I LOVE Downton Abbey. And from this love, this GIF of the Dowager Countess staring down Lady Mary was born.
Some possible captions I came up with (feel free to submit your own in the comments section!):
- If looks could kill, Downton Abbey would be a minefield.
- No one stares as well as Dame Maggie Smith. No one.
- I'm not sure what intimidates me more--the Dowager Countess' fortune or her stare.
- When I have children, I will reproach by stare rather than words.
The process of making a GIF is pretty easy (figuring out how though was the time consuming part).
A quick and dirty summary (sorry I don't have time for the lengthy little numbers I normally do on Take a Tech Tip.
How to make a GIF using Image Stills
Tools you need
- Mac OS X's Preview program
- Adobe Photoshop Elements (or the full version if you're lucky enough to own a copy) -- my Elements v8 came with my Wacom Bamboo Capture tablet
Files you need at your disposal
- Images from a scene of choice
What you gotta do
[1] Get your images down to around the same size (either in Preview by eyeballing or in Photoshop where you can use more exact image and canvas resizing techniques).
[2] Open a new file in Adobe Photoshop with the dimensions of your aforementioned images.
[3] Copy and paste each of your scene images into the .psd file. Doing this will result in a new layer for each image. Make sure they're in the right order. Click on the image below to see a larger version that shows you the Layers palette and how the layers order corresponds with scene ordering.
[4] Move and alter as desired, although little will have to be done if all you want to do is play the images in sequence. (Some people like to make fancy GIFs with zoom effects or some more motion. That's all doable, but involves a little more tweaking).
[5] Go to File > Save For Web
[6] Make sure the settings are appropriately set. Click on the image below to see the full size version and its accompanying key:
[7] Press OK and you're done! Now you can share your GIF as you please.
