How-To Create Animated GIF

No doubt you have at one point or another seen a animated GIF. These usually consist of short sequences of images combined into one moving picture. If you have spent time on different forums, I’m sure you have seen these under a user’s avatar or signature file. In this guide, I will show you how you can actually make your own animated GIF file with nothing but free software! You can then upload and use these animated files in your own forum signature. The best part about this method is that it doesn’t sacrifice quality in your resulting GIF. Let’s begin!

In this tutorial, you will need to install 3 pieces of software.

Requirements

1. GIMP
GIMP is an excellent freeware that replaces the more known (and more expensive) Adobe Photoshop. It allows you to manipulate photos and images to your hearts content. With GIMP, you have a free way to do your own photo manipulation without spending a single penny!

2. MPlayer
MPlayer is a popular video player software used in the Linux operating system.

3. IrfanView
This little photo viewing utility is one of my favorites. It will allow you to view almost any type of photo you throw at it. I’m not kidding at all when I say ‘any type’. This little baby will handle it. It also gives you the ability to batch resize your photos, which is what you’ll be using it for in this tutorial.

4. Your own video file
To create a GIF, you obviously need a video clip of your choosing. To be more precise, you need to pick a certain clip in the video that you’ll want to be your animated GIF. I recommend you select a clip size of no more than 3-4 seconds.

# Moving the MPlayer directory to your desktop
When you download MPlayer from the website, you’re actually downloading SMplayer, which is a front end GUI for MPlayer. We want to directly use MPlayer instead so we’ll have to manually move the folder to our desktop for easier use. You’ll want to navigate to this directory: “C:Program FilesSMPlayer”. In it, you will see a directory labeled ‘mplayer’. Copy that entire folder to your desktop.

# Extracting your video to pictures

For this step, we will need to work in the command line environment but don’t worry, I will show you exactly what you need to type in. In order for the following steps to work, you will also need to move your video file into the mplayer folder as well. You can move it back to it’s original location once we are done with it.
Before you start, you’ll want to view your video file and decide which part you want to turn into a GIF. Remember, a GIF is not a movie file so don’t make it too long. At most, you’ll want to make it at least 3-4 seconds or even less. Note the starting time of the clip and the duration you want.
Now open a command prompt. You’ll want to navigate to your mplayer folder directory on your desktop. So, this is what you’ll type if you are using XP:

cd "C:Documents and SettingsYour UsernameDesktopmplayer"

For Vista users, replace Documents and Settings with Users.

Now you type in:

mplayer -ao null -ss 13:00 -endpos 3 video.avi

You will need to substitute 13:00 with the starting time of of your GIF in your own video file. So for example if the starting point is one hour, twenty three minutes and 10 seconds in to the movie, you’ll type 01:23:10. Substitute 3 for the duration in seconds. Finally, substitute video.avi with the your video file name. This only works if you have followed my earlier advice and have moved the video to the mplayer directory as well.
Once you hit enter, mplayer will appear showing you the clip. It should go by real fast so if you need to see it again, simply hit the up arrow key on your keyboard and your last command should be immediately shown in the command prompt. Hit Enter. Repeat as needed and adjust the duration until you are satisfied.

Now we will actually export that short clip into individual pictures/JPGs. In the same command prompt, type in:

mplayer -ao null -ss 13:00 -endpos 3 video.avi -vo jpeg:outdir=picturefiles

Remember to substitute in your own info. In the last portion, you can substitute ‘picturefiles’ with whatever you wish for. After you hit Enter, mplayer will go to work and create the pictures out of your clip. Now, open up the mplayer folder on your desktop and you should see the new created folder with all the individual picture frames of your clip.

# Batch resizing your pictures with Irfanview
Now we will resize the pictures. What you’ll want to do first is open up Irfanview and just open up any picture in the folder you’ve created earlier. Once the picture loads, hit Ctrl+R to bring up the resize menu. Be sure that the ‘Preserve aspect ratio’ checkbox is selected. In the Width portion, you’ll want to insert a lower number. You’ll notice that as soon as you do so, the Height portion will automatically adjust itself. This is so that your picture doesn’t get distorted and retain the aspect ratio of the original file size. Once you are satisfied, jot down both numbers.
Now create a folder on your desktop and name it whatever you want. In IrfanView, you’ll want to hit ‘B’ on your keyboard to bring up the batch conversion menu. In the ‘Look in’ section, be sure that the directory with all your pictures are selected. Now hit the Add All button to add every picture. For the options, leave it as a Batch Conversion and the Output Format as JPG. In the Output directory, hit the Browse button and select the folder you created on your desktop earlier. Now click on the Use Advance Options checkbox and click on the Advanced button. Check the Resize checkbox and type in the Width and Height numbers you jotted down earlier. Hit OK. Now hit the Start Batch button! The desktop folder should now hold all of the resized pictures.

# Creating the GIF in GIMP
Open up GIMP. Select File -> Open. Browse to the folder with the resized pictures and select the first image and hit Open. Now go to File -> Open as Layers. Select the second picture, scroll all the way to the bottom, hold the Shift key and select the last picture. Hit Open. Now go to File -> Save As. Give your GIF a file name and a save location. In the Select File Type menu, you’ll want to select the GIF Image option. Hit Save. In the dialog box that shows up right after, select Save as Animation. Hit Export. In the next dialog box, in the Animated GIF options, be sure to make your GIF loop forever. In the Delay between frames where unspecified option, you’ll want to give it a lower number than 100ms. This option will determine the speed of your GIF. I gave mine a 25ms. In the Frame disposal where unspecified, select the One frame per layer (replace) option. Next, check the last two option boxes and hit Save.

That’s it! Your GIF file should be in the location you specified. You can view it either in Firefox or right back in IrfanView. If the GIF speed is too fast, increase the milliseconds. If it’s still too slow for your taste, do the opposite. Now you can upload that GIF file to a photo uploading site like ImageShack or TinyPic so that you can then use it in your forum signature or wherever you want to!

Here is my result. As you can see, I’m a huge Japanese anime fan: