GIFs are a fun, dynamic style to express yourself on the Internet. These blithe files feature a brusk, looping video clip — usually one that expresses an emotion. Humans are visual creatures, and if a picture is worth a one thousand words, then an animated GIF is worth fifty-fifty more than.

Because they're such a fun, clear, and succinct style to express a feeling, GIFs are incredibly popular. That's why 'reaction GIFs' are one of the virtually mutual ways to use this kind of file. GIPHY, 1 of the biggest GIF platforms online, has an unbelievable 500 1000000 active users — and they ship vii billion GIFs every single mean solar day!

One common apply of blithe GIFs is in individual or straight social messages, and they're as well popular on sites like Tumblr. However, they too work well in many types of creative content, such as weblog posts, landing pages, emails and social media posts.

How to Make a GIF From a Video in 6 Steps

There are GIF files made from looping images, or even nonetheless images, but this commodity is all well-nigh explaining how to create GIFs from a video. Nosotros'll break down why you should exist using GIFs, what makes a GIF great, and how to brand a GIF from a video yourself — fifty-fifty if yous're a full beginner!

Why utilize GIFs instead of videos?

GIFs give y'all all the expressive ability of a video, with a much lighter file size that won't slow down your page's loading fourth dimension or performance.

For example, if yous're writing a blog post about managing teams, it wouldn't brand sense to embed a bunch of short videos that illustrate topics like stress, productivity, belonging, and workplace trust. But adding in a few different GIFs volition work — and they'll brand your blog post a lot more than fun and engaging to read!

Especially because and so many readers tend to skim through written content online, GIFs are a practiced way to make sure the overall messages of what you're proverb come through effectively.

GIFs also tend to be funny, so they're a practiced way to keep things light hearted. This is a good strategy if you lot're writing about drier content, and you notwithstanding want the slice to be entertaining and dynamic.

GIFs are too trendy — and they're non going anywhere. Especially for younger audiences, like Millennials and Gen Z, they're an integral part of communicating online, expressing emotions, referencing popular culture, and harnessing the power of video in a quick and shareable style.

How to make a GIF from a video

There are hundreds of millions of GIFs bachelor online that you tin use to express yourself, but making your own couldn't exist easier, so in that location'south no reason not to go creative! Here'due south a pace-by-step guide to making your own GIF — yous won't need fancy tools like Photoshop to exercise it.

There are lots of options for online tools you can use to create animated GIFs, like EZGif, Imgflip, GifMaker, and GIPHY. And of grade, you can also create a GIF out of JPG or PNG images. But GIPHY is one of the virtually popular tools, and GIFs that apply video files, like flick GIFs, are one of the about popular types.

So here, we'll exist guiding you through how to make a GIF from a video, using GIPHY.

Step 1: Prepare your video

Make a GIF from a video

A adept GIF starts with a good video, and so you'll desire to brand certain yours fits all GIPHY's specifications.

Your video should:

  • Be up to 15 seconds long, simply ideally 6 seconds or less
  • Be up to 100MB, merely ideally under 8MB
  • Have resolution up to 720p, merely 480p is best
  • Be under 200 frames per second, or ideally under 100 frames per 2d
  • Have content that will look good and be articulate on small screens

Once you have a video ready that you're happy with, click on the 'Create' push button in the upper correct corner of GIPHY's homepage.

Stride ii: Upload your video to GIPHY

Make a GIF from a video

Next, upload your video file to GIPHY by selecting 'Choose File' under GIF (since that's what you want to create).

Y'all can also enter a YouTube link, or another URL, to use a video direct from YouTube, Vimeo, or some other video-hosting site.

GIF from a video

Adjacent, GIPHY does most of the work for y'all. Yous'll only need to tell the tool which department of your video you'd like to transform into a GIF, past trimming your video and selecting when yous'd similar the GIF to start.

Step iv: Get artistic

text for a meme style

GIPHY also gives you the selection to decorate your masterpiece with stickers, filters, and a few different styles of caption.

If yous're in the mood to add text for a meme-style GIF, make it sparkle with stickers, or add a filter to make the subject of your video look amazing, now's your take chances.

Optimize your GIF

You're done! All yous need to practice is striking 'Upload to GIPHY', and your cosmos will starting time uploading and fix to join the huge and thriving online GIF ecosystem.

You'll then exist able to download it to your computer, to use it in your brand content.

BONUS! Step half dozen: Optimize your GIF

optimize your gif

If you want to be extra sure that your GIF will look great on every platform, optimizing it is quick and like shooting fish in a barrel. We like EZGif'due south free optimizer, which makes it piece of cake to find the right balance betwixt a small, quick-loading file size, and a good compression quality so that your GIF looks crisp and beautiful. It also lets you customize your GIF with a few other tools, such as a crop or resize function, if you need.

What makes a adept GIF?

Making a GIF is like shooting fish in a barrel — but how tin yous brand an animated GIF that's as good equally it tin perhaps be?

Well, the best GIFs start with a great video. So make certain the video you're starting with is good quality, fits in with all the required specs, and nearly chiefly, actually conveys the feeling, message, or idea y'all need it to.

Other than their expressive powers, GIFs' quick loading capability is their other major reward. So make sure your GIF isn't also large of a file size, ideally by using the GIF optimizing tool we shared above!

Once you know your GIF itself is not bad, it'southward all well-nigh how yous employ it. Try using GIFs to add interest, move, and expressiveness to your blog content, email campaigns, and landing pages. They're besides neat on social media, and fun to share with your team over Slack.

Become get creative!

GIFs are the perfect fashion to liven up many unlike types of content and go along things fun, electric current, and relatable. There are millions of GIFs to cull from, but making your ain couldn't be easier.

With GIPHY, EZGif, and a multitude of other options, you'll be creating amazing GIFs in no time. Go attempt it out for yourself and have fun becoming a superstar GIF creator!