GIF previews

Turn a few seconds of video into an animated GIF with a palette made for its frames.

POST /v1/gif turns part of a video into an animated GIF with a palette made for its own frames, so the colours hold up.

The request#

bash

curl "$VIDEXO_API_URL/v1/gif" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VIDEXO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
  "input": "https://example.com/talk.mp4",
  "filename": "preview.gif",
  "trim": {
    "start": 5,
    "duration": 4
  },
  "fps": 12,
  "resize": {
    "width": 480
  }
}'

JavaScript

const response = await fetch(`${process.env.VIDEXO_API_URL}/v1/gif`, {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.VIDEXO_API_KEY}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    "input": "https://example.com/talk.mp4",
    "filename": "preview.gif",
    "trim": {
      "start": 5,
      "duration": 4
    },
    "fps": 12,
    "resize": {
      "width": 480
    }
  }),
});
const job = await response.json();

bash

ffmpeg \
  -ss 5 -t 4 -i https://example.com/talk.mp4 \
  -filter_complex "[0:v:0]scale=480:7680:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease:force_divisible_by=2:flags=lanczos,fps=12[o0s0];[o0s0]split[o0g0][o0g1];[o0g0]palettegen=max_colors=256[o0p];[o0g1][o0p]paletteuse[o0v]" \
  -map "[o0v]" \
  preview.gif

preview.gif: 4 seconds from 0:05, 480 pixels wide at 12 frames a second, in colours picked from those frames.

The gif-preview preset#

The first 5 seconds at 12 frames a second, at most 480 pixels wide; trim moves it.

bash

curl "$VIDEXO_API_URL/v1/gif" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VIDEXO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
  "input": "https://example.com/talk.mp4",
  "preset": "gif-preview",
  "trim": {
    "start": 30
  }
}'

JavaScript

const response = await fetch(`${process.env.VIDEXO_API_URL}/v1/gif`, {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.VIDEXO_API_KEY}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    "input": "https://example.com/talk.mp4",
    "preset": "gif-preview",
    "trim": {
      "start": 30
    }
  }),
});
const job = await response.json();

bash

ffmpeg \
  -ss 30 -t 5 -i https://example.com/talk.mp4 \
  -filter_complex "[0:v:0]scale='min(iw,480)':'min(ih,7680)':force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease:force_divisible_by=2:flags=lanczos,fps=12[o0s0];[o0s0]split[o0g0][o0g1];[o0g0]palettegen=max_colors=256[o0p];[o0g1][o0p]paletteuse[o0v]" \
  -map "[o0v]" \
  gif.gif

Without trim.duration or trim.end a GIF stops at 60 seconds. colors (2 to 256) makes the file smaller with fewer colours, and fps is at most 30.