convert mp4 to gif

[muddy7]

what is an easy to use to convert very short mp4 videos to gif?

[sekininsha]

In Virtualdub2

1 File->Open Video File .. load mp4
2 [Mark In] and [Mark Out] Specify the 'start' and 'end'
3 Video->Filters .. if you want apply crop and resize
4 File->Export->Animated Gif.. (infinity loop)


[Attachment 50665 - Click to enlarge]

[LigH.de]

The quality, unfortunately, is not optimal. It seems to build a common 256 color palette over the whole clip. If you have very varying colors, you will notice the quantization. Other tools do a better job here, using partial palette changes, but are not so easy to use (e.g. JASC Animation Shop 3 supports hardly any common video format, not even all VfW codecs in AVI).

[Selur]

Using the command line ffmpeg could be used, see:

• https://medium.com/@colten_jackson/doing-the-gif-thing-on-debian-82b9760a8483
• https://engineering.giphy.com/how-to-make-gifs-with-ffmpeg/
• https://www.bugcodemaster.com/article/convert-video-animated-gif-using-ffmpeg

Cu Selur

[jagabo]

This batch file was posted here in the past. It builds a global palette then renders using that palette and error diffusion.

@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.
"c:\program files\ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg.exe" ^
 -v warning -i "%~nx1" ^
 -vf "palettegen" ^
 -y tmp-palette.png

::** generate GIF
@echo.
"c:\program files\ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg.exe" ^
 -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

Change the path to ffmpeg.exe if necessary. You can then drag/drop any video file onto the batch file to make a GIF.

A comparison 0f VirtualDub vs ffmpeg using a source with many colors and smooth gradients:

VirtualDub GIF:

[Attachment 50683 - Click to enlarge]

ffmpeg GIF:

[Attachment 50684 - Click to enlarge]

[Cornucopia]

Wow, that is a clear and noticeable comparison example!

Scott

[LigH.de]

Can I have the original, please? Would like to try the same with Animation Shop 3.

[jagabo]

Can I have the original, please? Would like to try the same with Animation Shop 3.

This was made with VirtualDub's Tools -> Create Test Video -> RGB Color Cube. Cropped and decimated.

[LigH.de]

Not extremely different to the ffmpeg result. It offers two quantization techniques: Octree and Median cut. But they differ obviously only when there are dominant colors.

VirtualDub seems to omit error diffusion. I know there are a variety of such algorithms, too, with more or less spread.

[EsteveJohnson]

Gif to mp4

Here a avisynth script with waifu2X(reduction noise and scale), convert any animated video or gif.

https://youtu.be/kdbhFVZ4vIM