So, the problem is the following: I want to rip out a part of an .avi video to save it as a .gif. So far so good, I downloaded and installed the 30-days-trial of CS4 and Quicktime and was able to open the .avi. But it only shows up as a white square. I can't find an option to change this, nor can I open only selected frames of it. I was told it should work with CS4, but I really don't know how :/

Could anyone explain how it works to me or give me a tutorial or something like that? I couldn't find anything :(

Yes, I'm a total noob at CS4, I worked with PS7 a little, but that's all. I was able to open .avi with Animation Shop Pro 3 before, but can't anymore now :(

You can do this, but mostly it uses Quicktime Pro, which you have to buy. I think it's only like $30, but there's probably a trial of it you can use. From what I can find, Photoshop doesn't have many animation features anymore because they prompt people to use Fireworks instead for advanced animation.

1. Open your video in Quicktime (Pro).
2. Use the two little arrows on the bottom of the timeline to select the part of the video you want to save. (Try to make it really short.)
3. Go to Edit - Trim to Selection.
4. Now go File - Export.
5. In the dialogue box, under the Export drop-down, choose "Movie to Image Sequence." Save it in its own folder so you can more easily transfer it to Photoshop.

What that does is converts the movie into a series of frame-by-frame image files.

Now, in Photoshop:

1. Select File - Scripts - Load files into Stack.
2. In the Load Layers dialog box, select Folder from the Use menu. Browse to the folder that contains the images you want to include and click OK.
3. Select Make Frames from Layers in the Animation palette menu.

You should now have a short animation in your Animation palette that you can just save as a GIF, or edit to make an avatar/icon.

Thank you very much Sammii! I'm totally going to try this now. hugs If it works you saved my day x3