Convert .anim to .gif or .mp4 (from Windows)

[jabbamonkey]

Originally Posted by emufan

you can still try mainactor for win32, link above.

Hey emufan,

So, I have MainActor installed. And I'm able to import the anim video into the program (And it looks good). How do I export a gif in MainActor?

....UPDATE ... So, I exported an avi file, and then used another file to go from AVI to GIF, and it looks great. Is that too many steps? Is there a shorter way?

[hipoonios]

Originally Posted by jabbamonkey

Had some trouble with this... When I boot, I get the start screen asking for bootable media (i.e. insert disk). Also, although I didn't even get to this point, I don't see any part of the instructions that ask to "load" the animation file (so, how's it know what video to output?).

The instructions was not that detailed. It sounds like you forgot to insert Dopus ADF in df0: in Floppy Drives

Check your inbox. Sent you a short video.
edit: ok, great that you got it working with Mainactor. Deleted my video.

[jabbamonkey]

Originally Posted by hipoonios

Check your inbox. Sent you a short video.

Thanks for posting the video. Very appreciated.

I got it working in Main Actor ... but curious if there is a quicker AMIN-to-GIF conversion (since I am going from ANIM-to-AVI, and then AVI-to-GIF in another program ... and I have alot of files to run through).

In your video, I noticed that I don't have the "Techsmith Screen Capture Codec" (so I have to choose another). And then, when I go back to UAE and Dopus, and click the video anim file, I get a "Not Enough Chip Memory to Display Picture" (even though, under the memory settings in UAE, I have Chip set to 2MB, and Z2 Fast set to 8MB).

If there's alot for me to do in order to get this working, then don't worry about it (as I already have one solution).

[emufan]

Originally Posted by jabbamonkey

Hey emufan,

So, I have MainActor installed. And I'm able to import the anim video into the program (And it looks good). How do I export a gif in MainActor?

....UPDATE ... So, I exported an avi file, and then used another file to go from AVI to GIF, and it looks great. Is that too many steps? Is there a shorter way?

in the "Save as" dialog you simply choose "Module" Gif-Anim

#1) the program is sometimes a bit buggy, it corrupts the source anim, when you change the timing value.
if you just open, then save, it gives good result.
so make a copy of your amiga anims before you use them in mainactor.

[jabbamonkey]

Originally Posted by emufan

in the "Save as" dialog you simply choose "Module" Gif-Anim

#1) the program is sometimes a bit buggy, it corrupts the source anim, when you change the timing value.
if you just open, then save, it gives good result.
so make a copy of your amiga anims before you use them in mainactor.

No option for Gif-Anim...

When I choose SAVE AS, the only option is "MainActor Project File". If I choose EXPORT, the options under EXPORT MODULE are...

• AVI-DV 64bit (Type 1)
• DirectShow
• AVI Multifile
• MainActor
• RealVideo
• Video for Windows
• Windows Media

[jabbamonkey]

Well, it took awhile, bit I got the files converted. Feel free to take a look.

http://www.classicgaming.cc/classics...iga-animations

Also, check out the rest of the site as well. I think it turned out pretty cool.

[emufan]

Originally Posted by jabbamonkey

No option for Gif-Anim...

hmm, version 3.65? i've made a short video of the program and the way to save as gif-anim.
it is in the zone: MA-GIF.Anim.HowTo.mp4
join the zone group - the link to the zone itself, you will find, next to
the LogOut button.

edit: I know what went wrong, you have to use the MA VideoEditor - you were using the MA Sequencer

Originally Posted by jabbamonkey

Well, it took awhile, bit I got the files converted. Feel free to take a look.

http://www.classicgaming.cc/classics...iga-animations

Also, check out the rest of the site as well. I think it turned out pretty cool.

nice work, well done

[jabbamonkey]

Originally Posted by emufan

I know what went wrong, you have to use the MA VideoEditor - you were using the MA Sequencer

Yup, that was exactly it.

The gif that I created through MAVE looked very good with no dithering (but was way over 2MB). When I created my gifs, I used MA Sequencer to export the AVI, and then brought the AVI into photoshop as a layered animation ... then cleaned up the file a bit (ended up with a 700KB file for the example).

So, while both looked great, taking the extra time in photoshop was worth it.

Thanks for all the help everyone!

[emufan]

I got the same size of about 2.2 mb using PPaint (vs. MAVE) - compared to your version of
amiga-dragons-lair-trailer.gif, with only 750kb.
no visible differences. your version has 143, the original has 155 frames, thats all i can see.
what did you do with photoshop, to clean up the animation?

[invent]

GraphicConverter on the mac opens Anim5 format no problems
https://www.lemkesoft.de/en/products/graphicconverter/
downloadable demo available.

It didn't give options to save as animated loop so i needed to open in photoshop and add the loop part. Animation.

Haven't tried the other animation formats available in PPaint such as:

Auto5+7
Anim7S
Anima7L
Anim8S
Anim8L

If anyone knows more about these formats and information about them please let me know, about to do some googling

[emufan]

wikipedia has some information. it is about the way the data gets stored LONG/WORD (S/L).
mainactor lists those as anim7-16/anim7-32. maybe one more efficient on 16/32 bit cpus.

#1) btw. ffmpeg is also available for mac osx

[ami_stuff]

Originally Posted by jabbamonkey

I used your link and downloaded a build from the other day... it didn't work. So I downloaded the most recent build (2016-07-06) and it worked.

...Alot of flashing and blurring trails ...

For anyone interested in seeing the conversion issues with ffmpeg, I uploaded the file to http://www.classicgaming.cc/dlair.anim

This is fixed in ffmpeg since yesterday.

[Team_Hoi]

Hi Emufan et al,

I've just downloaded the Mac binary of ffmpeg and put it on the Desktop along with a test.anim file, but when I enter "ffmpeg -i test.anim test.gif" the Terminal responds with "ffmpeg: command not found".

What am I doing wrong this time? (story of my life)

I changed the active folder to the desktop first. When I do an "ls" I get the contents of the Desktop.

[Team_Hoi]

Stop the press. GraphicConverter is the golden tip I was looking for. It can convert just about everything, including IFF Anims to animated GIF or separate PNGs. Brilliant! Many thanks to Invent for the tip!

By the way, regarding the ffmpeg command not being found in MacOS Terminal — a friend told me that I should use "./ffmpeg" to expand the command to the currently active folder. Good to know.

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Team_Hoi

Stop the press. GraphicConverter is the golden tip I was looking for. It can convert just about everything, including IFF Anims to animated GIF or separate PNGs. Brilliant! Many thanks to Invent for the tip!

ok, cool you found something working for you

By the way, regarding the ffmpeg command not being found in MacOS Terminal — a friend told me that I should use "./ffmpeg" to expand the command to the currently active folder. Good to know.

yep, you have to start the binary this way - or providing the the full path to the bin.
just give it a try, using the same animation and compare the results with GraphicConverter.
one advantage of ffmpeg on the command line, you can easily do some batch processing

#1) GraphicConverter can batch processing aswell