Any easy way to turn or convert a video to gif animated on a mac device?

GIF Brewery (now known as GIPHY Capture) is a popular Mac application for creating GIFs from videos. Let's start converting video to GIF on Mac!

Step 1: Install Giphy Capture

• Download GIPHY Capture from the Mac App Store.

Step 2: Capture the Video

• Open the app and position the capture window over the area of the screen or the video you want to convert.
• Play the video and click the capture button to record the GIF.

Step 3: Edit and Export

• You can edit the GIF (add captions, adjust the speed, etc.) within the app.
• Once satisfied, you can export your GIF directly to your computer.New you are able to convert video to GIF on Mac.

FFmpeg fully supports converting video to animated GIFs on Mac or Windows PC. You can use it to extract frames, adjust frame rates, scale dimensions, and apply filters to create high-quality GIFs.

First, install FFmpeg with:

brew install ffmpeg

Navigate to the directory containing your video or specify the full path. Use the following command to convert video to gif on Mac:

ffmpeg -i input_video.mp4 -vf "fps=10,scale=320:-1:flags=lanczos" output.gif

• -i input_video.mp4: Specifies your input file.
• -vf "fps=10,scale=320:-1:flags=lanczos": Sets the frame rate to 10 fps and scales the width to 320 pixels (the height is automatically adjusted to maintain the aspect ratio).
• output.gif: The name of the resulting GIF.

If you don't want to use the command line, you can also use Mac's built-in Automator + Preview or Quick Script tool to convert a video to gif. Here's a simpler method that also works on macOS Sequoia 15.3:

1. Open your video with QuickTime, then use the menu bar Edit > Split Clip to cut out the desired clips (optional).
2. Then click File > Export As > Image Sequence, which will export each frame, usually in PNG format.
3. Open the first exported image, open it with Preview, press ⌘A to select all frames, and you will see all the frames on the left.
4. Then click File > Export to PDF, and use a free online tool (such as ezgif.com) to convert the PDF to GIF, or you can save it as an image directly in Preview and then use the gifmaker tool to assemble it into an animation.

No matter which method you use, it is really not difficult to convert video to gif on Mac. It depends on which method you prefer. Anyway, I have used both methods myself, so just choose the one you need.

You're right, many of those funny animated GIFs on Reddit are converted from videos, and you can easily do it on a Mac. Although QuickTime doesn't have this function, you can use the command line tool ffmpeg to convert a video to gif. It's not only simple, but the converted GIF is high-quality and small, which is perfect for posting on Reddit.

The method is as follows (for macOS Sequoia 15.3):

Install ffmpeg (if you haven't installed it yet):

bash
brew install ffmpeg

Run the command to convert the video to gif:

bash
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "fps=10,scale=480:-1:flags=lanczos" -c:v gif output.gif

This command will convert a video to gif at 10 frames per second, with a size of 480 pixels wide, automatically scaled proportionally, high quality but small file size.

If you want to be more professional, you can also generate a palette first, and then make a gif, which will have a better effect:

bash
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "fps=10,scale=480:-1:flags=lanczos,palettegen" palette.png
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i palette.png -filter_complex "fps=10,scale=480:-1:flags=lanczos[x];[x][1:v]paletteuse" output.gif

In short, the most recommended way to convert video to gif on Mac is to use the ffmpeg command line. It not only has high freedom, but also allows you to adjust the frame rate, size, and quality. The key is that the converted file is very cool to post on Reddit~

If you have any questions, please feel free to communicate with me. I'm also playing with this recently 😆

If you’re not careful when you converting video to GIF on Mac, your GIF can end up being a massive file. Bigger files take longer to load and might even fail to upload on social media. Aim for the smallest possible size without sacrificing quality. It’s all about that sweet spot; you want it to look good but also be easy to share.

If you’re converting video to GIF on Mac, trying to make a GIF that’s too large can be a real headache. Stick to a resolution that's practical—like 480p or even lower. You want your GIF to be viewable on most devices without blowing up the size.