With Descript, you can quickly create animated GIFs to promote your YouTube videos in the same editor where you create YouTube videos. Use time-saving AI and text-based editing to turn YouTube videos, MP4s, and more into clips you can export as engaging GIFs.
Get started
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01
Upload your YouTube video
Start by downloading your desired YouTube video and dropping the video file into a new Descript project to upload it. You can also script, record, and edit your YouTube video from scratch in Descript.
02
Highlight moments to make into GIFs
Once your video is uploaded, skim through the auto-generated transcript to find the perfect moments to turn into a GIF. Highlight it in the transcript, typically no longer than 5-15 seconds for optimal GIF playback, and duplicate it to a new composition where you can add captions, images, watermarks, and other enhancements to the clip.
03
Export your GIFs
After editing your clip to the desired length and content, go to Publish > Export > GIF where you can adjust any settings like resolution and quality to optimize the quality and size of your GIF. When ready, export your current composition to download your GIF or all compositions if you want to bulk export multiple GIFs.
Add captions, crop, resize, and more
Add text to communicate without sound, crop to focus attention where you want, and resize your GIFs to fit any platform. Whether you're creating fun reactions, instructional aids, or promotional GIFs, Descript saves you time and effort to create smooth high-definition GIFs from your YouTube videos.
Transform your GIF backgrounds with AI
Remove and replace backgrounds from your YouTube videos and GIFs. Swap in solid color backgrounds or something from our stock media library to jazz up your GIFs. Now you can create custom, eye-catching visuals that stand out without leaving Descript.
Quickly find the best moments to GIF
Use AI or the searchable transcript to find and highlight the best segments of your YouTube videos to transform into GIFs. Avoid sifting through hours of footage with a unique text-based editor that makes creating clips and GIFs as easy as editing text.
Descript is an AI-powered audio and video editing tool that lets you edit podcasts and videos like a doc.
Text-based editor
Cut up videos by cutting up the transcript, perfect for creating fun, shareable GIFs from your favorite clips.
Publishing
Share your creations easily with customizable web pages that present your work professionally with the option to comment or download.
Clips
Transform your videos into engaging clips perfect for sharing on social media.
Enhance your projects with royalty-free stock images, GIFs, videos, music, and more.
Stock media library
30 minutes / month of dubbing in 20+ languages
How can I rearrange the order of video clips?
When going from YouTube to GIF editing, you’ll want to be highly selective. YouTube clips can be short or they can be as long as feature films. By contrast, GIF durations exceeding six seconds can test viewers’ patience (and your browser’s bandwidth). Descript’s script editing makes it easy to locate the part of the video you want to convert to a GIF. You can copy and paste the video sections into new compositions to create separate clips, just like editing a text document. It takes seconds, whether you’re a video pro or a first-time creator.
Can I add text over a GIF?
Easily. Add a text box you can fill and style however you like, or convert your transcript into Captions for animated text that's synced to the speaker in the GIF. You can choose the color and size, or upload custom fonts.
Are Descript’s YouTube to GIF maker capabilities free?
You can edit YouTube videos for free with Descript with one watermark-free export per month. While the basic GIF-making capabilities are free, you can get advanced video editing features and unlimited watermark-free exports starting at just $12/month.
