So you wanna make some cool GIF artwork on your Steam Profile but there's no good one's available on Google, what do you do?
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I'm here to help you. First let's begin by finding the clip you'd like. If you already have the .mp4 saved, or a direct link to your video/.mp4 file, WONDERFUL, this will save you time. You can go ahead and skip the next step if you'd like. Now for those who don't already have an .mp4 but have an idea of what they'd like to clip or let's say you found some footage or would like to capture a snippet. I suggest downloading && using the software, ScreenPal or any other screen recording software of your choosing (twitch streamers more than likely have some software already installed)

For this guide,
I am going to
utilize the
application,
ScreenPal.




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Next, we have to load up our footage that we found.
I'll locate my preferred clip of destination; for this example we used Youtube.



After loading getting the clip ready. we will launch the software, ScreenPal.

Once you have launched the software, you will have the ability to select a destination folder for your output file similar to the example:



After selecting a destination, you can then click the red circle Record button in the top-right to launch the recording overlay.



From here you can drag and drop your recording box around the desired footage. You can see how I placed the video within the capture box as seen below:


*please note I didn't directly align these for the sake of time purposes, however, I traditionally take the time to perfectly align && this alignment carries onto future clips.*

Now press the big red button that says "Rec" to begin recording. You can proceed to pause and resume recording as desired, or perhaps redo the recording from start or a stopping point. Take the time to familiarize yourself with the User Interface. Once you have recorded the footage and paused the recording, you can choose a file name and publish the .mp4 to your destination.

So you either already had an .mp4 on your computer or you just captured footage, either way, you're in good shape for this next step.

Let's begin by accessing the website EZGIF[ezgif.com] to convert our .mp4 to .gif.



From here, we will click the tab, Video to GIF.



Upload the .mp4 into the white box OR type the URL from the destination source (these have to end in a compatible format such as .mp4, etc)



Click the Upload Button.



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After Uploading, you will be greeted with a preview of your video with time slots to crop your desired .GIF and the option to convert it. Go ahead and convert it first and we will crop the time here, shortly. Or you can do a rough guess crop of your time and then adjust it later. For now, click Convert to GIF.



We also can optimize the GIF's frame-rate or drop it in this section. This will also dynamically affect the sizing of the video. More frames = Bigger Size of file. For this guide, we will be shooting for >5MB filesize. This is important due to steams current 5MB restriction on uploads.

I keep the sizing as original and usually use between 10-20 FPS as my desired frame-rate for the best results but feel free to explore your options. Go ahead and Convert to GIF.



Now we will adjust the time of the video.
You should see time slots to further adjust the loop of your .GIF after the page refreshes.



I recommend utilizing decimal placements with your time, i.e.

4.2 start time
8.8 end time

I have found that 3-5 second .gif loops work wonderfully. You can even go as far as utilizing another decimal placement for finer values, i.e.

4.45 start time
8.09 end time

This will allow you to crop the clip to your exact liking, don't be afraid to experiment, this takes me the most time of the process, so don't get discouraged if you feel like you're not making any progress during this step.

For this demonstration, we will use 3 and 7.5 as our start and end time.



Click Convert to GIF again to get a new preview of your .GIF and Filesize.



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Currently, as expected, our file-size is too big



So we will have to some optimization/compression to reduce this. You can also use cropping tools and effects such as slowing down a video if that suits your fancy. I sometimes slow down smaller clips to hit my 5MB mark if it is smaller than normal.

Our file-size is 5.78 MB, which isn't too much bigger than the limit, requiring minimal compression.

We will use the Optimize tool to achieve our goal.



From here we are presented different options. I recommend Lossy GIF, or dropping every 3rd or fourth frame but again, feel free to experiment.



Lossy GIF gives you the ability to input a range from 5-300 to either lightly or heavily compress your videos with 5 being the least compression. With our video being so small as it is, 5 will certainly achieve our goal, but you may have to do a lot of back and forth in this step. I attempt to get as close to the 4.9-5MB range during this step.

For this example, I will demonstrate using 8 and then 5 as Lossy GIF compressions.



8 gave us a result of



If we wanted to reduce this file-size less, we could definitely scale back by turning the 8 into a 5.



This will help us reach that 4.9-5MB range.



You may have to go as far as 50-100 for your Lossy GIF compression slider, it all depends on how big the clip is, how many frames it has, and other various sizing parameters. After you have reached the file-size you'd like, go ahead and use the Save button to download your new .GIF <33

Well normally you could just search for a "Steam Artwork Upload Guide" pretty easily, but I thought I'd drop in my current methods as a BONUS!

First go to your profile and on the right-hand
side click the word "Artwork"




From here, you have the option of choosing to upload new artwork in the top-right


Go ahead and click the white Upload artwork button and you'll be prompted to either choose a game (which you can) or non-game specific artwork



I choose Not Game Specific and then I'm prompted to the next screen to enter my Artwork information


For the Artwork Title, you can choose any naming convention that suits you, however if you wish to have a blank title for a cleaner, sleek profile design, I recommend using an "invisible character" which can be copy and pasted into the Title section. I personally use Edit Pad[www.editpad.org] as my source.

If you choose Edit Pad, Method 1 Allows you to easily copy and paste the invisible character as shown below:



Here you can also preview acceptable file types and the aforementioned 5MB upload limit at the time of writing this guide. When choosing your file, you will be flagged if it exceeds the limit.

For the Description, I put my title and description here as a means of condensing everything- while still displaying text in your activity feed && ensuring a sleeker profile design.

Click "Upload", and as long as it passes Steams automated checks, your GIF will now be in your artwork! <3

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If you made it this far-- Thank You for reading my first guide ever! I had fun putting it together and I hope you can make some really cool GIFs with it.
Feel free to comment @ me if you have any questions, comments, etc. ^^

-OneWing3dAngel