How to Convert Videos to GIFs with Python and MoviePy in Minutes

Introduction

Many websites offer video‑to‑GIF conversion but charge fees or display ads. With a few lines of Python you can perform the conversion yourself.

Tutorial

1. Install moviepy

pip install moviepy -i https://pypi.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/simple

2. Basic conversion code

from moviepy.editor import *
clip = VideoFileClip("movie.mp4")  # source video
clip.write_gif("movie.gif")

3. Conversion result

The GIF is only a few seconds long but its size can reach 9 MB even after resolution scaling.

4. Reducing GIF size

Besides resizing, you can lower the frame rate (fps) to shrink the file.

from moviepy.editor import *
clip = VideoFileClip("movie.mp4").resize((488,225))
clip.write_gif("movie.gif", fps=15)  # 15 fps

Setting 15 fps reduces the file to about 2 MB, roughly a four‑fold decrease, with little visual difference.

5. Converting a specific video segment

Use the subclip parameter to select a time range.

from moviepy.editor import *
clip = VideoFileClip("movie.mp4").subclip(t_start=1, t_end=2).resize((488,225))
clip.write_gif("movie.gif", fps=15)

6. Specifying output resolution

The resize argument accepts either a (width, height) tuple in pixels or a scaling factor.

# 600×400 output
clip = VideoFileClip("movie.mp4").resize((600,400))

# 50 % scaling
clip = VideoFileClip("movie.mp4").resize(0.5)