LFS GIF Tutorial - Using Virtualdub[Free]

[Pipa]

Saw a few people still struggling, so here is an really easy and free way.

1. Getting the material

1.1 Recording the scene using fraps/shadowplay/etc:

1.1.1 Find your scene
1.1.2 Pause
1.1.3 Press ctrl+f/strg+f twice to get rid of hud and chat
1.1.4 Press unpause and record whenever you want
1.1.5 Cancel record and possibly save your video file, depends on your program

1.2 Recording the scene using screenshots:

1.2.1 Find your scene
1.2.2 Pause
1.2.3 Set your speed to 0.250 by pressing F2. F3 will speed it up again.
1.2.4 Press ctrl+f/strg+f twice to get rid of hud and chat
1.2.5 Unpause the game and hit ctrl+s/strg+s repeatedly a few times a second until your scene is over. You can use a macro for this.

2. Getting the tool

2.1 Go to http://www.virtualdub.org
2.2 Click "Download" on the left side
2.3 Click "VirtualDub at SourceForge"
2.4 Download the latest release build. If you don't have a 64bit OS make sure you get the 32-bit (x86) version.
2.5 Unrar the archive into a folder of your choice and open the .exe
You should see this window



If not, you have clicked the command line exe. Just close the cmd window and click the other .exe file.

3. Opening the file and selecting the scene

3.1 If you made screenshots just drop one screenshot in there, virtualdub will add the rest automatically. If too many are being added then just put all of the desired ones in a new folder or follow this tutorial a little further.

If you used fraps/etc then drag and drop the first video file in there. If you have additional video files then press and hold ctrl+shift and select those files. Keep holding ctrl+shift and drag drop them into virtualdub.

3.2 The scene has bits that have to be cut out?

Select the start which you want to cut out by moving the slider to the right moment.
Then press the left litte arrow named [Mark in].



Then move the slider to the end of the bit you want to delete and press the right arrow named [Mark out].
You will see that it's hightlighted the scene you want to delete.



Now press delete on your keyboard to erase that bit.

3. Resizing the .gif - to lower the filesize

Press "Video" -> "Filters".



Press "add"



Select "resize"



Select a resolution you feel is small enough, but still shows plenty of the action.
I choose a width of 600 pixels and virtualdub will automatically adjust the height appropriately.



Press return



4. Cropping the .gif - to lower the filesize

If you feel that your scene is filmed way too far back and there is a lot of unecessary space in the shot.
Then you may want to cut that out, to get a smaller filesize

Press Cropping on the right of the little window



Now select x1/x2 and y1/y2 offset till the uncessary space is gone.





Make sure you don't crop out too much and go back and forth with the slider to make sure.
I simply did this to show the function, but if i move the slider left or right the car will be cropped out of the scene.

5. Exporting the .gif

After you have resized your .gif and perhaps cropped it is time to export the whole thing. So press ok to get out of the filter menu.

Press "File" -> "Export" -> "Animated GIF..."



Select location, name and infinite loop(should be done by default) and press return. DONE.



6. Uploading and filesize

Few tips to keep the filesize down.
1. Resize and crop your .gif, most of the time smaller is better. Use common sense.
2. Pick a static camera point for your recording, that way there are less changes per picture, which greatly reduces the filesize.
3. Don't make the .gif too long. Cut it in parts if necessary.

Generally .gifs up to 10MB are still okay, although my personal limit is rather 3-5MB.
If you can't get your .gif to such a small size, please consider using this site:

http://gfycat.com/ - People with slower computers or less bandwith will thank you.

.gifs were never really meant to show video clips.This site uses WebM which is far more suited for the job and means that your 20MB .gifs will be only 1-2MB for users that have a browser with html5, basicly everybody.
More info about gfycat, check this: http://gfycat.com/about

If your gif is larger than 10MB please use http://gfycat.com/ and embed your gif with [gfy]<gfycat.com link>[/gfy].

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Final Product[little over 1MB]:

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Hoped that helped a few of you and it was easy enough to understand.

[RedJohn]

Thanks for the great guide

[[TC]►Ras◄]

Nice, thanks

[Pipa]

You are welcome .

[GT4tube]

How long done gif?

[Pipa]

(2014-05-29 18:11)GT4tube Wrote:  How long done gif?

Huh? You mean how long it takes it to make a .gif?

Not even 5 mins usually.

[Pipa]

Thanks to Chuck it is now possible to embed gfycat videos/gifs.

You can embed them by using [gfy]<gfycat.com link>[/gfy]. Example

Code:

[gfy]gfycat.com/SelfreliantSingleFlyinglemur[/gfy]

gfycat.com/SelfreliantSingleFlyinglemur



If your .gif is rather large please try using gfycat as it will save everyone a lot of bandwith and make loading it much quicker.

[SO•Yukine]

Thanks Pipa for this tutorial, I think everyone was bored of my 50-200mb gifs.

[FolloweR]

Thanks for the explanation :**

[◄Chuck►]

...or just use GifCam.

http://blog.bahraniapps.com/gifcam/