This is my prefered way to create GIF animations for demos and whatnot.
- QuickTime » File » New Screen Recording
- Select area to record » Start recording your thing
- File » Export » Select max resolution available » Save
- Photoshop » Import » Video Frames to Layers (no need to follow step
2
if not on retina screen) - Select your .mov file » Select range to import » Make sure "Limit to Every
N
Frames" is unchecked » OK - Image » Image Size » Make sure the icon is selected (to keep aspect ratio) » Set width to half of its size » OK
- File » Export » Save for Web (Legacy) 1. Make sure file format is GIF (right below "Preset") 2. Looping options » Forever 3. Save
- Photoshop » Window » Timeline
- Timeline » Select All Frames
- Right below the frame thumbnail, click on the frame delay » Other » Set the frame delay you want
- Follow step
2.3
under Steps
It might work in lower versions tho.
- QuickTime 10
- Adobe Photoshop CC 2015
Options that I've tried before:
- LICEcap: decent UI, bad output (weird square shapes floating around)
- Recordit: best UI of all the options, bad output (tiny pixel dots spread across the image)
- CloudConvert: essentially ffmpeg as a service, bad defaults (if you got the skills to customize it, might be a good fit)
- OS X Screencast to animated GIF (Gist ): guide to generate a GIF using ffmpeg on OSX, interesting stuff but kinda overwhelming
This is the best way that I found so far for creating decent quality GIF animations. If you know a better way to do it that doesn't involve installing ffmpeg
, coreutils
, cmake
and recompiling the kernel, let me know in the comments.
There is a better way.
Command line tools. 😄
Why the reluctance?
ffmpeg is just a
brew install ffmpeg
away.It doesn't get more easier than that.