How to Make an Animated Gif from a Video Clip
Last night my friend, ronobvious, sent me a link to this video clip of Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal doing a little dance.
He then said he wished he could make an animated gif of the dance to use as an avatar. I thought that there must be a way, so I started looking for resources.
I immediately found Glickr and was excited because I thought all I would have to was input the URL to the video and that the utility would create the animated gif. Unfortunately, Glickr threw a nasty php error and didn’t work. Ok, this was going to take a little bit more work and would require a software based solution.
Programs like Photoshop CS3 Extended can do this but since I am not a graphic designer and simply use free programs like Irfanview for cropping and resizing, I have no need for expensive software.
I then discovered creating the animated gif would be easy with Gimp and the Animation Package, which is free, open source and cross platform. Now, I am not a big fan of Gimp as I find it unnecessarily complicated without using step-by-step instructions. But it’s free and almost as good as Photoshop for the average home user.
In this tutorial I am using Gimp 2.4.6.
Ok. First I needed to download the YouTube file. TechCrunch has provided a utility to do this.
I then downloaded and installed Gimp and the Animation package. I found a video that shows how to create an animated gif from a video file, followed the instructions and created the animation for my friend. The video is a little quick so you might find that you need to pause when you are learning the process. If you would like written instructions, I have provided them below.
Instructions
- Download the Video File.
- Download and install the Gimp files for your operating system. Install the main program first and then the Animation Package second.
- Go to Xtns > Split Video Into Frames > Extract Videorange.
- On the next screen, browse for the video file that you saved and select the button that says Video Range.
- Select the frames that you want in the gif. Mine was from frame 1 to frame 62. Then check the Loop and Play Selection Only boxes. You can test this with the Start Playback Button. When you are satisfied with the frames, select the Ok button. The program will then take a couple of seconds extracting the audio and video.
- Go to Video > Frames to Image and set the From Frames and To Frames to the numbers you selected earlier. In my case, this would be 1 and 62.
- Go to Video > Frames Scale. This will set the size. Make it as small as possible because the animated gif file can be really large.
- Go to File > Save As and make sure to select .gif as the file extension.
- The next screen will ask you to export. Change the first option to animation and leave the other option on indexed rather than changing to grayscale . Then Save.
And here is the animated gif I created from the above video clip.
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August 14, 2008 at 10:24 am
The youtube link from Techcrunch was worth reading this article for!
I’ve got photoshop myself, though I only use it for resizing images and adding basic text.
You’ve motivated me to go and read some tutorials though to see if I can make similar animations with it.
Scams last blog post – Breaking News : Bigfoot Body Found?
August 14, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I’m assuming that Photoshop is different that Photoshop CS3 – yes? If so, I have found a number of tutorials for the latter but not the former.
Downloaded YouTube videos are in .flv format, which most players can not handle, and a converter is necessary. VLC, however, can play .flv files.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Of course, none of this matters if you are going to make an animation but it does if you also want to watch the video.
And once again, Scam has given me ideas for future articles :-)
August 14, 2008 at 3:59 pm
The videos I downloaded played straight off in mediaplayer, but then I do have a huge codec pack installed.
As for ideas.. really?
You must be struggling if you take inspiration from me!!
Scams last blog post – Breaking News : Bigfoot Body Found?
August 14, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Scam,
It must be the codec pack. But then I rarely use Media Player so sorry for the incorrect info.
You don’t give me direct ideas for articles but your comments make me think. For example, all the different ways to download YouTube videos, video converters, etc … But I’m actually not struggling for ideas but rather for time. I have SO many drafts of ideas …
And currently I have a great idea for demonstrating how to use BlingEasy with a certain photo I acquired yesterday … ;-)
August 14, 2008 at 4:39 pm
I have 116 draft posts at the moment – I like to make sure I always have something in reserve!
Time-wise I just wait until I am feeling inspired and then sit down and write half a dozen articles, scheduling them to be published at a later date.
OOooooohhhhhh @ THAT photo :P
Scams last blog post – Breaking News : Bigfoot Body Found?
September 1, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Thank you for a well composed step by step tutorial, just what I needed to make my video to gif, and free too. Kudos to you.
September 1, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Don – Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Is the animated gif on your myspace page the one that you made?
September 1, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Yes that is correct, thanks to you!
September 24, 2008 at 9:38 am
Hi there , i’m sorry to tell you but the software u said doesn’t work . I mean that i download your software step by step and when i choose to Xtns and get in , i can’t browse my video into the gif maker . may be it doesn’t support my video file type . But u said that to download form youtube right so does it mean in flv format ? cause i download it with flv format and it doesn’t shown in browsing . so if u can please help me with this problem , or u can email me how to do it ,I’m sure your are kind of person that can rely on .
September 24, 2008 at 11:25 am
Hi,
Where did you save the youtube video file? Is it on your desktop or another location on your computer? The browse function in Gimp is slightly different than what we are accustomed to in Windows programs.
Does anything show up when you browse? Can you see the video file in Windows explorer?
September 26, 2008 at 1:49 am
Hi ,
Finally it show up in c/download and i manage to make it into 24 frame but there is the problem started .I don’t know what to do after this step especially
at the output format under the video input browser , I have no idea what kind of output format should i choose or what to do ,so i click the ok and there is some kind of file open and it is like some soft of video cutter or something and I’m having trouble since then.
If u don’t mind please send me step by step to make some gif.This is my email
tminus.1sec at gmail.com or u can try tminus.1sec at yahoo.com
Even if u can’t send email i still thanks u for helping me out with gif trouble
September 26, 2008 at 6:53 am
Hi,
Can you look at my list of instructions in the article and tell me the step # where you are having trouble? If you are at the end, you need to save the file as a .gif
# Go to File > Save As and make sure to select .gif as the file extension.
# The next screen will ask you to export. Change the first option to animation and leave the other option on indexed rather than changing to grayscale . Then Save.
October 8, 2008 at 4:22 am
Hey there ,
I have some bad news!!
It didn’t work out yet ,I don’t know where i got wrong and all i get is just a
simple gif ONE FRAME IMAGE .
So if u have time please send me pacific step by step to make gif or some
video tutorial link or something .I’m counting on you .
THANKS!!
October 8, 2008 at 5:18 am
Hi,
Well, it has worked for others who have tried it. These are detailed step by step instructions. If it is not working for you, you are missing a step or there is something wrong with the video. You can always do a google search – I’m sure other sites have similar instructions.
October 8, 2008 at 5:38 am
Hey guss what I finally got it .I should have look at the guide u post earlier .
Last time I thought you said me to go to the video clip instead of the video option on the browser .
Fewwwwww it take me a while to figure it out haha.But I got it now.Thanks for your help .
Beside can gimp software make the video file to go backward ,i mean like 1234321 .
October 8, 2008 at 6:20 am
Great! I’m glad you got it to work.
I haven’t tried this out yet so I can’t help if it doesn’t work.
When you extract the frames (go through step #7) from the video, it creates images of the frames. Mine get saved to My Pictures. You can copy 3, 2,1 and rename as 5, 6, 7. Open the first image in Gimp normally and then open the other 6 as layers Then do steps #8 and #9.
February 26, 2009 at 4:03 am
HI,
Really i appreacite your initiation.
Just i was find a way how to convert video clips to GIF. I search in internet, l was littel bit discouraged because not having good idea.
Later i found this page and became happy.
Now i am making files here.
Thanks
February 26, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Hi Yagya – Thank you for visiting and commenting. I’m glad the
tutorial was useful.
March 3, 2009 at 10:37 am
Hi, where is “Xtns”? I don’t see it anywhere in Gimp. I googled and found nothing. Thanks.
March 3, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Hi – Are you using Gimp v 2.4.6 and did you install the Gimp Animation
package? If so, it is in the top menu that says – File, Xtns, and Help
March 11, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Hi – Actually, the link you have is for 2.6.5 and that version doesn’t even have a top menu in the toolbox, there’s a window in the middle with File and Help (with other tabs too), but no Xtns. Here’s a screencap : http://tinyurl.com/c7psjn
March 11, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Hi Mary – Thanks! Looks like Gimp was updated since I wrote this article. I’ll fix the link and not which version I’m using.
If I get the time I’ll see if I can figure out how to do this in the newest
version.
May 30, 2009 at 4:41 am
Thanks for the instructions. I’ve been looking for a simple way to make a .gif out of a video for ages, I found the tut really helpful.
May 31, 2009 at 8:14 am
Hi Megan,
There are a lot of steps but if you follow them and use the right version of Gimp, it should work fine.
June 2, 2009 at 3:15 am
When I followed your steps it made a .gif as expected.
I wanted to speed the .gif up, so I chose 49.997 as speed instead of 29.997.
Under playback it appeared to be exactly as I wanted. I went through the steps to save it and when it is viewed now, it’s normal speed in Firefox and slow speed in IE.
Any suggestions?
June 2, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Hi Jerry – Honestly I haven’t done much with this since I first wrote the tutorial and have never tried different speeds. Of course, it must be
something to do with the differences in the browsers but beyond that I really don’t know.
September 27, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Hi. Great tutorial.
I had 2.6.7 but I didn’t know how to use it so downloaded this older one and it worked. If you have a chance to work this out for newer version, would be appreciated!
September 28, 2009 at 7:52 am
Hi Jav – I haven’t used the newer version but if I get a chance I’ll take
a look at it.
December 1, 2009 at 1:50 pm
this post is so detailed but still easy to understand and follow… animated GIF is really “IN” nowadays here on the net… i actually keep an account of mine on it i really fun and enjoyable… thanks, nice job Kim the Great!
Gif Photo Animation
December 1, 2009 at 2:03 pm
I’m not sure if animated gifs are as popular as the used to be. But it was one of those things that I wanted to see if it could be done.
Also, I removed the link from your comment – the site is already using the commentluv plugin, which will provide a link back to your site.
December 9, 2009 at 5:09 pm
hey when i try to open gimp 2.4.6 an error pops up saying “the procedure entry point g_content_type_from_mime_type could not be located in the dynamic link library libgio-2.0-0.dll.”
December 9, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Hi Rico – Are you running Vista? I believe that there is a problem using that version of Gimp in Visa but you could try running or installing it in
XP compatibility mode.
December 10, 2009 at 4:53 pm
thnx kim im not on vista i use xp but i just had to delete gimp and reinstall it. i made my gif! lol thnx a lot!!
December 14, 2009 at 12:26 am
Hi… I was just about to download this, but you say it doesn’t run on Vista? If so that sucks.
December 14, 2009 at 7:43 am
Hi Hugh – This version of Gimp is not supposed to be for Vista but I don’t
know for certain what happens as I am using XP. When Rico asked his question, I did a google search and found that some people were having trouble running this version in XP.
December 29, 2009 at 3:48 pm
hey guys u can also do this on gimp 2.7 instead of going to (as stated in the 3rd step) xtns u go to video and click split video into frames -> extract video range and then contine the steps that follow
December 29, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Hi Rico – Thanks! I’ll try to update the post.