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jadis is the embodiment of all evil (embodimentof) wrote in rp_tutorials,
@ 2011-07-13 21:16:00

Entry tags:

guides: image editing, images: animation, images: editing, legally dubious post, resources: applications, resources: tutorials

Video To GIF Converter

This is a step by step tutorial of how to make gifs from videos (.avi / .mov / .wma files) without having to cut to the video into frames and then animate them. The program I use allows you to mark the section of the video you want and then converts that section direction from a video file to a gif.

This is particularly useful if you're like me and lack the patience to string together image files to make a gif and are horrible with photoshop (or equivalent programs). Basically how to turn THIS into THIS without GifSoup or Photoshop in just a few easy steps.

• • • STEP ONE: GETTING THE PROGRAM

I've uploaded a zip of the program and you can download it from sendspace here: MovToGIF

If you go to where it saved you'll see a zip folder named MovToGif. The program is VERY small. There are only two files and no need to install anything! All you have to do is unzip MovToGif and you'll be ready to go.

Extract the files from MovToGif and you'll see two files: VideoIn.dll and MovieToAGif. THAT'S IT! As long as those two files are in the same folder together there's nothing else you need to do. Your Gif maker is ready to be used.

• • • STEP TWO: PREPARING THE PROGRAM

Once you unzip all your files you're ready to start. For the purpose of this tutorial, I unzipped everything right to my desk top. Once you've unzipped everything click on MovieToAGIF.

Once you do that the converter box will open and you're ready to start:

After the box is open click on the File drop down menu and select Open movie....

You will then be able to browse your computer until you find the video (.avi / .mov / etc) file that you want to take your gif from. Select the file and then click okay. The video will then open and you'll see the first frame of it in the converter box. (Note: for this tutorial the video I'm using is a Meagan Good photoshoot which I downloaded from youtube.)

• • • STEP THREE: MAKING THE GIF

Now you have to select the portion of the movie that you want to convert into a gif. If you look at the very bottom of the Converter Box, you'll see that there are four times.

→The first set of times denotes the invterval of the video that is going to be converted into a gif. In the above image, the current interval is 0:00:00 to 0:00:05, which meants that the beginning of the video to 5 seconds in would be the portion that become a gif, if I were to create my gif now.
→The time in the second box is the interval that the arrow along the slider is currently set. As you can see the slider is all the way at the beginning so the time is set to 0:00:00
→ The time in the third and last section is the total length of the video. My particular video is 2 minutes and 57 seconds in length.

The arrow on the slider is what you use to select the clip of the movie that you want to turn into your gif. It helps if you open the movie file somewhere and take note of the time that the clip you want begins and when it ends. Once you know, simply move the slider down until you reach the time that you want your clip to start. Once it's in place, click the { button at the front of the slider. This tells the program that that is the time you want the gif to start at.

After that, move the slider again to the time that you want the clip to start. Then click } button at the end of the slider. This tells the program that that is the time you want the gif to end at.

Once you do that, you're ready to convert your selected interval to a gif. Go up and click on the Export menu and select Export to animated Gif...

You'll then be able to choose where to save your gif. After you do that, an option box will appear asking you if you want to resize to %50 or keep it at %100. It will also ask if you want to close the program once your gif is finished. Select your preference then click OK.

The converter will then begin creating your gif. You'll see two loading bars one after the other:

As soon as it's finished your gif is complete and ready for use!

• • • EXTRA NOTES #1: SOME ISSUES THAT MIGHT ARISE

→ Be aware that the quality of the video will affect the quality of the gif. The worse the video quality, the worse the gif quality. This is something important to remember particularly if you're using videos downloaded from youtube, like I usually do.

→ You might notice that after opening a video file the converter box gets too large to access the slider. This is because the size of the video is too large for the converter to accommodate. One of the ways I've found to get around this problem is to go into Windows Movie Maker and cut the video down to a smaller size, save it, and then open the smaller clip of the video.

• • • EXTRA NOTES #2: HELPFUL SUPPLEMENTS

There are several online image editors that can be used for quick and easy resizing or cropping of your gif, again without breaking it down into frames. Two that I sometimes use are LunaPic and Online Image Editor. Just upload your gif and then you can edit it right there in the online pallet then save your edited gif again. Using these online programs I can crop and resize my gif:

Want to use this program with youtube videos?
Well to do that you have to download the youtube video to your computer. There are lots of online converters that allow you to do that: Keepvid, Savevid, and Vixy are some examples. I think there's also a Firefox add-on, although as a Google Chrome user I don't know for sure. All these will generally allow you to save youtube videos to your computer in AVI format. You can then use them with the Gif maker.

I personally use a program called VideoSoft Youtube Downloader. Unlike the online converters you have to download it, but in my experience it goes much quicker than the online youtube downloaders since you're not fighting with other users.

	bri 2011-07-15 01:28 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you for sharing! (Reply to this)