How to extract the frames from a Gif animation?

We all know that a Gif animation is made up of a certain number of frames (frames), which is played automatically in the Internet Explorer browser, mainly if we select it and drag it to its interface.

Now, What if we need a frame of this Gif animation? Surely this has happened to many people, that is, while they were playing this animation, they noticed that one of its pictures could be of interest to them for any job or project. Through the use of a few tools and small tricks to follow, we will have the possibility of downloading one or more of these tables according to our interest.

Why not be a screenshot on replay?

Someone might try to use the «Print Screen» key to make an immediate capture when the animation is playing at that moment; the problem is that very remotely we will be able to capture the painting that is really interesting to us at that moment. Another alternative that someone could be scheming at this moment would be supported by a video editing application, since the animation would practically represent this characteristic. The truth is that this Gif animation when imported into any video editor will appear as a simple image, since that's the main feature it has, showing only the first four of the entire sequence.

IrfanView

An interesting free tool that goes by the name of «IrfanView»Can help us to capture one or more frames of the animation. All we have to do is run it, import it to the file and then go to the options, where there is a function that will help us «extract all frames«.

After that, we will have to go to the folder where these frames have been extracted and choose the one in which we are interested; the developer of this tool mentions that if you only want one of these frames, You can import the Gif animation and pause by pressing the «G» key when we have found the frame that interests us. Later, we will only have to press the letter "C" for that frame to be extracted.

Imagemagick

Despite the fact that this tool has more advanced functionalities, within its installation package there is an interesting option that will not help extract to all frames that are part of a Gif animation.

convert -coalesce animation.gif animation_% d.gif

You have to use a command line opening the terminal in Windows, having to write something very similar to what we have placed in the upper part; as you will realize, the command "Convert" is the one that will help you extract these frames, which is a small addition to this application.

ffmpeg

This alternative name «ffmpeg»Has very similar functions to what we mentioned above; This means that we will need to execute a command line, something very similar to the example that we will place below.

ffmpeg -i animation.gif animation% 05d.png

Both the alternative that we mentioned above and the current one will save the frames in the same place where the Gif animation is located; the above tool will help you extract only up to 100 frames, This while the current one has no limits according to its developer.

GifSplitter

Any method that involves a command line can be uncomfortable for some people, because if a character or sign is misspelled, the method simply won't work. If you want an alternative with a graphical interface that is easier to understand, we recommend «GifSplitter«, Which is also free and works for Windows.

With this you will have the possibility of extract all the frames that belong to a Gif animation, You can also choose the place where you want these elements to be saved. The image that we have placed in the upper part will show you how easy it is to work with this tool, because unlike the previous alternatives, here the user can define a completely different directory for the frames that are extracted from a Gif animation .