How to make an animated GIF from an MKV file

-Visit www.scriptic.net for more tutorials -Make sure you have annotations ON when viewing this tutorial- Programs used: (All of them are FREE) VirtualDub: www.virtualdub.org VirtualDubMod (“ALL INCLUSIVE” version): sourceforge.net AviSynth 2.5: avisynth.org CCCP: www.cccp-project.net (you probably already had the cccp to play MKVs in the first place =P) Notes: -Not only will this method work for MKV files, but also mp4 and avi. -The intermediate step of extracting to a file sequence (an uncompressed avi will work too, btwi) is only necessary for mkv or mp4 files. Background Info: For a long while I have wanted to know how to make animated GIFs from my favorite MKV-formatted shows. A quick google search will reveal that there is no *easy* way to go about it. Sure, there are some of pre-packaged “converters” out there, but they lack MKV support as well as customizability. Not to mention cost and spyware issues. The method I demonstrate has none of these problems, and the programs used are freeware. The solution is VirtualDub. It is by far the best, free video processing tool out there. Coupled with AMVapp (an avisynth + ffdshow codec bundle), it’s power is almost limitless.