How do I convert mp4 to gif?
Turns a video into an animated GIF using a generated palette, which is the difference between a usable GIF and a muddy one.
Convert MP4 to GIF with FFmpeg
Turns a video into an animated GIF using a generated palette, which is the difference between a usable GIF and a muddy one.
ffmpeg -i https://cdn.rendobar.com/assets/examples/sample.mp4 -vf "fps=12,scale=480:-1:flags=lanczos,split[a][b];[a]palettegen[p];[b][p]paletteuse" -t 3 out.gif- Encode
- 1420 ms
- Output
- 1055.6 KB
- Cost
- $0.0030
- Result
- 480x270
job_e027dbc335914995
The part everyone gets wrong
GIF is limited to 256 colours per frame, so the palette is the entire quality story. palettegen builds one from your actual footage and paletteuse applies it. Skipping that step is why most FFmpeg GIFs look worse than the source for no reason.
What the common version does
Without a generated palette FFmpeg falls back to a fixed 216-colour web palette, which is where the banding comes from. Measured, it is also HALF the size, so the palette is a quality decision that costs bytes rather than a free win.
ffmpeg -i https://cdn.rendobar.com/assets/examples/sample.mp4 -vf "fps=12,scale=480:-1" -t 3 out.gifIt succeeds, and that is the problem
It did not error. It produced 536.3 KB against the correct command's 1055.6 KB, a 2.0x smaller file. A pipeline would accept this silently.
job_9aeec1c105b74d37
Frequently asked questions
What goes wrong most often?
GIF is limited to 256 colours per frame, so the palette is the entire quality story. palettegen builds one from your actual footage and paletteuse applies it. Skipping that step is why most FFmpeg GIFs look worse than the source for no reason.
What happens if I get it wrong?
We ran the naive version too. It did not error. It produced 536.3 KB against the correct command's 1055.6 KB, a 2.0x smaller file. A pipeline would accept this silently.
Do I need FFmpeg installed?
Not with Rendobar. The command on this page ran through the API against a URL, with no local FFmpeg and no server. The job id below it is the job that produced these numbers.
More recipes, all measured
Convert a video to WebM Encodes to VP9 and Opus in a WebM container, the royalty-free combination browsers accept. Extract audio from video with FFmpeg Pulls the audio track out of a video, copying it without re-encoding when the format allows. Trim a video without re-encoding Cuts a section out of a video by copying streams, which is effectively instant and lossless. Remove audio from a video Strips the audio track and copies the video untouched, so there is no quality loss and almost no work.
Run this without installing FFmpeg
This exact command ran through the API against a URL.