Video to Animated Gifs Tutorial

[Egnio]

Ever wanted to make animated gifs from a video, movie, episode or whatever? Now you can. And in the process, if you just want to make animated gifs, you'll learn too.

 

Tools you'll need:

Video to JPG Converter (Can download from here: http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/products/dvd/Free-Video-to-JPG-Converter.htm )

UnFREEz (Can download from here: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/unfreez.html )

A movie file (If you're interested in downloading Youtube Videos, you can check the link for Video to JPG Converter to download another free program to download them)

IrfanView (Can download from here: http://www.irfanview.com/main_download_engl.htm )

 

So, basically, we must have this:

- Program to rip images from videos

- Program to convert the ripped images from JPG to GIF

- Program to convert GIFs into Animated GIF

 

So let's get started. Let's say you have a video. I'll use one of One Piece as a demostration.

 

You open Video to JPG Converter. You'll get a screen like this:

 

 

Near Input File, click on "..." and choose the video you'll use (There are lots of formats to choose from, so you might not have problems with the file). On Output Folder, you'll select the place where you want the JPG files to be saved. You might have something like this by now.

 

 

Obviously, the image will change depending on the movie file.

 

So anyway. Click on play or move the slider until you find the part of the movie which images you want to rip, more or less. For extra precition, press Left or Right on your keyboard, or the arrows on the program, until you get to the very same frame the part you want to rip starts.

 

Now, see the 2 buttons with triangles at the middle bottom part? Hover over them and you'll see Trim Left and Trim Right respectively. So, while you're on the first frame, click on Trim Left. Now, go to the last frame of what you want your gif to be, and click on Trim Right. You might have something like this by now.

 

 

It's hard to see from the picture, but my animation starts where the character (Sanji) is about to slam the floor with his fist. Then, he slams it and raises it again, where the animation will stop, making a loop, so it looks like he is slamming the floor endlessly.

 

If you pay attention, whenever you click on Trim Left or Right, a little triangle appears under the slider. If you have the 2 triangles, it means the animation will start on the left one, and end on the right one. Everything before and after that section will not be on the animation.

 

 

Now, where it says "Save", I'd suggest you to pic Every 2 Frames, so it looks smooth, but doesn't take too much space. Now, click on Save. Everything in the section you selected will be saved on the Output folder.

 

Good. You now have JPG images. But UnFREEz, the program we'll use to make animations, only recognizes .GIF files. And you might have too many files to convert one by one. So what do you do now? Open IrfanView. Click on File, and then Batch Conversion/Rename.

 

 

The magic of this little tool is that it allows you to convert multiple files at once. So, where it says "Look in", look for the folder where your new images are. Once you're on it, look for a button on the left part that says "Add all". Click it, and all the images in the folder will be added to the list. DON'T CLICK START YET. Now, select the Output Folder (where the converted images will be stored) and, on the bottom, there's a button that says "Output Format". Select "Gif- Compuserve GIF". Now, you can click Start, and all the files will be converted on the Output Folder. This is how it should look before clicking on Start, or after.

 

 

Now, open that folder, and open UnFREEz. Make sure the folder is open on the background while you have UnFREEz open. It should look like this. While UnFREEz is quite limited, it's so simple anyone can use it, and it gets the job done. But if you can find a better program, use it.

 

 

If your images doesn't look like Thumbnails, don't worry. It will work the same. It's just not that easier. Now, drag the images from the folder to UnFREEz's white square (if you want to put them in any other order, do it one by one. This could also work to make it loop backwards as well).

 

Now, UnFREEz should look like this.

 

 

Here's a tricky part. There's a part on UnFREEz that's called "Frame Delay". Give it some value of about 5 to 20 and then click on "Make Animated Gif". You'll save the GIF on some folder, and then open it. If it's too fast or too slow, change the value on "Frame Delay". The higher, the faster it goes.

 

The final product, in my case, was this:

 

 

There are many other methods for making animated gifs. This one involves free and simple software. And with practice it will not be as hard or confusing as it looks.

 

So, go ahead and make me proud.

[CrazyKev]

Awsome tut!

I'll try this when I download all the stuff I need to download!

 

EDIT - MY result:

 

[Seth]

I think I'll try this!

[+Jono]

LOL great tut I made this:

 

[Kizzi]

Awesome tutorial. :]

I probably won't use it because I want to save room on my laptop. :[

[Egnio]

The programs are not heavy. What would take space are the videos though :/

[Kizzi]

The programs are not heavy. What would take space are the videos though :/

Could I do everything with less than 1GB?

[Egnio]

Most likely.

[Obi-wan Cannoli]

I doesn't work for me. The Video to JPG Converter always has a error when I try to use it.