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 480px; 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:

ffprobe -v quiet -print_format json -show_streams "$INPUT" | \