Convert Video to GIF with Python and MoviePy

This guide shows how to transform a video file into an animated GIF using the Python library moviepy . It begins by installing the required package from a Chinese mirror:

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

After installation, a simple conversion can be performed with the following script:

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

For large GIFs, the file size can be reduced by resizing the video and lowering the frame rate. Example code:

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

Further size reduction is achieved by extracting only a portion of the source video using the subclip method and then applying the same resizing and frame‑rate settings:

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)

The resize parameter accepts either a pixel tuple or a scaling factor. Examples:

clip = VideoFileClip("movie.mp4").resize((600, 400))  # set output size to 600×400
clip = VideoFileClip("movie.mp4").resize(0.5)          # scale video to 50%

These techniques allow you to generate GIFs with acceptable visual quality while keeping file sizes manageable.