Omnimaga

General Discussion => Technology and Development => Computer Usage and Setup Help => Topic started by: DJ Omnimaga on September 09, 2010, 06:17:44 pm

Title: Freeware animated GIF capture program (other than CalcCapture)
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 09, 2010, 06:17:44 pm
Does anyone know of a good freeware animated gif capture program other than CalcCapture to do screenshots like the one attached in this post: http://ourl.ca/6973/116003 ?

CalcCapture produces questionable quality screenshots, sometimes, when using colors, and with large ones, gif capture tends to be slow, even on high-end computers, because it was primarly set to capture from calc emulators.

Otherwise, would there be any freeware AVI to GIF converter somewhere? A while ago, {AP} recommended me Camstasia, but the version with gif conversion was not free...

I searched Google for a few hours for one, but I always ended up downloading programs claiming to be freeware, but finally were trial versions, and I do not download warez anymore.

Thanks in advance :)
Title: Re: Freeware animated GIF capture program (other than CalcCapture)
Post by: Michael_Lee on September 09, 2010, 06:25:42 pm
For the avi to gif, try this website:
http://media-convert.com/ (http://media-convert.com/)
It does its conversion all online, so it should be free.

The interface is a little messy, but if you poke around the menus, you should be able to find an option to convert avi to gif.

I can't vouch for it's reliability in video conversion, but I've used it to convert other file types fairly successfully.

Edit:
Also, you could try this one:
http://www.zamzar.com/index.php
(same thing as before, only the interface is more cleaner)
End Edit

(The trick is to search for file conversion in general, not just avi to gif)
Title: Re: Freeware animated GIF capture program (other than CalcCapture)
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 09, 2010, 07:38:09 pm
Ok I'll give those a try later. Thanks for sharing. My only concern is the compression quality, though, since I assume I actually have to upload an AVI file to the site. Uploading a 10 MB file takes one minute on my connection and a 10 MB file means it will have terrible compression. Now imagine an uncompressed AVI file x.x
Title: Re: Freeware animated GIF capture program (other than CalcCapture)
Post by: shmibs on September 09, 2010, 09:23:35 pm
/\yeah, i use media convert every now and then and im fairly certain i remember it being terrible for that type of thing, resulting in bad looking visuals(i might have just been doing it wrong, though, so you should go ahead and try)
Title: Re: Freeware animated GIF capture program (other than CalcCapture)
Post by: SirCmpwn on September 09, 2010, 09:26:22 pm
I use CamStudio, which is an open source screen capture software.  However, it does not convert to gifs, just video.
Title: Re: Freeware animated GIF capture program (other than CalcCapture)
Post by: shmibs on September 09, 2010, 09:57:29 pm
/\i use that too =D
it works wonderfully
Title: Re: Freeware animated GIF capture program (other than CalcCapture)
Post by: Jonius7 on September 09, 2010, 10:00:51 pm
i use it-its FREE!!!
don't know why anyone uses something else such as camstasia. MONEY!!!
if i rally want animated gifs then calccapture works well
Title: Re: Freeware animated GIF capture program (other than CalcCapture)
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 09, 2010, 10:19:58 pm
I don't like Camstudio because none of the codec used by it is supported by VirtualDub :(

However it does the job when I do not need to polish my videos and decide to just throw them in Windows Movie Maker. I get a good framerate too for most stuff.
Title: Re: Freeware animated GIF capture program (other than CalcCapture)
Post by: coolsnake on September 10, 2010, 05:19:31 am
I don't like Camstudio because none of the codec used by it is supported by VirtualDub :(

However it does the job when I do not need to polish my videos and decide to just throw them in Windows Movie Maker. I get a good framerate too for most stuff.
You gave your own answer for an AVI to GIF converter.  ;D
File -> Export -> Animated GIF
Title: Re: Freeware animated GIF capture program (other than CalcCapture)
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 10, 2010, 05:20:34 pm
Strange, I did not have this option anywhere in my copy x.x. I discovered I had an old version so I redownloaded it now. Thanks for pointing that out!
Title: Re: Freeware animated GIF capture program (other than CalcCapture)
Post by: Jonius7 on September 11, 2010, 11:01:07 pm
wow id better download the new version too
Title: Re: Freeware animated GIF capture program (other than CalcCapture)
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 11, 2010, 11:18:42 pm
Now I hope the option will work. Gonna give it a try tomorrow I think. I like Virtual Dub for editing vids, aside from the fact my copy only lets me open uncompressed AVI files and gifs