Turn Videos into Looping GIFs
YOU’LL NEED THIS VIDEOPAD VIDEO EDITOR Grab the free version from www.nchsoftware.com/videopad. GIF-WORTHY VIDEO Needs to be short and sweet. A BASIC WORKSTATION PC Yes, your quad-SLI rig will do, too.
GIFS ARE THE LIFEBLOOD OF THE INTERNET. Without them It would be a whole lot harder to digest all the times someone fell over at an inopportune moment, or convey a reaction to something using a reality star’s facial expressions. The humble GIF’s abundance across the Internet is testament to the ease of its creation, but with so many different browser-based options and apps dedicated to the process, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.
Not so with this guide. Using the surprisingly powerful free video editing program VideoPad, you’re empowered to make a looping GIF with minimum hassle, while retaining control over parameters that browser-based services, such as Giphy, strip away in the name of convenience. Different social media platforms display GIFs at slightly different dimensions, for example, so it’s useful to be able to change your GIF’s resolution, frame rate, and play speed. It’s also good to have a few options when you want to cut down the overall length—no one wants to sit and watch your two-minute magnum opus load, after all—so opting for a program such as VideoPad over a “paste your video link” service is an especially wise move. Now, dig out your best cat videos.
1 DOWNLOAD VIDEOPAD If you’re already in possession of a paid, industry standard video editing suite, such as Premiere Pro, it will come as absolutely no surprise to hear that you already have the prerequisites for making a looping GIF. If you don’t, we think NCH Software’s VideoPad ( www.nchsoftware.com/videopad) is the best option. There’s a free version available for non-commercial use, so unless you’re thinking of starting a business whose sole product is Taylor Swift reactions, go for that [ Image A].
>> There’s obviously a whole bunch of video editing programs available for free, but what we like about this one is that, as far as we can see, none of the features you’d ever want are pushed behind a paywall. While some programs limit your export options, or skimp on effects, you get the full suite here, with minimal annoying, cap-in-hand, pop-up messages. We also like the similarity to Premiere Pro’s layout—similar free programs, such as OpenShot, are powerful, but their UIs can take a long time to get used to.
2 SELECT AND IMPORT YOUR VIDEO Open VideoPad, and select “Open project” when prompted. Navigate to the location of the video you’d like to turn into Internet gold, and select it [ Image B]. You’ll see it appear in the left- hand box, or “video files bin,” and a video preview should also appear on the right. Alternatively, you can simply select “New project,” and manually drag a video file into the video files bin. It’s now sitting patiently within the program, ready for you to start editing.
3 TRIM IT DOWN TO SIZE Beneath the video files bin and preview window, you’ll see two timelines: video above, and audio below. Drag your file into the video timeline, and you’ll see they both populate [ Image C]. It’s here that you’ll select the start and end points of your GIF. To do so, drag the red
marker along to where you’d like the GIF to begin, then move the cursor back to the beginning of the file, until you see it change to a square bracket. Then click and drag it over to where you just placed the red marker—you’ll see it “snap” to that point, and when you release, you’ll have trimmed the start point. Set the end point by moving to the end of the file, clicking when the square bracket appears, and dragging to your desired point on the timeline. If you’re scrubbing through a particularly long video, you can adjust the zoom in the bottom-right corner for convenience. Hit the play button in the preview window to see how the newly trimmed version looks—you can drag the beginning and end points around if you didn’t nail it first time.
4 CHANGE CLIP SPEED TO TASTE GIFs aren’t about testing the limits of the human attention span, so the briefer the better for your content. If you’ve hacked out all the boring bits either side of the part you want to use in your video, but it’s still running long—long being anything over five seconds in GIF land—you can shrink it further. Go to the “Video effects” drop-down menu, and select “Change clip speed” [ Image D]. You can be quite brutal with the numbers here—don’t be afraid to boost it past 200 percent play speed. It takes a while to render at higher play speeds, though, so be patient.
5 INTRODUCE SOME EFFECTS If you’re feeling creative, head back to the “Video effects” drop-down menu, and play around with some of the effects. There’s a lot to experiment with, which is a pleasant surprise for a free program—although, like the clip speed change, each effect has an impact on rendering time. Layering them prompts a particularly strenuous workout for your PC.
6 EXPORT YOUR GIF Now it’s time to turn your tiny masterpiece into a shareable, looping GIF. To do so, select the “Export” drop-down menu, then hit “Video file.” In the next menu, choose the .gif file format, and choose your frame rate. Lower is better, because it makes the file size smaller, and the GIF faster to load; 15–20fps is usually adequate. Check the “Constant frame rate” box for smooth playback, and enter ‘“Encoder settings” to enable the “Looping” checkbox in the menu within [ Image E].
>> Bear in mind that Facebook prefers a 1200x628 resolution, and Twitter likes 1024x512—you can set a custom resolution for your intended platform. Once you’ve chosen where you’d like the file to export to, you’re all set.
7 TRY IT OUT Your newly created GIF should autoplay in web browsers and Microsoft Photos [ Image F]. Now’s the time to check for artifacts or messed-up exports. If you needed to crop the image during the export process, it’s also worth checking that everything important is still in shot. If it’s all playing as planned, though, you’re ready to take social media by storm.