Alright folks, let me tell you about this little thing I messed around with today – the “we dont do that here” GIF. Sounds simple, right? Well, it kinda was, but there were a couple of hiccups along the way, as always.
First off, I wanted to use this GIF in a Slack channel at work. Someone was suggesting a way to do something that… well, let’s just say it wasn’t how things were done ’round these parts. So, the GIF was perfect.
So, I went straight to the source, you know, Google Images. Typed in “we dont do that here gif” and BOOM, a bunch of ’em popped up. Found a good one with Steve Carell from “The Office.” Classic.
Problem #1: Size. The GIF was HUGE. Like, way too big to just drop into Slack without blowing up the chat. Slack has limits, people!
What I did next was hit up this online GIF reducer tool. I used one before. Uploaded the GIF, fiddled with the settings for a bit – lowered the resolution, reduced the number of colors, all that jazz. Downloaded the smaller version. Looked alright, but…
Problem #2: Quality. Reducing the size killed the quality. The GIF looked all pixelated and janky. Not ideal.
So, I thought, “Okay, gotta get a little more hands-on.” Opened up GIMP, which is like a free version of Photoshop. I don’t use it that often, but I know my way around the basics.
- First, I imported the GIF as layers.
- Then, I went through each layer and made some subtle adjustments. Like, instead of drastically reducing the colors, I just tweaked them slightly to compress a little better.
- Next up, played around with the frame rate a little. Noticed the GIF was running super fast, so I slowed it down a tad. Made it look less frantic.
- Finally, exported it as an optimized GIF.
This time, the result was way better. Still a little bit of quality loss, but not nearly as noticeable. Size was down to something reasonable for Slack.
Dropped it into the channel. Perfect. Everyone got a good laugh. Mission accomplished.
Now, the last step I took, just because I’m a little OCD like that, was to keep a record of what I did. I created a little text file with the steps I took to resize and optimize the GIF. Saved it in a folder on my computer. That way, next time I need to do something similar, I don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
All in all, it took maybe 30 minutes. Not bad for a little GIF action. And it’s a good reminder that sometimes, the best solutions aren’t always the easiest ones. Gotta get your hands a little dirty sometimes. So yeah, that’s how I tackled the “we dont do that here” GIF situation today. Hope someone finds this useful. Later!