If you would prefer to avoid intermediate image files, the commands provided by LordNeckBeard can be piped between ffmpeg and ImageMagick's convert so that no intermediate files are required:

ffmpeg -i input.flv -vf scale=320:-1 -r 10 -f image2pipe -vcodec ppm - | convert -delay 5 -loop 0 - output.gif

The -f image2pipe tells ffmpeg to split the video into images and make it suitable to be piped out, and -vcodec ppm specifies the output format to be ppm (for some reason if the format is png, either convert does not read all the images from the pipe, or ffmpeg does not output them all). The - for both commands specifies that a pipe will be used for output and input respectively.

To optimize the result without saving a file, you can pipe the output from convert to a second convert command:

ffmpeg -i input.flv -vf scale=320:-1 -r 10 -f image2pipe -vcodec ppm - | convert -delay 5 -loop 0 - gif:- | convert -layers Optimize - output.gif

The gif:- tells convert to pipe its output as gif formatted data and -layers Optimize tells the second convert to perform optimize-frame and optimize-transparancy methods (see the ImageMagick Introduction to Animation Optimization). Note that the output from the -layers Optimize may not always provide a smaller file size, so you may want to try converting to a gif without optimization first to be sure.

Remember that during this whole process everything is in memory so you may need sufficient memory if the images are quite large.

As of ffmpeg 2.6, we can do even better:

palette="/tmp/palette.png"

filters="fps=15,scale=320:-1:flags=lanczos"



ffmpeg -i input.flv -vf "$filters,palettegen" -y $palette

ffmpeg -i input.flv -i $palette -lavfi "$filters [x]; [x][1:v] paletteuse" -y output.gif

HT

I made my own version of the script, which parameterizes the output resolution and frame rate as well.

Running ./gifenc.sh input.mov output.gif 720 10 will output 720p wide 10fps GIF from the movie you gave it. You might need to do chmod +x gifenc.sh for the file.

#!/bin/sh



palette="/tmp/palette.png"



filters="fps=$4,scale=$3:-1:flags=lanczos"



ffmpeg -v warning -i "$1" -vf "$filters,palettegen" -y "$palette"

ffmpeg -v warning -i "$1" -i $palette -lavfi "$filters [x]; [x][1:v] paletteuse" -y "$2"

You can read the details on my Github

Assumptions: ffmpeg is installed,
and the script is in the same folder as the other files.

The answer from @Stephane is very good. But it will get a warning like Buffer queue overflow, dropping. for some video, and the generated gif has some frame dropped.

Here is a better version with fifo filter to avoid Buffer queue overflow when using paletteuse filter. By using split filter to avoid the creation of intermediate palette PNG file.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter_complex 'fps=10,scale=320:-1:flags=lanczos,split [o1] [o2];[o1] palettegen [p]; [o2] fifo [o3];[o3] [p] paletteuse' out.gif

made a script, tested and works.

usage:

./avi2gif.sh ./vokoscreen-2015-05-28_12-41-56.avi

HAVE PHUN :)

vim avi2gif.sh

#!/bin/sh



INPUT=$1



# default settings, modify if you want.



START_AT_SECOND=0; # in seconds, if you want to skip the first 30 seconds put 30 here



LENGTH_OF_GIF_VIDEO=9999999; # in seconds, how long the gif animation should be



echo "Generate a palette:"

ffmpeg -y -ss $START_AT_SECOND -t $LENGTH_OF_GIF_VIDEO -i $INPUT -vf fps=10,scale=320:-1:flags=lanczos,palettegen palette.png



echo "Output the GIF using the palette:"

ffmpeg -ss $START_AT_SECOND -t $LENGTH_OF_GIF_VIDEO -i $INPUT -i palette.png -filter_complex "fps=10,scale=320:-1:flags=lanczos[x];[x][1:v]paletteuse" $INPUT.gif

btw: vokoscreen is an EXCELLENT ScreenCapturing tool for Linux :)

THANKS A LOT Michael Kohaupt :) Rock steady.

some file size stats:

5.3M = vokoscreen-2015-04-28_15-43-17.avi
->
vokoscreen-2015-05-28_12-41-56.avi.gif = 1013K

see the results here.

Linux/Unix/macOS

Following @LordNeckbeard approach with ffmpeg command, please find the following useful Bash function which can be added into your ~/.bash_profile file:

# Convert video to gif file.

# Usage: video2gif video_file (scale) (fps)

video2gif() {

  ffmpeg -y -i "${1}" -vf fps=${3:-10},scale=${2:-320}:-1:flags=lanczos,palettegen "${1}.png"

  ffmpeg -i "${1}" -i "${1}.png" -filter_complex "fps=${3:-10},scale=${2:-320}:-1:flags=lanczos[x];[x][1:v]paletteuse" "${1}".gif

  rm "${1}.png"

}

Once the function is loaded (manually or from . ~/.bash_profile), you should have new video2gif command.

Example usage:

video2gif input.flv

or:

video2gif input.flv 320 10

^{Scale to 320 width with 10 frames per second.}

You can also specify a different video format (such as mp4).

macOS

You can try GIF Brewery app which can create GIFs from video files.

Alternatively there are several websites which are doing conversion online free of charge.

The ffmpeg with palette method can be run in a single command, without intermediary .png file.

ffmpeg -y -ss 30 -t 3 -i input.flv -filter_complex 

"fps=10,scale=320:-1:flags=lanczos[x];[x]split[x1][x2]; 

[x1]palettegen[p];[x2][p]paletteuse" output.gif

This can be done thanks to the split filter.

The selected answer assumes you wish to scale the source video and change its fps in the gif produced. If you do not need to do this, the following works:

src="input.flv"

dest="output.gif"

palette="/tmp/palette.png"



ffmpeg -i $src -vf palettegen -y $palette

ffmpeg -i $src -i $palette -lavfi paletteuse -y $dest

This came in handy when I wanted a gif that faithfully recreated the source video I was using.

Below is the batch file for Windows users:

gifenc.bat:

set start_time=0

set duration=60

set palette="c:temppalette.png"

set filters="fps=15,scale=-1:-1:flags=lanczos"

ffmpeg -v warning -ss %start_time% -t %duration% -i %1 -vf "%filters%,palettegen" -y %palette%

ffmpeg -v warning -ss %start_time% -t %duration% -i %1 -i %palette% -lavfi "%filters% [x]; [x][1:v] paletteuse" -y %2

Source: High quality GIF with FFmpeg: Extracting just a sample

If you just want to use one input variable and have the output name have just the GIF (pronounced JIF) extension, then use this instead:

set start_time=0

set duration=60

set palette="c:temppalette.png"

set filters="fps=15,scale=-1:-1:flags=lanczos"

ffmpeg -v warning -ss %start_time% -t %duration% -i %1 -vf "%filters%,palettegen" -y %palette%

set var1=%1

set var2=%var1:~0,-4%

ffmpeg -v warning -ss %start_time% -t %duration% -i %1 -i %palette% -lavfi "%filters% [x]; [x][1:v] paletteuse" -y %var2%.gif

For windows users:

create video2gif.bat file in windows directory with these content:

@echo off

set arg1=%1

set arg2=%arg1:~0,-4%

ffmpeg -y -i %arg1% -vf fps=10,scale=-1:-1:flags=lanczos,palettegen %TEMP%palette.png

ffmpeg -i %arg1% -i %TEMP%palette.png -filter_complex "fps=10,scale=-1:-1:flags=lanczos[x];[x][1:v]paletteuse" %arg2%.gif

del /f %TEMP%palette.png

And then anywhere you can use it be like this example:

video2gif myvideo.mp4

Then you have myvideo.gif in current directory.

If myvideo.gif there is existed, question from you for overwrite it.

EDIT:

I suggest use this batch script:
https://github.com/NabiKAZ/video2gif

How to add a windows 7/10 "right-click" context menu entry to convert your video file to gif

Some of the other answers mentioned the video2gif script, which I used. But, you could use any script.

To create the context-menu option, you need to edit your registry. Open a powershell command prompt, running w/ admin privs. Execute these commands:

$key = "Registry::HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT`*shellRun Video2Gif"

New-Item -Path $key"Command" -Value "C:devffmpegffmpeg-3.4.2-win64-staticbinvideo2gif.bat `"%1`"" -Force

Now when you right click a file you'll have a "Run Video2Gif" option!

btw I installed ffmpeg to C:devffmpegffmpeg-3.4.2-win64-static and put the video2gif.bat script in the bin dir right next to ffmpeg.exe. I also added C:devffmpegffmpeg-3.4.2-win64-staticbin to my windows PATH, but I don't think you need to.

If you want the option of being able to supply some extra command line flags / args to the script, then make a new file named video2gif-prompt.bat, and have the registry referce it instead of video2gif.bat:

@echo off

set /p inp=Enter extrta args, if desired:

C:devffmpegffmpeg-3.4.2-win64-staticbinvideo2gif.bat %* %inp%

You can still just hit enter to quickly get the defaults.