Basics of Seamless Looping Animation Part 2

In part 2 of this looping series, I show you how to seamlessly loop animations in Cinema 4D. Then, I show you the process on how I compress them into an Animated GIF. I included my Photoshop Action for automatically building Animated GIFs, too.

Download my Animated GIF Action for Photoshop

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54 people have commented on this post. You should too!

  1. Evan says:

    Thanks Nick! BTW – Looks like the download link is busted.

  2. Guilherme Todorov says:

    My Cinema 4D timeline doesnt have the fancy icons on the panel… How can I enable it?

  3. M>B>M says:

    Thanks Nick sir

  4. Chris says:

    Hi Nick,
    Many thanks for your videos tutorials, they are great !
    What is the format of your videos, I try to make some, but I don’t find a correct format wich can be read either on a PC a MAC or an iPad… Can you help me ?
    Thanks !!!

  5. Raoul says:

    Thanks to share your obsession :)

    If you know you want to work with linear animations it’s maybe better to go to project settings->key interpolation->interpolation=linear.

  6. cultivate says:

    thank nick u’r awesome :)

  7. Rinalds says:

    Thanks man!

  8. Nikita says:

    This is awesome! The animated texture is so simple, but so powerful.
    Thanks Nick!

  9. Kerry Mortensen says:

    I can’t figure out why you had to make an action. I’m running Photoshop CS4 extended and I just open the image sequence and it creates a video layer. It asks for the frame rate. I type in 10 and it clips the timeline to 10 frames. Then I just save for web and choose gif and set the looping in the lower right corner.

    I think you made it more complex than it needs to be. After PS7 they integrated a lot of the gif animation tools into PS. They wanted to copy some of Fireworks abilities. Now they don’t have to do that. lol.

  10. S3B says:

    this message to thank you dude !
    good job as always !

  11. Bhangra says:

    Thank you, sir.

  12. Steve From UK says:

    Great little tutorial Nick

    Although I’m now cross eyed :)

  13. Dave says:

    Ah animated GIFs, got to love ‘em. If you’re feeling more advanced, may I recommend loops AND tiling?
    http://sheepfilms.co.uk/b3ta/cubes.htm
    http://sheepfilms.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/curtains.gif

  14. german says:

    exelente nick, queria saber si alguien puede ayudarme no logro abrir un archivo quicktime con photoshop, gracias

    • nohc4 says:

      En Photoshop, ve a [File]–[Import]–[Video Frames to Layers...] y en la proxima pantalla, selecciona tu archivo Quicktime y le das Open en la proxima pantalla vas a tener un preview de tu video y varias opciones a tu izquierda, asegurate de donde dice “Range To Import” de seleccionar la primera opcion que dice “From Beginning To End”, deja el resto como esta y tambien haz un check-mark en el cuadrito que dice “Make Frame Animation” y listo le das OK.
      Ojala te ayude si no lo haz descubierto ya.
      Ciao.

  15. APG1979 says:

    Thank you from France Nick!
    Have a look on my GIF :)
    http://apg1979.tumblr.com/post/16375099774

  16. VictorSaliba says:

    I played with clones, offset them and animate the camera. Here’s what it looks like : http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy57/Grognoo/Looping-Animation.gif
    Thanks Nick.

  17. Matt says:

    Hey Nick, There’s actually an option in photoshop to automatically import video frames as layers.

    File > Import > Video Frames to Layers.

    Hope this information helps :)

  18. Bigred says:

    Yet again a good tut Nick. Thanks.

    Easy way to work out your offset percent – set your tile to a whole number (not essential, but it will make everything look neat) then divide 100 by whatever number you’ve chosen. 8 = 12.5, 7=14.286, 6=16.667 and so on. Do the calculation in the OSX calculator and you can even copy/paste the number into the keyframe.

  19. grigoris says:

    thanks nick. did you notice any bluriness on your projects? i heard that in photoshop we have to sharpen the layers before save as web and devices.

  20. Linus says:

    haha this is fun! Nice tutorial nick! :)
    Check it out..
    http://quikk.se/?7d6ec0

  21. Nillerus says:

    Thanks Nick, as always a superb tut. Great to see your inspiration for this, and love your enthusiasm, it’s so damn infective.

  22. Optiqal says:

    Tip: Divide 100% between your amount of tiles and keyframe that number into your offset, e.g. in your tutorial the number of tiles is about 8.
    100 / 8 = 12,5 for offset to loop
    No need to eyeball this, just do the math!
    Great tutorial BTW!

  23. Steve Teeps says:

    This one doesn’t seem to be as seamless of a loop as I hoped but really glad I figured out the workflow.. definitely doing more of these.

    http://behance.vo.llnwd.net/profiles7/287791/projects/2787717/cc00c496934a9a8028c2a7020c12f897.gif

  24. Anton says:

    Animated GIFs are great!
    This is my all-time favorite: http://senorgif.memebase.com/2010/04/30/back-to-work/

    Really enjoying your tutorials!

  25. Jesse says:

    Damnit, I started making these just before this tut came out! Now everyone will be making them!

    Here’s my tumblr with some of my gifs:

    http://monsieurhamel.tumblr.com/

  26. emmanuel says:

    you could use 10% v and animate up to 10%

  27. nohc4 says:

    Hey Nick great tut as always!, thanks for this one I love it!, also check some ones from me here: https://plus.google.com/photos/117431716881268491778/albums/5702994339748860257
    I’m planning to make more, any feedback will be appreciated!, thanks!

  28. Slimz Dayone says:

    Was trying to see how many colours and size i could get away with.
    http://dcreative101.deviantart.com/#/d4o6f1n

  29. Edd Guerrero says:

    Another super nice tutorial Nick!

    Look this is my first GIF thanks to you.

    http://eddguerrero.blogspot.com/2012/02/gif1.html

  30. Rafal says:

    Great tutorial Nick! But i’m still wondering how to make your Blowup Sphere ( http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/BlowUpSphere5.gif ).

    I think it is soft body, but i cant achieve this effect. So can you tell me how to do it?

    Thanks.

  31. Eugene Ansah says:

    Sir Nick,my photoshop cant open the animation file from c4d. any advice?

  32. Pete says:

    Nick,

    Nice tut. Informative and inspiring.

    made a little somethin’ for the holiday
    http://peterchristofferson.tumblr.com/post/17327240848

  33. Hoogle says:

    If you render out your cinema 4d file as a quicktime movie or AVI you can open up photoshop go to file > Import > video frames to layers. that way all you need to do is then go to file > save for web and devices. Occassionally you may want to add an adjustment layer on top of your animation for colour or exposure correction etc.

  34. little ape says:

    THX the .atn its great action, and thank you very much when you make a very good tutorials. You have taught me a lot of C4D, AE.
    I’m really grateful for the teaching.

    Thank you Nick

    I smile

  35. palej says:

    thanks for inspiring me. with your help I do a lot of stuff in c4d and posting it for fotolia.

  36. Laert says:

    Hello,

    I tried this tutorial, however when I rendered my scene the material did not load. Does anyone know what could be the reason for this? Its ok in a static scene but when i include the animation the textures dont render…

    I appreciate any help,

    Thank you heaps.

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