Okay, so I wanted to make one of those “intensifies” GIFs the other day. You know the ones, where an image shakes like crazy, usually with some text? Seemed like a fun little thing to figure out.
Getting Started
First thing, I needed a base image. I scrolled through my phone gallery for a bit, looking for something with a good reaction face. Found a picture of my cat looking slightly alarmed at a cucumber. Perfect. You need something where the shaking actually adds to the feeling, right?
Making it Shake
Alright, got the image. Now, the shaking part. I didn’t want to mess with complex video software for this, honestly. Too much hassle for a simple GIF.
- I remembered seeing some online tools that specifically do this effect. Fired up my browser and searched around.
- Found a couple of websites that let you upload an image and add effects. Picked one that looked straightforward.
- Uploaded the cat picture. Then I looked for the ‘shake’ or ‘vibrate’ effect option. Most sites have sliders or something similar.
- I played around with the intensity slider. Too little, and it just looked blurry. Too much, and you couldn’t even tell it was a cat anymore. Had to find that sweet spot where it looked frantic but still clear-ish.
- There was also an option for speed, how fast the shakes happened. Set that to something pretty quick to get the right intensifies vibe.
Adding the Text
The shaking was looking good, but it wasn’t complete without the text. The tool I was using had a text overlay feature, thankfully.
I typed “[INTENSIFIES]” – gotta have the brackets, that’s classic. Chose a simple, bold font. Impact font is traditional, but sometimes a basic Arial Black works just as well. Placed it usually at the bottom, centered. Made sure the text size was readable but didn’t cover the main subject (the cat’s face) too much.
Final Touches and Saving
Previewed the whole thing. The cat shaking, the text pulsing along with it. Looked pretty much how I wanted it.
Then, just hit the ‘generate’ or ‘create GIF’ button. The website processed it for a few seconds.
And boom! Downloaded the final GIF file. Checked it one last time to make sure the loop was smooth and the effect was right.
So yeah, that was basically it. Found an image, used a simple online tool to add shaking and text, adjusted until it felt right, and saved it. Didn’t take long at all, and now I have a custom “intensifies” GIF for whenever the situation calls for extreme cat-related alarm. Pretty neat.
