best app for changing any format to animated gif

[mol3000]

thanks in advanced

[JVRaines]

FFmpeg will do it in a single command. But you will not have the comfort of a GUI.

[pandy]

JVRaines +1 - ffmpeg

[mol3000]

FFmpeg will do it in a single command. But you will not have the comfort of a GUI.

Actually i need a free software that uses a gui. I do appreciate it though. Thanks

[jagabo]

VirtualDub Filtermod (free, open source, GUI) can convert to animated GIF, but it's algorithm for colors isn't great (I believe it uses a fixed 5:6:5 palette).

[raffriff42]

The old JASC Animation Shop works very well. It was formerly bundled with Paint Shop Pro.
It's been discontinued AFAICT (not listed at paintshoppro.com), but there is an older trial/shareware download here (softpedia.com).

I did a test re-download & install from the above link and it seems okay (no added adware etc).
When launched, it asks you to please buy it, and after 30 days it asks a little harder, but it never stops working.

I wish I could send JASC some money for this and for Paint Shop Pro 5, but I can't - the company was bought out long ago.


That said, I do somewhat prefer ffmpeg's output.
Here is a batch file I use for ffmpeg optimized GIFs (which normally requires 2 passes, once to create the palette and again to create the GIF)

ffmpeg-agif.bat

@echo off
::** create animated GIF w/ optimized palette
::
:: https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-all.html#gif-2
:: http://blog.pkh.me/p/21-high-quality-gif-with-ffmpeg.html
:: http://superuser.com/questions/556029/how-do-i-convert-a-video-to-gif-using-ffmpeg-with-reasonable-quality

if not exist "%~dpnx1" goto :EOF
cd "%~dp1" 

::** generate palette
@echo on
@echo.
ffmpeg ^
 -v warning -i "%~nx1" ^
 -vf "palettegen" ^
 -y tmp-palette.png

::** generate GIF
@echo.
ffmpeg ^
 -v warning -i "%~nx1" ^
 -i tmp-palette.png ^
 -lavfi "[0][1:v] paletteuse" ^
 "%~n1.gif"
@echo off

del /q tmp-palette.png

if errorlevel 1 pause
goto :eof

[pandy]

Side to Raffriff42 ffmpeg script (perhaps author can modify it), gifsicle https://www.lcdf.org/gifsicle/ can be used to further optimize GIF animation (sometimes reduction is significant).

[raffriff42]

After testing Gifsicle, I see a decrease in size (in my case: 3.9MB->3.3MB). Here's my command line:

gifsicle <source.gif> --colors 256 -O3 -o <output.gif>

(EDIT removed extra "<source.gif>")

BTW before doing the final conversion -- whether with Photoshop, Animation Shop or ffmpeg-- I do some things in Virtualdub Filtermod to minimize the final size of the animation. I crop and/or resize to the smallest size possible for the purpose at hand, trim the in and out points, and usually cut the framerate in half.

Note vdub seems to use "nearest color" conversion to 256 colors, but Animation Shop & ffmpeg use dithering (which usually looks better in an animation).

EDIT a point for ffmpeg is its ability to import a video file directly; the others require an image sequence.

And a point for Animation Shop: it's easy to do variable frame rate -- usually to make a certain frame "hold" for a time.
Right-click the frame, Properties.

[pandy]

After testing Gifsicle, I see a decrease in size (in my case: 3.9MB->3.3MB). Here's my command line:

gifsicle <source.gif> --colors 256 -O3 <source.gif> -o <output.gif>

Nothing wrong - gifsicle optimize already converted gif - this is something like packer for gif to refine/reduce gif size.

[Budman1]

If you use 'Convert', a part of Imagemagick, usable on its own, you can create GIFs in various quality, size and colors as detailed at http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/video/. Seems to work pretty well.