homebrew-gif-off

Small CLI for making animated GIFs from folders of images.

Installation

To install gif-off run:

brew install emorydunn/gif-off/gif-off

Why?

There are lots of ways to string a series of pictures together to create a very fast slideshow, a "moving picture", if you will. You can use ffmpeg, if you can remember its arcane incantations. Or maybe use a non-linear editor, but that's an awful lot of overhead for a dozen frames. Some sort of Automator action or AppleScript?

For me none of the options really fit, so I wanted to build something that was quick and too the point: images in, animation out. There are options where you want them, but none where you don't need them.

The Name?

The utility is called gif-off but really it's "G!F Off", named for an impolite phrase with a similar ending one might utter after being asked to make another animated GIF on set that wasn't on the shotlist that no one's going to use anyway but the AD just thought it would be Fun.

Usage

gif-off [<options>] <source-folder>

ARGUMENTS:
  <source-folder>         The source folder of images

OPTIONS:
  -o, --output <output>   The output file
  --name <name>           The output filename
  --gif/--png/--mp4/--mov The output file format
  -w, --width <width>     Width of the animation
  -h, --height <height>   Height of the animation
  --size <size>           Fixed size
  -f, --frame-duration <frame-duration>
                          Duration (in seconds) of each frame (default: 0.5)
  --loops <loops>         Number of loops (default: infinite)
  -t <t>                  Custom frame timing
  --dry-run               Print a summary of the operation without rendering anything
  --save-timing/--no-save-timing
                          Save custom timings into a sidecar file (default: --save-timing)
  --read-timing/--no-read-timing
                          Read custom timings from a sidecar file (default: --read-timing)
  --help                  Show help information.

Input

The source images must all reside in the same folder and be named in frame order. The files are sorted to match how they appear in Finder.

At the moment alternate orders and specifying individual frames is not supported.

Options

Size

The size defaults to the dimensions of the first frame. You can also specify a fixed size or to scale the images to either a given width or height.

To render to a fixed width or height use --width or --height (or both for a fixed size). A fixed size can also be given in a single option with --size in the format <w>x<h>, for example 1000x1000.

When giving a single dimension the dimensions of the file are based on the first frame. All other frames will be scaled into those dimensions. At this time cropping is not supported.

Frame Duration

The frame duration defines how long, by default, each frame is shown in seconds.

Loops

How many times should the animation loop? For GIFs and PNGs this is optional, and the file will loop infinitely. For MP4s the looping is baked into the file, thus two loops will yield twice as many frames.

Custom Timing

By default all frames will be show for the duration specified with --f, however if you'd like some frames to play for more or less time this option can be used to give that time. The option can be used multiple times, one for each frame.

The format is <index>:<duration>, for example to set the duration of the second frame to 0.75 seconds: -t 2:0.75. The index is one-based, to set the timing for the first frame use 1:0.5, second frame 2:1.5, etc.

By default any custom frame timing is also read from and written to a sidecar file, .timing, in the source folder. The format is the same, with each frame on a new line. Any timings passed in on the command line override those in the sidecar and will be saved. Use the --no prefix on read-timing and save-timing to neither read nor write.

Output

The supported output formats are:

GIF
PNG
MP4 (H.264)
MOV (H.264)

To chose the format, use a flag with the lowercase extension, e.g. --png. By default the rendered file will be named the same as the input folder with the extension appended to it. The name can be changed with --name.

If you'd like to choose a different output location specify it with --output. When using the output option the file extension is used to determine the file type, unless a format flag is specified.

Either --name or --output can be specified, not both.

Examples

Create a GIF from a folder of images

gif-off ~/Pictures/Session/Output --gif

Result: ~/Pictures/Session/Output.gif

Create a PNG from a folder of images, scaling to 1000x1000

gif-off ~/Pictures/Session/Output --png --size 1000x1000

Result: ~/Pictures/Session/Output.png

Create a MP4 from a folder of images, scaling to a height of 1080, named HD

gif-off ~/Pictures/Session/Output --name HD --mp4 --height 1080

Result: ~/Pictures/Session/HD.mp4

Create a MP4 from a folder of images, with custom frame timing

gif-off ~/Pictures/Session/Output --mp4 -t 5:0.75 -t 6:1 -t 7:0.75

Result: ~/Pictures/Session/Output.mp4

Create a GIF from a folder of images, saving to the Desktop

gif-off ~/Pictures/Session/Output --output ~/Desktop/Animation.mp4

Result: ~/Desktop/Animation.mp4

emorydunn/homebrew-gif-off