that you like the most.

This is really great! I should download GIMP now.

But I have to ask, how did you make that super long image that was also a tutorial? Did you also use GIMP for that?

Yep. I just wrote the text and dropped in screenshots while making the Helms gif, then polished it up. It took a couple hours because, as I mentioned in it, I wanted to be thorough. I use GIMP for everything.

I never really connected what you meant by different kinds of indexing until now!

As a GAP (GIMP Animation Package) user myself, I'd like to add that using filters on pictures of Ed Helms is by no means all you can do with GIMP-made GIFS! GAP also lends itself brilliantly to animations drawn frame-by-frame, which while intensive is a decent way to bang out a quick reaction GIF or two.

<-- doink

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I remember, years ago when we were both in high school (and whatever it is they call it Over There) Dalm and I, both quite new to digital art, looked into GAP for a project but didn't end up cottoning to it. Now that so much time has passed and so much experience has happened, I for one will probably be checking it out again, now that you've reminded me that it exists, so thank you.

new helms! this one has three variations on a filter in sequence.

woooo! Ed Helms!!!

edit: that one kind of sucks, actually. here's something else instead:

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BEHOLD! THE GROTESQUE TED HALLAMS METAMORPHOSIS!

Also, if anybody wants to animate but doesn't want to use gimp: I've been using this excellent program for a while now.