HELP! How to make a gif?

[~N9NE~]

Smashboards, I need your help.

Does anyone know how to make a .gif from a youtube video. I've been trying to use countless programs but none of them have helped and it's driving me insane.

I think I have to first covert the flash video file to an avi file? Best way to do this?

If anyone could provide any help, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ndayday]

First off, you need a way to get the video from YT. I recommend Youtube Downloader. It's a really nice and easy tool to use. There's even an add-on for Firefox with that.

Anyway, there should be an option to convert the downloaded video to an .avi. That option may not be available though, I don't remember. If that's the case, then you'll have to convert it to .avi from whatever video formats it lets you choose from. From there, you open up a program that can make .gifs out of .avis. I personally use Jasc Animation Shop 3.

Hope that helped a bit. If you can't figure it out or whatever, I'd be willing to make some that you want for you.

 

[~N9NE~]

Thanks for the help.

I tried the youtube downloader but it wouldn't let me convert the file due to missing codecs, I dl'ed them but still wouldn't convert it. I used another program however to do the job.

Can you tell me how you use Jasc to make the gifs? I tried but it just asks to insert images??

- I've downloaded half of the internet and nothing is getting it done. lol I suck.

EDIT: OMG I MADE ONE.

NEW PROBLEM: HOW DO I CROP THE GIF LOL

 

[ndayday]

Ugh, I did the same thing a month or two ago when I wanted to make one little .gif. :/

This is how I use Jasc. Keep in mind that Jasc only works for .avi...at least that's how I remember it. It also helps if you have a program that can trim an .avi, because if you a really long video then it's a pain to figure out the frame range that the particular section you want is in. I use SolveigMM AVI Trimmer for that, it's a fairly easy to use freeware program, but it only lets me trim my files down so much. That causes a small amount of removing access frames later on.

Anyway, I open up Jasc, and import the file. (File > Open > (pic the .avi you're using)

The first thing you want to do is click on the bubble that says "Frames", unless you have reduced the .avi to a really small size. (Which might not be the case if you use the program I use) All my computer can handle is around 500~600 frames at a time, otherwise it takes forever to load. If you're doing something from an anime/cartoon etc., you might want to choose the "Take one sample for every" bubble, and move that to 3. I forget what that does, but it's good. Make sure you leave the "Merge Identical Frames into One" check on.

Your file opens up. Remove any frames you don't want, and then ctrl+a to select all the frames. Go to; Animation > Frame Properties. This is where you might have to mess around a bit. The higher number (display time) you choose, the slower the animation will move. Choose a number and then click OK or whatever it says. To check how smooth the animation is, click on the "view animation" button on the top. Fix the the display time according to how you want the final product to move.

After that, go to; Animation > Resize Animation. Change the dimension to whatever you want them, just remember that it's better to have a big one since you can always just reduce it in size if it needs to be done. Click OK, and then view your animation to see how it looks. You can fix the display time if needed, etc. Once you're done, go; File > Save As. Use the dropdown arrow to choose .gif as the export.

Tah-dah?

Feel free to message me if you still need help.

 

[~N9NE~]

I love you.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[A17]

VirtualDUB

 

[solitonmedic]

I've maded load of .gif's by using Adobe Flash 8 Professional. Heck, I've maded my own sig using it. Hope it helps.

 

[ndayday]

^Place some kind of human-ness in your posts, otherwise you look like a bot.

That thing costs money though. It absolutely sucks if you want to just make one or a few .gifs. When I was learning to make them, I downloaded about 20 different programs, all claiming to be the best or whatever. They all proved useless (Buy it now to continue!) or left an ugly watermark when the crappy .gif was exported. I finally found that I could have been making them easily with a program I already had, as well as this site. (although extremely limited, it works)

tl;dr Programs you have to buy suck unless you're really gonna be making a ton of .gifs/converting stuff.

 

[~N9NE~]

New problem. The flv to avi file convertor I was using only converts 70% of the video, so often I can't convert the bit of the video I want to make a gif out of.

I tried Youtube Downloader, didn't work.

Any other suggestions?

Btw thanks for all the help Ndayday

 

[ndayday]

What program are you currently using to try to convert?

I found two programs that from user comments etc. seem to work pretty well.
-This thread on another forum
-SUPER

They're both freeware. If the first doesn't work, then as I understand from the comments, use SUPER. I'd try it myself so I'm not just linking you to garbage, but I'm feeling lazy.

 

[~N9NE~]

I was using Smart FLV convertor. Thanks for those, I'll try them and give you a shout.

Edit: Neither worked, FML.