Making GIFs From Video Files With Python

http://zulko.github.io/blog/2014/01/23/making-animated-gifs-from-video-files-with-python/#

by killahpriest • 12 years ago

285 41 12 years ago

zulko.github.io

killahpriest• 12 years ago

Originally from/more discussion at http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1w2c58/a_few_an...

lawsohard• 12 years ago

this is awesome

w1ntermute2• 12 years ago

Please use silent HTML5 videos instead of animated GIFs wherever possible. They are much more bandwidth- and CPU-efficient. This site allows you to automatically upload/convert animated GIFs into that format: http://gfycat.com/

The links allow you to see the animated GIFs as well, if viewer's device doesn't support HTML5.

emilyst• 12 years ago

There's a drawback. Can we save these? Can we link directly to them?

w1ntermute2• 12 years ago

Yes, if you right click (at least in Firefox) there is an option to download the WebM file. And you can get a direct link, although that doesn't really make sense, since if you're sending it to somebody, they probably want the option of watching the WebM version or the GIF version.

zulko2• 12 years ago

The same scripts will output videos for HTML5 if you replace the `to_gif` method by `to_videofile`:

    clip.to_videofile('animation.mp4')
    clip.to_videofile('animation.webm', codec='libvpx')
    clip.to_videofile('animation.ogv',codec='libtheora')

daliusd3• 12 years ago

Can I make video/gif from multiple photos?

Recoil42• 12 years ago

The problem, for me, is that HTML5 video is a technical solution with no social advantage. There are so many places on the web where images are allowed that videos will never be allowed -- for good reason. Forums, comment threads, etc.

What we need is an image container format that allows for a silent (and only silent) video stream to be embedded. A better GIF. Something that site maintainers would feel entirely comfortable in allowing.

skymt• 12 years ago

A new format would be overkill. Websites can just set the "muted" attribute on video elements. If you also set "loop" & "autoplay" and hide the controls, you've got a video that acts just like a GIF.

HowardJ• 12 years ago

Why don't the powers that be make a new image animated image format that is bandwidth conservative? I don't get why Google/Apple/Microsoft/Adobe haven't jumped on this. Or maybe I do, they don't use animated GIFs. Fuck. If only Reddit/imgur/Internet forums had any lobbying power.

nl• 12 years ago

This! (Although if the sound thing is such a problem then perhaps the muted attribute should be set to true by the hosting site?)

Here's an idea: <img src="video.mp4">.

Updated semantics should be the same as the video tag.

Sir_Cmpwn• 12 years ago

Try https://mediacru.sh instead of gfycat. It has a lot more features, and it's open source [1]. It's been around the HN block a few times [2][3].

Disclaimer: I made it with a friend and I'm baised.

[1] https://github.com/MediaCrush/MediaCrush

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6773039

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6189397

joi_degn• 12 years ago

Im baised... I really like that expression and will start using it :D

sehugg2• 12 years ago

One nice thing about GIF is that the format is not patent-encumbered. Same goes for MPEG-1.

daliusd3• 12 years ago

WebM seems to avoid all the problems related to patents (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebM).

olssonm• 12 years ago

Nice! Also check out: "Stupid programmer tricks and Star Wars .gif": http://rarlindseysmash.com/posts/stupid-programmer-tricks-an...

Also Python, but uses VideoLan (VLC) to some extent to create really nifty Star Wars gifs.

pronoiac• 12 years ago

This is nifty! Though it's tempting to draft a GUI for it.

donbronson• 12 years ago

This is awesome and much easier than writing FFMPEG commands (which is what I do now). An enhancement could be adding voice to text.

gioi• 12 years ago

Thank you! I've never met MoviePy and it looks really good. I'm waiting for libopenshot to be released, what do you think about it?

mattdeboard• 12 years ago

Very nice API.

idoco• 12 years ago

I just watched the whole 'Pigs in a polka' video and it is so good! The API is also very cool :)

theophrastus2• 12 years ago

(on 'jessie'):

apt-cache search 'movie.<asterisk>python|python.<asterisk>movie'

... <squatmo-germane> ...

well, nutz.

(and how the hell do you type a real asterisk in this comment forum? tried escapes... tried html entities...)

maxerickson• 12 years ago

For code, just put a couple spaces before the line:

  apt-cache search 'movie.*python|python.*movie'

In general, you can also stick a space after them * * *.

theophrastus2• 12 years ago

thank you. i would've never thought of that. * *

Reply

Chromozon• 12 years ago

Very well made tutorial.

Reply

radoslawc• 12 years ago

Nice, kept me occupied for an hour :) also I must say author did a great job with module and documentation.

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JoshTriplett• 12 years ago

mplayer can do this as well:

    mplayer videofile -vo gif89a:fps=15:output=video.gif

You can use mplayer's other options to set the start time, duration, and cropping.

Reply

drakaal• 12 years ago

Anyone done a benchmark of this vs AVISynth? I have software I wrote in AVISynth for doing 2d to 3d Stereoscopic upconversion based on motion and parallax. I have often wished I had it in something more "real" like Python.

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0x09• 12 years ago

Have you tried VaporSynth? It's kind of a spiritual successor to AviSynth in the form of a Python module. Can even load AviSynth plugins.

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na85• 12 years ago

Isn't this overkill? You can get the exact same result with FFMPEG and a single shell command.

Seems like a solution in search of a problem.

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ivanca• 12 years ago

Can you easily integrate django with a shell command? Or with the python imgur image hosting? Easy online creation of gifs seems kind of useful.

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jrockway• 12 years ago

This is much nicer than my normal method of getting the frames with mplayer -vo png and then using ImageMagick to assemble the frames into an animated GIF.

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lassse• 12 years ago

I use http://www.gifrocket.com/ for Mac.

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stephenitis• 12 years ago

@Schneems has a really good tutorial on this using ffmpeg. http://www.schneems.com/post/41104255619/use-gifs-in-your-pu...

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Making GIFs From Video Files With Python

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