Creating animated GIFs

This is a work in progress

Graphics quality

• Subscribe and enable Dynamic Resolution mod
• Set internal resolution to 250% (if your GPU can handle it; keep an eye on temperature!)
• Ideally do the recording during in-game golden hour (that hour where the sun is in just the right spot to make everything look super nice)

Screen recording

• Use bandicam or similar screen recording app
• Set capture area to be 637x358 pixels (Steam specifies 636x358, but 637x358 seems to work better)
• Clips should be no longer than 5-7 seconds

Header and footer images

• These will be overlayed on top of the video
• Header: 637x50 pixels - should contain title and optionally an icon
• Footer: 637x30 pixels - should contain brief interaction guide (eg. info about which mouse button or keyboard shortcut to use)

TODO: Style guide

Conversion to GIF

Uploading:

• Upload the image to Video to GIF
• Size: Original (up to 800px)
• Frame rate: 5 (max 60 seconds)
• Method: FFMPEG
• Do not select the 'Optimise for static background' checkbox

Add header:

• Use Overlay tool
• Upload header image
• Left: 0, Top: 0

Add footer:

• Use Overlay tool
• Upload footer image
• Left: 0, Top: 328 (or just drag the image to the bottom of the gif)

Optimise #1:

• Use Optimise tool
• Method: Remove duplicate frames
• Fuzz: ~30% (higher if it doesn't degrade quality)

Frames:

• Use Frames tool
• Set delay of first and last fames to 60
• Loop count: Leave blank (unlimited)

Optimise #2:

• Use Optimise tool
• Method: Optimise transparency
• Fuzz: ~15% (higher if it doesn't degrade quality)

Optimise #3:

• Use Optimise tool
• Method: Use single colour table for all frames

Save:

• You should now have a nice small GIF that can be uploaded to workshop page or wiki :)