Create animated gif using the GD library

Question

If I've got a bunch of image resources that I made using the GD library in php, or otherwise a bunch of frames, how can I combine these into an animated gif? I've got an array of images and a frames per second I'd like to add..

I can't use ImageMagick or FFMPEG, and I'd prefer to just use the GD library if possible.

Apparently "Support for creating GIF animations is also available.", but I can't seem to find the documentation on how to access this from within PHP?

Answer 1

Well searching on Google revealed GIFEncoder.class.php found at http://www.phpclasses.org/package/3163-PHP-Generate-GIF-animations-from-a-set-of-GIF-images.html
This link requires registration.

So i searched a little and it is included in phpvideotoolkit on code.google.com and can be downloaded at:
http://phpvideotoolkit.googlecode.com/svn-history/r6/trunk/phpvideotoolkit/adapters/ffmpeg-php/gifencoder/GIFEncoder.class.php

there is also a bugfixed version just change the file name to GIFEncoder.class.phpvideotoolkit.php in the above link.

I haven't tried it myself but maybe it can help you.

in the parent directory of the php file on code.google.com is also an example

best of luck

Answer 2

This cannot be done with GD but I found a great library for it. It is a bit complicated though, so here is a link to the library which makes animated gifs with php. It explains how to use it thoroughly. http://www.phpclasses.org/package/3163-PHP-Generate-GIF-animations-from-a-set-of-GIF-images.html

You can look at my example using this library:

Just select 2 pictures and write 100 for speed 900 for width and height. It will put them in an animated gif slideshow.

Here is the code for that script:

<?php
if(isset($_POST['speed']))
{
    header('Content-type: image/gif');
    if(isset($_POST['download'])){
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="animated.gif"');
    }
    include('GIFEncoder.class.php');
    function frame($image){
        ob_start();
        imagegif($image);
        global $frames, $framed;
        $frames[]=ob_get_contents();
        $framed[]=$_POST['speed'];
        ob_end_clean();
    }
    foreach ($_FILES["images"]["error"] as $key => $error)
    {
        if ($error == UPLOAD_ERR_OK)
        {
            $tmp_name = $_FILES["images"]["tmp_name"][$key];
            $im = imagecreatefromstring(file_get_contents($tmp_name));
            $resized = imagecreatetruecolor($_POST['width'],$_POST['height']);
            imagecopyresized($resized, $im, 0, 0, 0, 0, $_POST['width'], $_POST['height'], imagesx($im), imagesy($im));
            frame($resized);
        }
    }
    $gif = new GIFEncoder($frames,$framed,0,2,0,0,0,'bin');
    echo $gif->GetAnimation();
}
?>
<form action="" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
<script src="jquery.MultiFile.js"></script>
<script src="jquery.placeholder.js"></script>
<input type="file" name="images[]" class="multi" />
<script>
    $(function(){
        $('input[placeholder], textarea[placeholder]').placeholder();
   });
</script>
   <SCRIPT language=Javascript>
      <!--
      function isNumberKey(evt)
      {
         var charCode = (evt.which) ? evt.which : event.keyCode
         if (charCode > 31 && (charCode < 48 || charCode > 57))
            return false;

         return true;
      }
      //-->
   </SCRIPT>
<input name="speed" maxlength="10" type="text" placeholder="Speed of frames in ms" onkeypress="return isNumberKey(event)">
<input name="width" maxlength="4" type="text" placeholder="Width" onkeypress="return isNumberKey(event)">
<input name="height" maxlength="4" type="text" placeholder="Height" onkeypress="return isNumberKey(event)">
<input type="submit" name="download" value="Download!">
<input type="submit" name="preview" value="Preview!">
</form>

As you see it references the GIFEncoder class found on the first link. It also uses some javascript validation and jQuery multiupload.

BTW this question was already asked.

Answer 3

AFAIK gd lib that is bundled with PHP doesn't support creating animated GIFs. You could use gifsicle though.