gifme is a simple command line tool to generate animated GIFs.

Install gifme:

gem install gifme

You'll also need to install ImageMagick. On OS X, this is easy using Homebrew:

brew install imagemagick

gifme ~/Desktop/1.png ~/Desktop/2.png
You now have a handsome animation at ~/Desktop/animated.gif

You can also glob, of course:

gifme ~/Desktop/*.jpg
You now have a handsome animation at ~/Desktop/animated.gif

Once your animation is finished up, we'll try to upload it to CloudApp. If you have my cloudapp script installed, we'll use that, otherwise we'll just skip this whole step.

On some gifs, it's nice to have a smooth loop, so when it ends there's not a jarring leap from the last frame to the first frame again. Use the --reverse switch to create the animation like normal, and then reverse the frames and add them to the animation so it looks like one smooth motion and back again.

gifme FILES --reverse

If you pass in a URL of a gif instead of FILES, we'll download that gif, split it into its constituent frames, and let you recreate it. For example, you could take a gif you find online and give it that --reverse look:

gifme http://tumblr.com/some-crazy.gif --reverse

You can also resize shit. We default to 500 pixels, but do whatever the fuck you want.

gifme http://tumblr.com/some-crazy.gif --width=1000

For other options, check out the help:

gifme -h

If you're curious, gifme was initially a few-line shell script in my dotfiles. Eventually it became clear that animation is a fundamental part of our society, and I split it out into its own tiny project.

If you're curious, I featured the older gifme version in a screencast I made that describes how animated gifs are an integral part of working at GitHub.

From @holman. I love you.