A bash script to convert 128KB gifs to mp4

Do you want to share the creations and sketches you’ve developed for the 128KB challenge on Instagram or other social networks? Bummer, they mostly only accept video files. But here’s a fix for this problem: A shell script you can use to convert your gifs to a mp4-file. It loops the gif three times and multiplies the size times ten, while maintaining sharp pixels.

#!/bin/bash

# Check if the input file is provided
if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
    echo "Usage: $0 <input_gif>"
    exit 1
fi

# Variables
INPUT_GIF="$1"
BASENAME=$(basename "$INPUT_GIF" .gif)
LOOPED_GIF="looped.gif"
SCALED_GIF="scaled.gif"
OUTPUT_MP4="${BASENAME}.mp4"

# Step 1: Create a copy of the GIF, looping it 3 times
echo "Creating a 3-loop GIF..."
gifsicle --loop=3 "$INPUT_GIF" > "$LOOPED_GIF"

# Step 2: Scale the looped GIF to 1280x1280 with sharp edges
echo "Scaling GIF to 1280x1280 with sharp edges..."
convert "$LOOPED_GIF" -filter point -resize 1280x1280 "$SCALED_GIF"

# Step 3: Convert the scaled GIF to MP4 and ensure it loops
echo "Converting GIF to MP4 with looping..."
ffmpeg -stream_loop 2 -i "$SCALED_GIF" -movflags faststart -pix_fmt yuv420p "$OUTPUT_MP4"

# Step 4: Done!
echo "Done! Output file: $OUTPUT_MP4"

How to use it

1. Create a new file called script.sh in a new folder
2. copy the code above into it
3. save the file
4. open that folder in your terminal and run chmod +x ./script.sh to make it executable
5. copy the gif into that folder
6. run the script: ./script.sh

Dependencies

This script depends on ffmpeg, gifsicle and imagemagick. No need to panic, you can install all these packages via homebrew.

Good luck!