H OW TO MAKES YOUR OWN GIFS AND ANIMATIONS FROM A VIDEO FILE. In regards to the thread Sexy Gifs I am writing this in hopes those who wish to create their own animations manually can.
First off you will need a few programs, they are free and take up very little space on
your hard drive. You will see why you need them all and how they all come into play
later on.
VirtualDubMod:
Download here
Easy Graphics Converter:
Download here
http://www.etrusoft.com/graphic-converter/graphic-converter.exe
UnFREEz:
Download here
http://www.whitsoftdev.com/unfreez/
Other good programs that I use but not necessary
ImRe (Resizes multiple jpeg,png images all at once. Cannot resize an animated gif
file)
Prism Video Converter (I have the paid program and use it almost daily. Converts any
type of video file to a different video type. Example, take an avi file and convert it
to a flash (flv) to save space. Or a wmv to mpg.)
NOTE: VERY IMPORTANT! VirtualDubMod only will let you use video files in mpg and avi
format, this is why I have Prism Video Converter. I convert all video files I want to
make a gif of into one of the two formats so I can save the image sequence through
VirtualDubMod. If the video file is in any other format it will be forbidden seeing as
they no longer allow other video types. flv and wmv do not work.
After you have the three main programs above installed, open up VirtualDubMod, and
select.
File/Open Video File…
Then select the video file you want to make a gif from. Remember the video file cannot
be flv or wmv format.
Once you have picked your file you will see at the bottom of the program numerous
buttons. Hover your mouse over each one for a few seconds to see what each does but
the main ones we will be using are the two on the far right. The black half arrows
that point in either direction. Those are marker points. Move the placement arrow to
the area in the video that you wish to make a gif from. When you have found your
starting point click the the black marker button at the bottom which is pointing to
the left. This will mark that you want from this point on to be saved. Find where you
want to end to be in the video clip and select the black marker that is pointing to
the right. You should now have to points in the video. This will be be your gif.
Now select
File/Save Image Sequence…
It’ll bring up a little box and all you have to do is select the directory (Folder)
Where you want to save the images and then change the output format from TARGA to PNG
in the drop down box. Select OK after that and it will proceed to process the
selection you chose.
Once it has finished processing you can close VirtualDubMod. Open up the folder you
just saved all your images too. See the properties of the folder and look at how big
the folder size is. It might be something like 100mb or so. You can’t make a gif with
such a large size. Well, you can but you can’t upload it anywhere. I always delete
half the images, you never need every single one, it’ll still look good. So select all
the odds or even numbers and delete them all. Now you have shrunk it down a little. If
you still have a huge folder size you may need to shrink the images down and or delete
some more images from the folder. Once you have gotten the folder down to, let’s say
under 20mb, Open Easy Graphics Converter. Select ADD/Add Directory, select the folder
you saved all the previous images too. It will load all these images into the little
box. Now select Settings.
This is what you want everything to say in the settings menu.
OutPut Format: GIF
Bits Per Pixel: 24
Resize Options: NO RESIZE (You can resize the image to exact size if you wish but you
need to know the exact dimensions you want the gif to be otherwise if you are off your
gif will either be too wide or too tall and mess up the image)
File Name & Path: Select a new folder to put these images in. Don’t put them in the
same folder as the ones you are converting, it’ll be a huge hassle to sort them. Then
select OK.
Now just hit start and it’ll convert all your png images to gif format so you can make
them move instead of being still images. After it is done it’ll ask if you want to
generate a report, unless you want one for some reason, I always hit no.
Now go to your new folder where you created all the files to gif format. What is the
file size? Is it still large, 10mb, 15, etc. You need to delete pictures til you get
it to 4mb or under. If it is still excessively long you can either, resize the images
making them smaller and less kb or you can delete images to shrink it up. If the gif
image folder is 4.07mb on the disk but above it says the size is 3.99mb, select
Advanced, then select compress contents to save disk space. Then hit Apply. This will
compress it down to make the actual size 3.99mb instead of 4.07. Then hit ok and you
will be good.
Now, open UnFREEz. All you do here is drag all the gif image files into the white box
in UnFREEz. You’ll then see each file there and you can either
A.Click Make Animated Gif
B. Select Loop Animation (Check Mark means it’ll loop, uncheck means it will not. I
don’t advise making an unloopable gif)
C. Frame Delay will be 0 but you can make it higher if you wish the gif to slow down.
If you deleted alot of frames to make the gif a smaller size you may want to select 20
or so and then hit Make Animated Gif and see how fast it goes. You can always tweak it
before you finalize it. Just make multiple ones with different frame rates and see
which one you like best.
Once you create it, YOU’RE DONE! 
T-Nation let’s you upload up to 4mb gif animations, as far as I know that’s the limit.
To resize a gif that is already animated I recommend going to imageshack and using
their resize option. It will not alter the quality of the gif. Otherwise you could
split the gif manually with a program and resize each image through ImRe and then join
the gif back together with UnFREEz but it’s more time. You can usually find an image
hosting site that will have the resize option and they’ll do it for you, just make
sure gif is one of the images you can upload there. Then just save the file from the
site.
Hopefully this helps some of you out. If you don’t get anything, just let me know. You
can also add things to the gif, but you must do it before you join the gif together.
You can open paint and add stuff image by image but it takes time. Can be fun though.
The Negged U gif I made when I used to be on bb.com.
Took a few hours and was a sloppy copy but you get the point. Anything is possible.
EDIT: Written in NotePad, that’s why it’s all ghetto.
