How to make an animated GIF from an MKV file

-Visit http://www.scriptic.net for more tutorials
-Make sure you have annotations ON when viewing this tutorial-

Programs/Utilites used: (All of them are FREE)
VirtualDub: http://www.virtualdub.org/download.html
VirtualDubMod ("ALL INCLUSIVE" version): http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualdubmod/files/VirtualDubMod/VirtualDubM...
AviSynth 2.5: http://avisynth.org/
CCCP: http://www.cccp-project.net/ (you probably already had the cccp to play MKVs in the first place =P)

Notes:
-Not only will this method work for MKV files, but also mp4 and avi.
-The intermediate step of extracting to a file sequence (an uncompressed avi will work too, btwi) is only necessary for mkv or mp4 files.

Background Info:
For a long while I have wanted to know how to make animated GIFs from my favorite MKV-formatted shows. A quick google search will reveal that there is no *easy* way to go about it. Sure, there are some of pre-packaged "converters" out there, but they lack MKV support as well as customizability. Not to mention cost and spyware issues. The method I demonstrate has none of these problems, and the programs used are freeware.

The solution is VirtualDub. It is by far the best, free video processing tool out there. Coupled with AMVapp (an avisynth + ffdshow codec bundle), it's power is almost limitless.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• mkv
• gif
• anime
• animated
• conversion
• converter
• video
• clip
• file
• avatar
• virtualdub
• vdub
• virtualdubmod
• free
• forums
• web
• online
• animation
• hd
• avi
• mp4

[Kontext51]

Guys this tutorial is pretty old, I'm thinking about making a better less confusing one soon.

[surrealfabetiquette]

I get the error "An out-of-bounds memory access (access violation) occurred in module 'VirtualDubMod'." (with mkv).

[Kontext51]

@surrealfabetiquette um that's odd. try running vdub as an administrator and see if that fixes it

[anonymousb37]

really well done video!! One thing that i thought was missing, was what if you wanted one frame to be a lot longer than all the others. Like individually timing each frame. Can u do that with your software?

[Kontext51]

@anonymousb37 maybe, im really not too sure. you'd have to do some experimenting.

[TotalCodeMonkey]

@anonymousb37 I suspect, before you load the tga files into vdub, you should muck around with the files. copy the fames you want longer and re-name the files so they're in sequence. Vdub seems to load them into a movie using their file names

[Kontext51]

@TotalCodeMonkey Yeah, that would be a good way to do it. ^^

[jasonta]

I have a problem , after 0:43 it tells me "Couldn't locate decompresor for format 'YV12' [unknown]. VirtualDub requires a video for windows. [VFW] compatible codec to decompress video. DirectShow codecs, such as those used by Windows Media Player, are not suitable. Only 'Direct stream copy' is available for this video" Please help =(

[tyraelpl]

@jasonta solution that worked for me: if you have ffdshow (and mos people have) run VFW config -> decoder tab -> codecs -> scroll all the way down to Raw video -> change disabled to YV12 (or try all supported).

*if it works for you vote up so others can a possible solution.

[ZeroRiolu]

it works for me but the gifs play poorly on my ipod :(

[Mitwad]

Same problem as ShotaCat.

[123gokudo123]

Is there a way to reduce the size of the gif ???

[zaks88]

I'm receiving the same problem as ShotaCat, I've messed around in the setting menus but haven't found a solution.

[ShotaCat]

In fact, it just says "dub in progress" at the top of the screen while playing it. In your tutorial you were able to just skip through and play it immediately, for me it's just saying "dub in progress" and being grey.

[ShotaCat]

This doesn't work for me. I downloaded the various things you mentioned, opened the MKV using the directshow thing as you showed, but rather than the footage of the video, I just got lots and lots of grey. It'll play through (though I can't skip) but it's just grey; I don't think it's rendering it, basically.

[hglebre]

@jasonta i solved it by installing CCCP. Look at description for download.

[MetamoArk]

I just get errors, unknown format yyyy, and then it divides by zero and crashes.

[tyraelpl]

@PrimeBrawler hehe, no problem :) happy to help mate!