Creating GIFs easily with ffcast

my_ffcast

#!/bin/bash
#
# my_ffcast takes the same options as ffcast
# -s: part of screen
# -w: window
# ...
if [ -z $1 ]
then
  option=-s
else
  option=$@
fi

TMP_AVI=$(mktemp /tmp/outXXXXXXXXXX.avi)

DEST_FOLDER=~/Pictures/gif-casts/

echo ""
echo ""
echo "There is a 03 second delay after the window is set to "
echo " remove any window glitches, check the output to see  "
echo " when the recording actually starts"
echo "------------------------------------------------------"

ffcast -vv $option lag 3 ~/work/apps/ffmpeg/ffmpeg -f x11grab -s %s -i %D+%c -r 15 -vcodec huffyuv -y $TMP_AVI

v2gif $TMP_AVI

mv ${TMP_AVI%.*}.gif $DEST_FOLDER

echo ""
echo "File generated at ${TMP_AVI%.*}.gif and moved to $DEST_FOLDER"

v2gif

#!/bin/bash
# credit to @lolilolicon for improving this script!!


(($#)) || { printf 'usage: %s <video>\n' "${0##*/}" >&2; exit; }

[[ ${1,,} == *.gif ]] && exit

ffmpeg() {
    command ffmpeg -hide_banner -loglevel error -nostdin "$@"
}

video_to_gif() {
    ffmpeg -i "$1" -vf palettegen -f image2 -c:v png - |
    ffmpeg -i "$1" -i - -filter_complex paletteuse "$2"
}

set -- "$1" "${1%.*}.gif"
printf 'converting: %s ...' "$1" >&2
video_to_gif "$@" &&
printf '\r\e[Kwritten to: %s\n' "$2" >&2

# vim:et:sw=4:ts=4:

This pointed me to the palettegen/paletteuse filters, so thank you!

I wrote a simplified version of convert_to_gif: v2gif
I also put together a wiki page "GIF Howto". Feel free to improve it :)

@lolilolicon you're very welcome!!

your bash skills are awesome!! going to update my scripts :)

ps. just saw you comment now and the wiki page seems simple and awesome, I'd love to improve but can't see on what :p