How to export a GIF from After Effects?

Question

I don't want to make a PNG sequence, I just want to make a GIF directly from After Effects. Once I checked out an online tutorial there I could see the GIF option while Rendering composition. But I am not able to see the GIF option anymore, so what I did I made lots of PNG sequence for the same then export it to Photoshop but that is to much time-consuming process and my system just hangs.

Answer 1

When I need to create a GIF from After Effects, I do my animation in After Effects, go to Menu>Composition>Pre-Render and render it out as an uncompressed MOV file. Then you can drag that file onto Photoshop and it will open in the video timeline. From there you can "Save for Web" as an animated GIF file. It's a fairly straight forward process and yields good results. If you need to isolate a small section of the animation for exporting, adjust the working area brackets to that area and that will be the only section exported as a GIF.

Answer 2

This answer is only for Windows OS

There is no reason for 3rd party plugins. Use File > Export> > Add to Adobe Media Encoder Queue.

Inside of the the Adobe Media Encoder there's a lot more control of the rendering including the ability to do Animated Gifs with all sorts of settings:

You could also open the Adobe Media Encoder without opening AE first and just add it to the Queue from there (or dragging from file manager) so that you don't have to even open AE if you're just trying to do an export.

Answer 3

Unfortunately this is no longer inbuilt in AE as at when this response is being composed. Most videos online will recommend importing to photoshop and creating a gif sequence. An alternative is to leverage the use of a third party AE plugin with gifgun being the most popular or a free post export software; instagiffer

Answer 4

You can’t actually export GIFs directly in After Effects without using GIFGun from AEScripts. So as a motion-graphic artist you have four (possibly five) options:

1. Save a GIF in Photoshop using the Save for Web feature, selecting GIF, and adjusting your settings. You will have to export a video from After Effects and import said video into Photoshop if you do this step.

2. Use GIFGun to export the GIF directly in After Effects. But it costs money.

3. Create a GIF using a third-party app like GIF Rocket. Again like the Photoshop method you’ll have to export a video from After Effects first.

4. Create a GIF using an online platform like Giphy.

5. (If you have a PC) You can export a GIF from Media Encoder. Not sure why this is only available to PC folks only, but it is an option.

Hope this helps. I actually wrote a whole post and created a tutorial about creating GIFs in After Effects. Check it out: https://www.schoolofmotion.com/blog/gif-in-after-effects

Answer 5

Actually, you can now! We've developed a free script for After Effects that exports GIFs in 1 click. It's called AEJuice GIF. You can download it and learn more at this blog post.

After installation, go to Window - AEJuice GIF.jsxbin (on the bottom). Open a composition, press Render in the script. It will export a GIF animation and open it after a render.

You should be good to go with default settings but in case you'd like to customize here are a few settings I change:

1. Export folder - by default, it's your project's folder but you can export all GIFs to a custom folder.
2. Loop - by default, all GIFs loop forever but you can loop it once, twice, etc.
3. Alpha channel - by default, it's off but sometimes you might need a transparent background.
4. Comps\Folders - sometimes you might need to export a lot of compositions at once so you might need to switch to the folder from compositions.
5. Change width - this one is rarer but I use it sometimes. It will change all auto-resize to the specified one.

There are a lot of advanced settings but I never use them.

UPDATE: It's been 3 years since the release. We released many updates since then. Here are just a few from the most recent one:

• Now it exports MP4 as well.

• Dynamic name patterns allow to change the GIF name based on variables (date, frames, etc.).

• Dynamic folder generation (daily renders or strict folder structure for studios).

• Updated compact UI.

• Quick access to previously exported GIFs.

• Advanced options to control quality and size.

• Render output settings (apply your own render templates).

• Shortcut to export GIF. Now you don't have to open the script at all. Just press a shortcut.

• Ask to trim option (in case you forgot to trim the script will clarify if you would like to trim the animation if it is longer than X settings).

• Create different presets by holding Ctrl, Shift, or Alt when exporting. It allows you to set up different settings once and switch between them by just holding a modifier. You could set up a draft quality if you hold Alt and the best quality if you don't - very useful feature.

• Multiple bug fixes.

• Added documentation on most features. You can click near the setting you'd like to find out more about and learn how everything works in detail.

• Added export PNG with 1 click.

• Added a Loop button that can loop layers, comps, masks, paths, and properties.

It is still 100% FREE. Thank you for the support!

-Jacob.