Animated GIFs are all the rage. But often we come across a video and don't know how to turn it into a GIF, or we run into limitations. That's when we start searching the internet. At Neoteo we want to show you a method that comes with three options: convert a video into an animated GIF, add a watermark, crop a part of the video, or merge multiple videos to create the animated GIF
The platform we will use is VideoSolo Free Video to GIF Converter. The good thing is that you can use its three functions together or separately, so you can create unique and personalized GIFs.
Adding Your Video
To create animated GIFs according to your needs, the first thing you have to do is add a video. The program supports formats such as 3GP, WMV, MKV, MP4, ASF, OGV, VOB, TS, AVI, FLV, MPV, MPD, SWF, RMVB, and more. You can incorporate videos in different formats and qualities ranging from 4K to below DV.
Then you can configure the output folder and parameters, manipulating the resolution, bitrate, ratio, and aspect ratio. This is where you can make a difference to personalize the animation to the fullest.
Clipping the Video
Once you have added the videos to the platform, select a video and click on the Clip option at the top of the interface. Set both the start and end points of the GIF. Click OK and you'll see the video edited, ready to be rendered.
Cropping the Video
Now for another method. Click the Edit icon and select the Crop tab: you'll see two views. The top one shows the original, and the bottom one shows the output preview. In the top view, you can enlarge or shrink the video frame (it always maintains the aspect ratio) to select a part of the video. You also have manual tools on the right. Remember that if the video has camera or optical movement (traveling, panning, zoom), what you select may not be framed accurately.
Adding Effects and Watermarks
Staying in the same window, you'll find two more tabs. In the Effect section, you can adjust brightness, contrast, and saturation among other options. In the Watermark tab, you can add a watermark to the animated GIF. The watermark can be text or an image (JPG, TIF, BMP, PNG, TGA, or GIF).
You cannot combine text and image; you can only select one option. In the tools, you can adjust transparency; for text, you can set font, size, and other parameters.
Merging and Converting
To merge videos, first select the videos, then click on the Merge into one file option (you can combine the other methods). When you finish the creative process, all that remains is to click the Convert button and wait for the platform to finish rendering.
In our tests, everything worked perfectly, and the platform is really a highly recommended tool to create animated GIFs from video. Besides the features we've mentioned, you can also take video from the webcam, take screenshots, manipulate the frames per second (playback speed), and other functions available on the platform.
The program is available for free for Windows and Mac OS X.
