YouTube-to-GIF cheat sheet

commands.txt

$ export VIDEO_ID='e1zvhJRIM7M'
$ export VIDEO_URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=${VIDEO_ID}"
$ export CLIP_START='4.85'
$ export CLIP_LENGTH='5.33
$ export OUTPUT_NAME='kiki'

$ youtube-dl -F "${VIDEO_URL}"
# Find the 240p video-only MP4. Note the format number at the beginning of
# that line, which we'll refer to below as `${FORMAT}`.

$ youtube-dl -f "${FORMAT}" -o '%(id)s.%(ext)s' "${VIDEO_URL}"

$ ffmpeg \
    -y  \
    -i "${VIDEO_ID}.mp4"  \
    -vf "subtitles=${VIDEO_ID}.srt:force_style='Fontsize=24,Bold=1'"  \
    -ss "${CLIP_START}"  \
    -t "${CLIP_LENGTH}"  \
    "${OUTPUT_NAME}.mp4"

# With thanks to Giphy:
# https://engineering.giphy.com/how-to-make-gifs-with-ffmpeg/
$ ffmpeg  \
    -i "${OUTPUT_NAME}.mp4" \
    -filter_complex "[0:v] fps=12,scale=-1:240,split [a][b];[a] palettegen [p];[b][p] paletteuse"  \
    "${OUTPUT_NAME}.gif"

e1zvhJRIM7M.srt

1
00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:06,500
I went down to the beach
and saw Kiki

2
00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:08,250
She was all like,
"Unnhhhh..."

3
00:00:08,500 --> 00:00:10,000
And I'm like, "Whatever!"