How to Make Your Own Instagram GIF

Nothing makes your Instagram Stories stand out quite like your own custom GIF flickering on screen. It’s that final touch of personality and branding that stops a casual viewer mid-tap. This guide will walk you through exactly how to create your own unique Instagram GIF stickers from start to finish - from designing the animation to making them searchable for millions of users to find and share.

Why Should You Bother with Custom Instagram GIFs?

Creating your own GIFs isn't just a fun creative project, it's a solid branding move. When you have your own set of animated stickers, you add a layer of personality and professionalism to your content that sets you apart. Think about it:

• Perfect Brand Consistency: You can create GIFs that use your exact brand fonts, colors, and logo. Instead of searching for a generic “new post” sticker, you can have one that looks and feels exactly like your brand.
• Higher Engagement: Custom, eye-catching animations are more likely to grab attention than generic Story elements. They make your content look more deliberate and thoughtfully produced, encouraging viewers to pause and engage.
• Organic, Shareable Marketing: Here's the best part - when your GIFs are searchable in the Instagram library, anyone can use them, extending your brand’s reach without you lifting a finger. Someone finds your fun sticker, adds it to their story, and suddenly your brand name or logo is in front of their entire audience.

The Key to Instagram GIFs: Getting a GIPHY Brand Channel

Instagram doesn’t host GIFs itself. Instead, it pulls its entire library of searchable GIF stickers directly from a platform called GIPHY. Therefore, to get your animated creations into the Instagram ecosystem, you need to go through them. The only way to make your content searchable is by getting an official GIPHY Brand Channel.

Getting a Brand Channel is more of an application process than an instant signup, but it’s straightforward. Here’s what you need to do.

Step 1: Sign Up and Apply

First things first, create a regular account on GIPHY. Once you’re in, head over to the application page for a Brand or Artist Channel. For a business, you'll be applying for a Brand Channel.

GIPHY will want to see that you're a legitimate entity. The application form will ask for details like:

• Contact Info: Your name and email address.
• Display Name: Your business or brand name.
• A Website: This is a big one. GIPHY generally requires a functioning website to verify you’re a real brand.
• An Email from Your Domain: This is super important. An email like sarah@mycoolbrand.com looks far more legitimate than mycoolbrand88@gmail.com. Using a custom domain email greatly increases your chances of approval.
• Social Media Profile Links: Link to pages that show you have an active social presence.

Step 2: Upload Your Starter GIFs

Before you hit "submit" on your application, you need to upload at least 5-10 of your own original GIFs to your newly created GIPHY account. This shows the review team the kind of content you’ll be adding to the platform.

Just remember, these should be your creations. Don't upload reaction GIFs from movies or low-quality memes. The goal is to show them you’ll be contributing unique content. We’ll cover how to make these GIFs in the next section.

After you apply, all you can do is wait. The approval process can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks, so be patient. You'll get an email once your Brand Channel is approved.

How to Design & Create Your Instagram GIFs

Now for the fun part: making the actual animations. The key element for an Instagram Story GIF is that it needs a transparent background. These are called "Stickers" on GIPHY, and without transparency, you'll end up with an ugly white or black box around your animation in your Story.

Here are three different methods for creating them, ranging from beginner-friendly to professional-grade.

Method 1: The Easiest Option – Using Canva

Canva is a fantastic tool for creating simple, clean custom gifs, even if you have zero design experience. It’s perfect for animated text, bouncing logos, and simple icons.

1. Start a new design, using a square custom size like 1000 x 1000 pixels.
2. Design your GIF. Add your logo, type out a phrase like "Shop Now" in your brand font, or arrange a few branded icons.
3. Once your design is ready, select the entire artboard or an individual element and click the "Animate" option in the top toolbar. Canva has plenty of animation styles to choose from, like "Rise," "Pulse," or "Bounce."
4. When you’re happy with the animation, go to Share > Download.
5. For the file type, select "GIF." Below the options, make sure to check the box that says "Transparent background." This is the most important step! If you don’t, your sticker won’t look right on Instagram.
6. Click "Download," and you're done!

Method 2: Turning a Video Into a GIF (with Unscreen)

Want to turn a short clip of you waving, pointing, or giving a thumbs-up into a sticker? This method is perfect for adding a more human touch. The tricky part is removing the background from a video, but there are tools to make it surprisingly easy.

1. Film a Short Clip: Record yourself doing a simple, loop-able action. Shorter is better - aim for 2 to 3 seconds. Stand in front of a plain, solid-colored wall with good lighting. This will make it easier for the A.I. to remove the background cleanly.
2. Remove the Background: Go to a website like Unscreen.com. It’s a free tool that automatically removes the background from video clips.
3. Upload and Convert: Upload your video file. Unscreen will process it and give you a preview. When it's done, you can download the result as a GIF. It should have a clean, transparent background ready for GIPHY.

Pro Tip: Keep your movements minimal and repeatable. Simple actions like a pointing arrow, a thumbs-up, or a light bounce will loop better than complex, sweeping motions.

Method 3: The Pro Route – Adobe Photoshop or Procreate

If you're a designer or want full creative control over your animations, Photoshop and Procreate are your best bets. They let you draw frame by frame for completely custom animated illustrations, text, and logos.

For Procreate Users:

1. Create a square canvas (e.g., 2000 x 2000px).
2. Turn on Animation Assist by going to Wrench Icon > Canvas > Animation Assist. A timeline will appear at the bottom of your screen.
3. Draw each frame of your animation on a separate layer. Each frame in the timeline corresponds to a layer in your layer panel.
4. When you're finished, go to Wrench Icon > Share > Animated GIF.
5. From here, you can adjust the frames per second (12-15 fps usually looks good) and, most critically, turn on the "Transparent Background" toggle.

For Adobe Photoshop Users:

1. Open a new document.
2. Go to Window > Timeline to bring up the animation panel. Choose "Create Frame Animation" from the button in the middle of the panel.
3. Every frame in your timeline can be a different layer or visibility state. The "onion skin" feature can help you see previous frames so you can draw your next one accurately.
4. When you’re ready to export, go to File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy).
5. In the settings box, select GIF as the format. Make sure the “Transparency” box is checked and that your Looping Options are set to "Forever." You can also adjust colors and quality here to reduce file size.

Uploading and Tagging on GIPHY

Once your GIPHY Brand Channel is approved and you have a handful of beautiful, transparent GIF files, it's time to upload them and make sure people can actually find them.

Uploading Your Files as Stickers

In your GIPHY account, click ‘Upload’. A common mistake is to upload your file to the "GIF" section. Instead, make sure you drag your file over to the “Sticker” section. Only stickers have transparent backgrounds and show up correctly in the Instagram Story GIF search.

Your Tagging Strategy: This Is The SEO for Your GIFs

How do people find GIFs on Instagram? By searching for them. Your tags are everything - they are the keywords that tell GIPHY and Instagram what your GIF is about. If your tags are bad, your GIFs will never be found.

For each GIF, add 5-10 hyper-relevant tags. A good tagging strategy includes a mix of categories:

• Brand identifiers: Your brand name, acronyms, product names, or slogans. (e.g., "Postbase", "wearepostbase").
• Literal descriptions: What's happening in the GIF? (e.g., "arrow pointing up," "happy dance," "coffee cup").
• Emotional or thematic tags: How does it feel, or what's the occasion? (e.g., "celebrate," "excited," "work from home," "new post," "motivation").
• Broad categories: A few larger topics people might search for. (e.g., "marketing," "small business," "design," "illustration").

For example, if a bakery made a GIF of its logo bouncing, great tags would be: abcbakery, abc bakery, new post, yay, celebration, cookie, logo, cake, bounce, happy.

After you’ve added your tags, hit upload. It might take a day or two for your sticker to get indexed by Instagram's system, but once it does, you should be able to find it.

Using Your Brand New GIFs

Now, test it out! Open up Instagram, create a new Story, and tap the Sticker icon. In the GIF search bar, type one of the tags you used - starting with your brand name is usually the quickest way. Scrolling down, you’ll see your very own custom animation, ready to be dropped into your content.

Final Thoughts

Creating your own Instagram GIFs really comes down to three things: making simple, transparent animations, getting them on GIPHY via a brand channel, and using smart tags so people can find them. It's a fantastic tactic for adding deep brand personality to your feed and making your content instantly recognizable.

Once you’ve got a library of branded GIFs ready to go, the key is using them consistently. At Postbase, we designed our platform to make planning visual content like Stories, Reels, and TikToks incredibly easy. With our visual calendar, you can map out and schedule all your content at a glance, helping you strategically integrate those shiny new GIFs into your posts without the headache. You can check it out at Postbase.