make-gif

Video GIF

Convert a video clip to a high-quality GIF using the mandatory 2-pass palette workflow.

Single-pass GIF always produces banding and color artifacts. The palettegen → paletteuse pipeline analyzes the actual clip to build an optimal 256-color palette, then renders with it. Never skip this.

Process

1. Gather parameters

Ask for any not already provided in the request:

• Start time — default 0
• Duration or end time — required; warn if >30s (file size grows rapidly)
• Width — default 480px; height auto-calculated to preserve aspect ratio
• FPS — default 15; higher = smoother + larger file

If the user asks about aspect ratio or the source has unusual dimensions, probe first:

ffprobe -v quiet -print_format json -show_streams "$INPUT" | \
  python3 -c "import json,sys; s=[s for s in json.load(sys.stdin)['streams'] if s['codec_type']=='video'][0]; print(s['width'], 'x', s['height'])"

2. Build the 2-pass command

Pass 1 — generate optimized palette:

ffmpeg -ss $START -t $DURATION -i "$INPUT" \
  -vf "fps=$FPS,scale=$WIDTH:-1:flags=lanczos,palettegen=stats_mode=full" \
  /tmp/palette_$$.png -y

Pass 2 — render GIF using palette:

ffmpeg -ss $START -t $DURATION -i "$INPUT" -i /tmp/palette_$$.png \
  -lavfi "fps=$FPS,scale=$WIDTH:-1:flags=lanczos [x]; [x][1:v] paletteuse=dither=bayer:bayer_scale=5" \
  "$OUTPUT" -y

Use $$ (shell PID) in the palette temp path to avoid collisions with concurrent runs.

3. Confirm before running

Show the full 2-pass command and estimated output path. Add a size warning if duration × fps is large (rough heuristic: >20s at 15fps at 480px → likely >10MB).

4. Run both passes, then clean up

rm -f /tmp/palette_$$.png

Report output path and file size.

Key Decisions

• stats_mode=full on palettegen analyzes the entire clip — not just the first frame — for better palette coverage across motion.
• dither=bayer:bayer_scale=5 is the sweet spot for photographic content. Use dither=none for flat-color content (illustrations, slides, screen recordings with solid backgrounds).
• -ss placed before -i uses container-level fast seek. Apply to both passes for consistent start points and dramatically faster seeks on long source files.
• flags=lanczos on scale gives sharper downsampling than the default bilinear.
• To control loop count, add -loop $N to pass 2: 0 = infinite, 1 = play once, 2 = play twice.