GIF me More

A command-line tool to quickly create high-quality animated GIFs from video files using FFmpeg. You can trim the video, adjust speed and FPS, resize the output, and add custom text overlays.

Now with two-pass encoding for superior quality!

Features

• Preview your GIF before creating it with built-in ffplay integration
• Two-pass palette generation for better color quality and smaller file sizes
• Clip a specific segment from any video file
• Adjust the speed and frame rate (FPS) of the resulting GIF
• Resize the output to a specific scale (e.g., 50% of original size)
• Overlay custom text with control over size, color, and position
• Cross-platform support (Windows, macOS, Linux)
• Clean, modular codebase with proper abstraction

Core Dependencies

This tool uses FFmpeg under the hood for video processing:

• FFmpeg: The industry-standard multimedia framework (must be installed on your system)
• Python 3.7+: For the command-line interface and orchestration

Two-Pass Method: By default, GIFMeMore generates a custom color palette first, then uses it to create the GIF. This produces significantly better quality than direct conversion, with optimized colors for your specific video content

Installation

1. Install FFmpeg (if not already installed):

   • macOS: brew install ffmpeg
   • Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install ffmpeg
   • Windows: Download from ffmpeg.org

2. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/Shanwis/GIFmeMore.git
   cd GIFmeMore

3. No Python dependencies needed! Just Python 3.7+ standard library.

Usage

The script is run from the command line. The only required argument is the path to the video file.

python -m GIFmeMore -f <path_to_video> [options]

Or use the legacy entry point:

python GIFCreator.py -f <path_to_video> [options]

Examples

Create a simple 5-second GIF from the beginning of a video:

python -m GIFmeMore -f "my_video.mp4" -d 5

Create a high-quality GIF starting at 10 seconds, with red text at the top left:

python -m GIFmeMore -f "input.mp4" -s 10 -d 3 -fp 25 -t "Hello World!" -p top_left -c "red" -fs 70

Create a half-sized GIF that runs at 1.5x speed:

python -m GIFmeMore -f "cool_movie.mkv" -s 65 -d 4 -r 0.5 -sp 1.5

Use single-pass mode for faster (but lower quality) conversion:

python -m GIFmeMore -f "video.mp4" -m single-pass

Preview before creating (recommended for fine-tuning):

python -m GIFmeMore -f "video.mp4" -s 10 -d 3 --preview

All Options

usage: python -m GIFmeMore [-h] -f FILE [-s START] [-d DURATION] [-fp FPS] 
                           [-sp SPEEDUP] [-r RESIZE] [-t TEXT] [-p POSITION]
                           [-fs FONTSIZE] [-c COLOR] [--loop LOOP] [-o OUTPUT]
                           [-m {single-pass,two-pass}]

Create GIFs from video files using FFmpeg

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -f FILE, --file FILE  Input video file
  -s START, --start START
                        Start time in seconds (default: 0)
  -d DURATION, --duration DURATION
                        Duration in seconds (default: 5)
  -fp FPS, --fps FPS    Frames per second (default: 15)
  -sp SPEEDUP, --speedup SPEEDUP
                        Speed multiplier (default: 1.0)
  -r RESIZE, --resize RESIZE
                        Resize factor (default: 1.0)
  -t TEXT, --text TEXT  Text overlay
  -p POSITION, --position POSITION
                        Text position: center, top, bottom, top_left, 
                        top_right, bottom_left, bottom_right (default: center)
  -fs FONTSIZE, --fontsize FONTSIZE
                        Font size (default: 50)
  -c COLOR, --color COLOR
                        Text color (default: white)
  --loop LOOP           Loop count, 0 = infinite (default: 0)
  -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
                        Output filename (default: output.gif)
  -m METHOD, --method METHOD
                        GIF creation method: single-pass or two-pass (default: two-pass)
  --preview             Preview the output before creating GIF

Programmatic Usage

You can also use GIFMeMore as a Python library:

from GIFmeMore import GIFConfig, GIFCreator

config = GIFConfig(
    input_file="video.mp4",
    output_file="output.gif",
    start=10,
    duration=3,
    fps=20,
    method="two-pass",
    preview=True  # Enable preview
)

creator = GIFCreator(config)
creator.create()

Preview Feature

The --preview flag opens the video segment in ffplay with all your filters applied (speed, resize, text, etc.) before creating the GIF. This lets you:

• See exactly what your GIF will look like
• Verify timing, text placement, and effects
• Adjust parameters without waiting for GIF creation
• Save time by getting it right the first time

After closing the preview window, you'll be prompted to continue or cancel the GIF creation.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.