How to Quickly Make Animated GIFs From Screen Recording
Sometimes it is much easier to write down how you do something and send it to the person than to try to describe it for him and watch him try to do it himself. At least that’s how I feel when I’m trying to explain PC settings or otherwise troubleshoot a friend’s system.
While you can always share the screen with a person to walk them through installing software or adjusting settings, you can also create a quick .GIF animation that answers their questions and sends them along the way. For this, you do not need beautiful programs and complex recording settings. You only need one simple website: gifcap .
First, open the site. Take a second or two browsing the page to find the big red Start Recording button. Prepare the application you are trying to record, shout “action!” like your favorite director and press the button. When you do this, you will see this popup:
Make sure you pick the right one as you don’t want to create a giant .GIF in full screen when all you’re trying to do is showcase one setting in a smaller app. By the way, you can also compress the window for any application that you show up to the minimum required size. Again, why send a giant .GIF if a small one will do too?
As soon as you hit Share, recording will start, so get down to what you wanted to do. When you’re done, click the Stop button in the lower left corner of your browser. And don’t worry if it took you a little time to figure it out or if you screw something up; Now you will be able to crop your .GIF to the point you want:
Once you’re satisfied with your .GIF, hit Render to do this. Assuming you haven’t tried to capture Michael Bay’s masterpiece, it won’t take long before you have a new .GIF to download. I bet that the first time you do it, you will be blown away by how large the file size is. Oh no .
Again, .GIF is really best used to showcase a short snippet of a specific thing, rather than a three-minute how-to video shooting a full 1080p screen. The smaller the area you capture in the original source and the less time you record, the smaller your .GIF will be.
You can also try using a third-party tool to compress the .GIF or convert it to a more optimized .WEBM file . It might help, but don’t expect miracles. Compression can degrade the quality of your recording – it’s a nice compromise when you’re looking at a .GIF, and it can put strain on your colleague’s inbox.