For this you’ll need:
- Fraps
- Sony Vegas
- Photoshop
and VLC Media Player.

My way of making gifs.

The first thing you’ll want to do is open up Fraps and the video you’d like to record on VLC media player. Once you’ve done that, set Fraps to record video at 30 FPS. This way you’ll capture every frame that goes on as most animation never exceeds 30 FPS.

Now record the secene you’d like to gif and then close off VLC Media Player.

Sony Vegas Part

Next open Sony Vegas and go to file and new.

You’ll be presented with a box with a load of options. Use these:

Template: HDV 720-30p (1280x720, 29.970 fps)
Width: 1280
Height: 720
Field Order: None (Progressive Scan)
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0000 (Square)
Output rotation: 0 (Original)

Frame rate: 29.970 (NTSC)
Stereoscopic 3D mode: Off

Pixel Format: 32-bit floating Point (Full range)
Compositing Gamma: 2.222 (Video)
Full-resolution rendering quality: Best
Motion blur type: Gaussian
Deinterlace  method: None

Once that is done click OK and import the video you just recorded from fraps.

When the video has been imported and placed on the timeline and you cut out the parts you don’t need. Double click the video to highlight it all so that Sony Vegas renders it. Then right click on your video. Go to Properties and click “Disable Resample”. This way there is no blur in the video while editing it on Photoshop.

Now that all that is done, go to File and render as.
Once the box has popped up find the file type “MainConcept AVC/AAC (*.mp4)
Click the drop down box and choose “Internet HD 720p” Name your file and then render. 

Now you’ll have an MP4 file which can be imported into Photoshop.

Photoshop Part

Open up Photoshop and go to File > Import > Video Frame To Layers.
This will bring in your video ready.

Open up the animation window on Photoshop by going to:
Windows > Animation.

As you imported it as a video the frames will be in the right order so no need to reverse them at all.

Now Use the crop tool and take a small part off each side just in-case there is any black lines around your gif. 

Then go to Image > Image size and set the width to 500px. The height should change proportionally to the width so you won’t have to change that.

The next part is to start going through the frames one by one on the animation window, deleting any duplicate frames. (As you rendered at 30 FPS there will be quite a few but its worth the hassle as it keep the gif smooth.)

Once all frames you don’t need have been deleted you may want to add a watermark. To do the click the first frame on the animation window. Then on the layers panel scroll right to the top and click the very last layer. That way it shows on top of all the layers. Then just add your text and it should be al good.

Also as you rendered at 30 FPS the time scale between each frame will be a lot smaller. I find normally it can be anywhere from around 0.07-0.09 depending on the gif. So just make sure its not too fast or too slow. 

Another think to check is on the bottom left of the animation window you may see the word “Once” Click it and change it too “Forever” now you gif loops forever.

Then comes the saving, Go to File> Save for web & devices.

Make sure you’re saving it as a gif and try to have 256 colours in it. If its over 1000kb then just play around with a few settings to try and lower it such as use the lossy slider, it can drastically change the size of a gif just don’t put it too high.

Then once you’re gif is all done, Under 1000KB and looping forever. Just upload it Tumblr or anywhere you want and it should work perfectly fine.

(If I’ve missed anything, just message me I’ll update it.)