How to make a GIF from a YouTube video

[Participant @tobi]

Short, sweet and straight to the point, GIFs are currently among the most popular and highly shared ways to communicate and share reactions on the internet. Making GIFs is a skill that can be achieved through the vast range of creative tools that are available to us for free. Today, you can use a site like YouTube to create great GIFs to share with your friends. Previously, people had to use apps like Photoshop to create their animated GIFs. Now, the accessibility is great because of its huge potential as a creative avenue for some of the internet’s best minds.

We have conducted our research and we found the simplest and most efficient online tools for making GIF files from YouTube videos. Each of these tools will get the job done within a few minutes. So, let’s get through them.

GIFS.COM is a great way to create customized GIFs

Step 1: Go to the page of the YouTube video that you want to create a GIF from. Copy the URL of this video.

Step 2: Head over to GIFS.com to paste the link to your YouTube URL. Make sure you have the full link from YouTube as that is the only way this will work. Paste the link in the white box towards the left of the page as indicated. The video should automatically be detected after this step. If not, simply click on the Create button. If you don’t want to create a GIF from a YouTube video, simply use the upload button and select a file from your device.

Step 3: When your image has ads, you have to make sure you click the X cancel button. If not, the ad will be a part of your GIF. After this, use the slider at the bottom of the image to create a start time and end time for the animated GIF image. The blue bar at the bottom of the image is what indicates the portions that will be used for the GIF.

A GIF can be long or short depending on your preferences. For the longer animations, the file will be a lot larger than shorter ones. Also, many of the avenues to embed GIFs have a limit to the size of GIFs you share. On Twitter, the current limit for GIF sizes is 5MB for mobile uploads and 15MB for PC or desktop GIF uploads. A 15MB can be a bit overkill, so try to keep your GIFs on the shorter side.

To spice things up, add effects, adjust the hue or crop the image. Try to explore the options GIFS.com offers for your edits. Use stickers to emphasize on parts of your meme or use the tools to make the video smooth and sweet for your social media feed to load and watch. Once you’ve perfected it, you can click on Create GIF at the top-right corner. If you’re creating a longer GIF, it could take a lot longer than regular GIFs due to the larger file size.

Step 4: In this step, you have to confirm the title for your GIF and add tags to increase its accessibility. When you have relevant tags, it will be easier for users to find and use your GIF.

Step 5: The last page in the GIFS.com process offers a variety of options that will help you decide how you want to share your GIF. You can choose to embed, download, and even share your new GIF. It also shows a looped preview of the GIF towards the left of this page. You can remove the watermark at the corner of the GIF but it comes at a subscription-based cost. For the price of $8 monthly, you probably shouldn’t stick to a subscription for you to create a casual GIF. You can still try the premium version because it offers an extensive range of features. This includes an ad-free experience, more customization options and the chance to compress GIFs filesize.

Use Giphy to create GIFs faster

An alternative GIF maker is Giphy. This service uses both YouTube and Vimeo links to convert into GIFs. It also offers the option to create GIFs manually from your own photo collection. Like GIFS.com, Giphy offers a variety of options to improve your experience. Additionally, it has a bonus element that makes it a good choice over GIFS.com through its captions feature.

Step 1: Copy the URL of the YouTube video you want to use for the GIF.

Step 2: Paste this URL into the input box of the Giphy homepage. Giphy has an accessible design that easily allows you to also embed and add your own videos to create GIFs quickly.

Step 3: Giphy allows you to precisely choose the start time and the length of your GIF to find that sweet spot in the image loop. Click on the Continue to Decorate button once you’ve found your perfect loop.

Step 4: You can choose to add a caption to indicate the words being spoken by a character in the image. Try to experiment with the stickers and overlays. Once you’re done, simply click on Continue to Upload button to complete the process.

Step 5: For this part, you’ll have to wait for the GIF to fully process its upload. It could take a few minutes for longer GIFs. Once it’s done, click on Upload to GIPHY to finish the process.

Step 6: The links available can be used for embedding, downloading and sharing the video. So, feel free to choose how you want to get your GIF to the world.

Upload the GIF to any social media platform of your choice as it is a simple process for popular social media websites like Twitter, Facebook or Reddit.

Use GiFit! to create GIFs regularly

GiFit! is the perfect app for users that want to quickly get their GIFs made. Through an easily accessible chrome extension, GiFit! allows you to create smooth GIFs in less than a minute. The app places a GiFit! button at the top right of the page. For you to create and access your GIF, go to the page of the YouTube video and click on the GiFit! extensition button. Following this, simply choose the time intervals for the GIF and choose the quality option and size. Its an extremely easy and simple process.

Note: The GiFit! extension is only available within the Google Chrome web browser. It’s only accessible through the downloadable Chrome extension. Also, the Chrome Web Store extension page does not always work for YouTube videos that require a Flash player.

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