rendering to animated gif

Support Compositing and Post Processing
1

Hi, tried the archive but didn’t find anything :
is it possible to output a movie to animated gif? Would be neat :slight_smile:
Because blender knows when the scene is static, it could optimize a bunch…

Alternatively: can anyone recommend an open source tool to convert a movie or its frames to an animated gif?

thanks
mattie
PS: I’m on windows here

2

hi mattie
gimp + gimps gab pluckin (for animation stuff, for example for making gifs)

when you have rendered sequence, then in gimp
video>frames to image…

3

thanks for the tip… I remember using the gimp for creating an animated gif a while ago, but I hoped there would be a more straightforward / dedicated program or blender extension for it :slight_smile:

4

for the record… I ended up using ImageMagick :slight_smile: Seems the logical solution after all, but didn’t think of it back then :slight_smile:
it really can’t be much simplier than just typing “convert *.jpg output.gif” I guess :wink:

5

Still, it would be nice I guess, if blender would support animated gif out of the box; since the patent has expired anyway…

6

VidGIF

7

Under linux, you can render separate images and use convert (shell application) to merge them into one gif.

8

Not open source, but handy nonetheless. Found this tucked away online. Small, easy enough to use and from MS :eek:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/win/13212

9

lol, I’m a bit surprised by the recent posts =) I actually solved the topic problem myself by using ImageMagick (i.e. convert)

but, to answer :

  • vidgif: shareware
  • convert: I know :wink:
  • MS gif animator: thanks, didn’t know about this one :slight_smile: but it just can’t get easier than using convert :wink:

thanks for all the suggestions anyway :wink:

10

Problem with simply converting to GIFs is that the GIF format allows individual ‘hold’ times for each frame in a sequence. Frame 1 may be 2/10ths of a second and frame 2 may be 500/10ths of a second.

In addition to this, each frame can have varying transparency effects, which makes a simple conversion tricky. Especially if you want to do more complicated GIF sequences.

But so long as you find something that does what you want, that’s all that matters. :smiley:

11

You’re right :slight_smile:

That’s why, in fact (but that’s off topic), I eventually used swftools to write an SC script (provides accurate timing possibilities and loading background only once) which generates flash output (I know, a bit heavier than GIF, but much smaller file size!).

12

I know this tool-I used it several time ago and think that this prog is very effective:yes:

13

oh Im so sorry i didnt see the date of this topic:((