How This Started
Got this weird idea last Tuesday around 3am when scrolling Twitter. Saw folks posting flashy looping images – you know, the kind that make your eyes stick. Thought “hell why not try making one myself?”
Dug up my old laptop still running Windows 7 because my main rig’s too slow for this crap. Opened Photoshop CS6 that crashes every 20 minutes. Started dragging in some beach vacation photos from 2019. Cropped real tight on the waves splashing against rocks – wanted that hypnotic water movement.
The Messy Process
First attempt looked like garbage. Timeline settings were all wrong. Playback stuttered like a dying lawnmower. Deleted everything and yelled at my coffee machine.
- Stayed up till sunrise adjusting frame delays
- Drank four Red Bulls trying to sync the wave loops
- Burned through eight different filters trying to make colors “pop”
- Accidentally added my thumb in frame three like an idiot
Finally got the loop halfway decent when I remembered gif files hate big sizes. Had to shrink everything to 480 pixels wide. Colors turned muddy as roadside puddle water.
Final Stretch Troubles
Export settings were pure nightmare fuel. Tried “Save for Web” option. First version came out 25MB – bigger than my cat. Compressed till pixels started bleeding. Uploaded to three different platforms to test. Instagram murdered the colors. Twitter chopped the timing.
Worst part? When I finally posted it, my cousin commented “cool waves bro” – completely missed the entire damn point of making it eye-catching. Next morning I woke up to seven DMs asking what software I used. Answered every damn one with “pain and suffering“
Final file still looks like it was made on a Nokia flip phone. But guess what? People still clicked like crazy. Sometimes ugly wins.
