Generate GIFs from a directory of videos using FFmpeg

Background

As a video artist I deal with many physical formats (analog composite to 4K) and digital formats (.mp4, .mov, Motion JPEG, .gif, etc.). Going between formats can be a nightmare, and I like to build tools that can ease any potential stress. Over the summer, I wanted to convert my analog video synthesis into .gif files to upload to Giphy. So I made this bash script that ingests a directory of video content and asks for a target file format.

Breakdown

Create a new bash script named dir-gen-gif.sh.

# dir-gen-gif.sh
#!/bin/bash

Ask for a directory of video content.

echo "Provide a directory please :"
read dir

Ask for a video file format.

echo "Filetype?"
read filetype

Create a loop that iterates over the directory and finds the target video file format.

for f in $dir/*.$filetype
do
    echo "Processing $f"
    # ... ffmpeg code
done

Add the FFmpeg scripts. First create a .png analysis file and then generate a .gif file.

    # Generate .png analysis file
    ffmpeg -y -ss 0 -t 11 -i $f -filter_complex "[0:v] palettegen" "${f%.*}.png"
    # Create .gif file
    ffmpeg -ss 0 -t 11 -i $f -filter_complex "[0:v] fps=24,scale=w=480:h=-1,split [a][b];[a] palettegen=stats_mode=single [p];[b][p] paletteuse=new=1" "${f%.*}.gif"

And the process will look something like this ...

Reference

# dir-gen-gif.sh
#!/bin/bash

# Provide a directory containing video files 
echo "Provide a directory please :"
read dir

# Filetype target
echo "Filetype?"
read filetype

# Iterate over the directory, look for target filetype
for f in $dir/*.$filetype
do
    echo "Processing $f"
    # Generate .png analysis file
    ffmpeg -y -ss 0 -t 11 -i $f -filter_complex "[0:v] palettegen" "${f%.*}.png"
    # Create .gif file
    ffmpeg -ss 0 -t 11 -i $f -filter_complex "[0:v] fps=24,scale=w=480:h=-1,split [a][b];[a] palettegen=stats_mode=single [p];[b][p] paletteuse=new=1" "${f%.*}.gif"
done