Making GIFs Might Become Easier Thanks to YouTube

by
December 12, 2014

Though the technology is a little outdated, GIFs are still the de facto method for sports fans and writers to share quick videos for entertainment and analysis. There is no shortage of methods to create GIFs, but it’s often a time-intensive process. Usually a minimum of two programs are needed to capture and convert the MP4 or FLV files. But now, online video giant YouTube is slowly pushing out a tool to help ease that process.

The tool is only available on a very select collection of videos at the moment. Clips on the PBS Idea Channel are some of the few to get the feature as of this writing. The tool is baked in right into the sharing function already found in YouTube. Right next to the direct link and embed options is one labeled GIF. The user can choose up to six (consecutive) seconds to be converted with some simple visual sliders. The option to add text to both the top and bottom of the image is also available.

Image via YouTube
Image via YouTube

If the feature gets adopted on a broader scale, it would obviously be great for those of us who love to bombard our friends with cat clips and Russian dash cam videos, but it could also be very useful for the sports fan. The NBA leads the way in YouTube compatibility with their laxer rules regarding fan postings and their own prolific uploading practices. This new YouTube option would make it much easier for folks to post monster dunks and buzzer beaters to Twitter or their own blog pages. The NFL and MLB are getting better about YouTube postings, though they seem to only tolerate the heavily-curated videos they post themselves. This may be less handy for the budding analysts out there, but it would still be great to be able to send around a snippet of, say, this amazing Bo Jackson clip:

GIFs will most likely be phased out in the coming years in leu of better technology, but the fact that the biggest player in online video is at least testing a way to better create the easily-sharable file is an interesting development.

(Header image via Rego Korosi)

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David G. Temple is the Managing Editor of TechGraphs and a contributor to FanGraphs, NotGraphs and The Hardball Times. He hosts the award-eligible podcast Stealing Home. Dayn Perry once called him a "Bible Made of Lasers." Follow him on Twitter @davidgtemple.

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