Just a short 'How-to' for the budding artists among you, who'd like to cut a clip from a video file, and then turn it into a GIF file. This is partly done in Pup, and finished off on-line. Yes, you could use a command-line tool like Gifsicle, or ImageMagick, but since I'm absolutely rubbish at setting-up the multitude of command-line options and stanzas required, I'm focusing on what I consider to be an 'easier' method.
You'll need a video 'trimmer' (like Avidemux), or, which I think is easier to use, LosslessCut (as discovered by labbe5), and turned into Puppy packages by watchdog and myself at the end of that thread.
I prefer LosslessCut, because as greengeek pointed out, it has a very easy-to-use 'micro-stepper', which advances literally frame by frame; incredibly useful if you want to end up with a GIF which seamlessly loops round on itself, since you can use it to set the start and end points for the GIF exactly where you want them.
Once you've done that, use the location button, lower right, to specify where you want to save it; if you don't, it'll simply save the clip alongside the 'parent' video.
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Having done that, open your browser, and head on over to EZGif.com, and choose the 'Video to GIF' option. Out of all the GIF-making sites out there, this really is the simplest to use, with the best range of options. Just follow the simple instructions; the best option to use is Gifsicle, anyway; it's one of the tools used 'under the hood' by EZGif, and results in the smallest file size. Afterwards, you'll be prompted to 'optimize' the resulting GIF, which will reduce file size further.
If you want to crop or resize the GIF you've just created, it's best to do this in the options presented after you've created it. Again, instructions are very easy to follow. Once you've finished, save the finished GIF as soon as possible, because they only keep it on their servers for about an hour, tops.
Hope that perhaps helps some of you. Have fun!
Mike.
