make-gif

Original：🇺🇸 English
Translated

This skill should be used when the user asks to "make a GIF", "convert to GIF", "create a GIF from this video", "export as GIF", "turn this clip into a GIF", "make an animated GIF", or "gif this".

14installs
Sourcegupsammy/claudest
Added on

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add gupsammy/claudest make-gif

Tags

Translated version includes tags in frontmatter
video-to-gifffmpeg-workflowgif-optimizationcommand-line-toolmedia-processing

SKILL.md Content

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Video GIF

Convert a video clip to a high-quality GIF using the mandatory 2-pass palette workflow.
Single-pass GIF always produces banding and color artifacts. The palettegen → paletteuse pipeline analyzes the actual clip to build an optimal 256-color palette, then renders with it. Never skip this.

Process

1. Gather parameters

Ask for any not already provided in the request:
  • Start time — default 
    0
  • Duration or end time — required; warn if >30s (file size grows rapidly)
  • Width — default 
    480
    px; height auto-calculated to preserve aspect ratio
  • FPS — default 
    15
    ; higher = smoother + larger file
If the user asks about aspect ratio or the source has unusual dimensions, probe first:
bash
ffprobe -v quiet -print_format json -show_streams "$INPUT" | \
  python3 -c "import json,sys; s=[s for s in json.load(sys.stdin)['streams'] if s['codec_type']=='video'][0]; print(s['width'], 'x', s['height'])"

2. Build the 2-pass command

Pass 1 — generate optimized palette:
bash
ffmpeg -ss $START -t $DURATION -i "$INPUT" \
  -vf "fps=$FPS,scale=$WIDTH:-1:flags=lanczos,palettegen=stats_mode=full" \
  /tmp/palette_$$.png -y
Pass 2 — render GIF using palette:
bash
ffmpeg -ss $START -t $DURATION -i "$INPUT" -i /tmp/palette_$$.png \
  -lavfi "fps=$FPS,scale=$WIDTH:-1:flags=lanczos [x]; [x][1:v] paletteuse=dither=bayer:bayer_scale=5" \
  "$OUTPUT" -y
Use 
$$
(shell PID) in the palette temp path to avoid collisions with concurrent runs.

3. Confirm before running

Show the full 2-pass command and estimated output path. Add a size warning if 
duration × fps
is large (rough heuristic: >20s at 15fps at 480px → likely >10MB).

4. Run both passes, then clean up

bash
rm -f /tmp/palette_$$.png
Report output path and file size.

Key Decisions

  • stats_mode=full
    on palettegen analyzes the entire clip — not just the first frame — for better palette coverage across motion.
  • dither=bayer:bayer_scale=5
    is the sweet spot for photographic content. Use 
    dither=none
    for flat-color content (illustrations, slides, screen recordings with solid backgrounds).
  • -ss
    placed before 
    -i
    uses container-level fast seek. Apply to both passes for consistent start points and dramatically faster seeks on long source files.
  • flags=lanczos
    on scale gives sharper downsampling than the default 
    bilinear
    .
  • To control loop count, add 
    -loop $N
    to pass 2: 
    0
    = infinite, 
    1
    = play once, 
    2
    = play twice.