Object Storage Service:Convert videos to animated images

Feature description

Video-to-animated-image conversion transforms video files into dynamic image formats, such as GIF or WebP, enabling easy sharing and embedding on web pages and social media.

Use cases

• Social media clips: Extract short moments from video and share them as animated images on social platforms.

• Tutorials and demos: Capture step-by-step software operations as looping animated images that readers can follow without playing a video.

• Stickers and reactions: Turn video moments into animated stickers for messaging apps.

• Event highlights: Clip key moments from live streams, competitions, or presentations and share them instantly.

How to use

import com.aliyun.oss.ClientBuilderConfiguration;
import com.aliyun.oss.OSS;
import com.aliyun.oss.OSSClientBuilder;
import com.aliyun.oss.common.auth.CredentialsProviderFactory;
import com.aliyun.oss.common.auth.EnvironmentVariableCredentialsProvider;
import com.aliyun.oss.common.comm.SignVersion;
import com.aliyun.oss.model.AsyncProcessObjectRequest;
import com.aliyun.oss.model.AsyncProcessObjectResult;
import com.aliyuncs.exceptions.ClientException;

import java.util.Base64;

public class Demo {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws ClientException {
        // Set endpoint to the endpoint of the region where the bucket is located.
        String endpoint = "https://oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com";
        // Specify the region information that corresponds to the endpoint, for example, cn-hangzhou.
        String region = "cn-hangzhou";
        // Obtain access credentials from environment variables. Before you run this sample code, make sure that the OSS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and OSS_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET environment variables are set.
        EnvironmentVariableCredentialsProvider credentialsProvider = CredentialsProviderFactory.newEnvironmentVariableCredentialsProvider();
        // Specify the bucket name.
        String bucketName = "examplebucket";
        // Specify the name of the output animated GIF file.
        String targetKey = "dest.gif";
        // Specify the name of the source video file.
        String sourceKey = "src.mp4";

        // Create an OSSClient instance.
        // When the OSSClient instance is no longer used, call the shutdown method to release the resources.
        ClientBuilderConfiguration clientBuilderConfiguration = new ClientBuilderConfiguration();
        clientBuilderConfiguration.setSignatureVersion(SignVersion.V4);
        OSS ossClient = OSSClientBuilder.create()
                .endpoint(endpoint)
                .credentialsProvider(credentialsProvider)
                .clientConfiguration(clientBuilderConfiguration)
                .region(region)
                .build();

        try {
            // Build a string for the video processing style and the parameters for converting the video to an animated image.
            String style = String.format("video/animation,f_gif,w_100,h_100,inter_1000");
            // Build the asynchronous processing instruction.
            String bucketEncoded = Base64.getUrlEncoder().withoutPadding().encodeToString(bucketName.getBytes());
            String targetEncoded = Base64.getUrlEncoder().withoutPadding().encodeToString(targetKey.getBytes());
            String process = String.format("%s|sys/saveas,b_%s,o_%s/notify,topic_QXVkaW9Db252ZXJ0", style, bucketEncoded, targetEncoded);
            // Create an AsyncProcessObjectRequest object.
            AsyncProcessObjectRequest request = new AsyncProcessObjectRequest(bucketName, sourceKey, process);
            // Execute the asynchronous processing task.
            AsyncProcessObjectResult response = ossClient.asyncProcessObject(request);
            System.out.println("EventId: " + response.getEventId());
            System.out.println("RequestId: " + response.getRequestId());
            System.out.println("TaskId: " + response.getTaskId());

        } finally {
            // Shut down the OSSClient.
            ossClient.shutdown();
        }
    }
}

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import base64
import oss2
from oss2.credentials import EnvironmentVariableCredentialsProvider

def main():
    # Obtain temporary access credentials from environment variables. Before you run this sample code, make sure that the OSS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and OSS_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET environment variables are set.
    auth = oss2.ProviderAuthV4(EnvironmentVariableCredentialsProvider())
    # Set endpoint to the endpoint of the region where the bucket is located. For example, if the bucket is in the China (Hangzhou) region, set the endpoint to https://oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com.
    endpoint = 'https://oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com'
    # Specify the general-purpose Alibaba Cloud region ID, for example, cn-hangzhou.
    region = 'cn-hangzhou'

    # Specify the bucket name, for example, examplebucket.
    bucket = oss2.Bucket(auth, endpoint, 'examplebucket', region=region)

    # Specify the name of the source video file.
    source_key = 'src.mp4'

    # Specify the name of the output animated GIF file.
    target_key = 'example.gif'

    # Define the parameters for converting the video to an animated GIF, including the GIF width, height, and frame interval.
    animation_style = 'video/animation,f_gif,w_100,h_100,inter_1000'

    # Build the processing instruction, including the save path and the Base64-encoded bucket name and object file name.
    bucket_name_encoded = base64.urlsafe_b64encode('examplebucket'.encode()).decode().rstrip('=')
    target_key_encoded = base64.urlsafe_b64encode(target_key.encode()).decode().rstrip('=')
    process = f"{animation_style}|sys/saveas,b_{bucket_name_encoded},o_{target_key_encoded}/notify,topic_QXVkaW9Db252ZXJ0"

    try:
        # Execute the asynchronous processing task.
        result = bucket.async_process_object(source_key, process)
        print(f"EventId: {result.event_id}")
        print(f"RequestId: {result.request_id}")
        print(f"TaskId: {result.task_id}")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error: {e}")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

package main

import (
    "encoding/base64"
    "fmt"
    "os"
    "github.com/aliyun/aliyun-oss-go-sdk/oss"
    "log"
)

func main() {
    // Obtain temporary access credentials from environment variables. Before you run this sample code, make sure that the OSS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and OSS_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET environment variables are set.
    provider, err := oss.NewEnvironmentVariableCredentialsProvider()
    if err != nil {
    fmt.Println("Error:", err)
    os.Exit(-1)
    }
    // Create an OSSClient instance.
    // Set yourEndpoint to the endpoint of the bucket. For example, if the bucket is in the China (Hangzhou) region, set the endpoint to https://oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com. For other regions, specify the actual endpoint.
    // Set yourRegion to the general-purpose Alibaba Cloud region ID, for example, cn-hangzhou.
    client, err := oss.New("https://oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com", "", "", oss.SetCredentialsProvider(&provider), oss.AuthVersion(oss.AuthV4), oss.Region("cn-hangzhou"))
    if err != nil {
    fmt.Println("Error:", err)
    os.Exit(-1)
    }
    // Specify the bucket name, for example, examplebucket.
    bucketName := "examplebucket"

    bucket, err := client.Bucket(bucketName)
    if err != nil {
    fmt.Println("Error:", err)
    os.Exit(-1)
    }

    // Specify the name of the source video file.
    sourceKey := "src.mp4"
    // Specify the name of the output animated GIF file.
    targetKey := "destexample.gif"

    // Define the parameters for converting the video to an animated GIF, including the GIF width, height, and frame interval.
    animationStyle := "video/animation,f_gif,w_100,h_100,inter_1000"

    // Build the processing instruction, including the save path and the Base64-encoded bucket name and object file name.
    bucketNameEncoded := base64.URLEncoding.EncodeToString([]byte(bucketName))
    targetKeyEncoded := base64.URLEncoding.EncodeToString([]byte(targetKey))
    process := fmt.Sprintf("%s|sys/saveas,b_%v,o_%v/notify,topic_QXVkaW9Db252ZXJ0", animationStyle, bucketNameEncoded, targetKeyEncoded)

    // Execute the asynchronous processing task.
    result, err := bucket.AsyncProcessObject(sourceKey, process)
    if err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("Failed to async process object: %s", err)
    }

    fmt.Printf("EventId: %s\n", result.EventId)
    fmt.Printf("RequestId: %s\n", result.RequestId)
    fmt.Printf("TaskId: %s\n", result.TaskId)
}

Parameter description

Action: video/animation

The following table describes the parameters.

Related APIs

// Convert the example.mkv file to an animated image.
POST /example.mkv?x-oss-async-process HTTP/1.1
Host: video-demo.oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2022 06:40:10 GMT
Authorization: OSS4-HMAC-SHA256 Credential=LTAI********************/20250417/cn-hangzhou/oss/aliyun_v4_request,Signature=a7c3554c729d71929e0b84489addee6b2e8d5cb48595adfc51868c299c0c218e
 
x-oss-async-process=video/animation,f_gif,w_100,h_100,inter_1000|sys/saveas,b_b3V0YnVja2V0,o_b3V0b2JqcHJlZml4LnthdXRvZXh0fQ/notify,topic_QXVkaW9Db252ZXJ0

// Convert the example.mkv file to an animated image.
POST /example.mkv?x-oss-async-process HTTP/1.1
Host: video-demo.oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2022 06:40:10 GMT
Authorization: OSS4-HMAC-SHA256 Credential=LTAI********************/20250417/cn-hangzhou/oss/aliyun_v4_request,Signature=a7c3554c729d71929e0b84489addee6b2e8d5cb48595adfc51868c299c0c218e
 
x-oss-async-process=video/animation,ss_5000,f_webp,pw_25,ph_25,fps_25,inter_500|sys/saveas,b_b3V0YnVja2V0,o_b3V0b2JqcHJlZml4LnthdXRvZXh0fQ/notify,topic_QXVkaW9Db252ZXJ0

Billing

When you convert a video to an animated image, IMM is called. This generates the following billable items for OSS and IMM:

• OSS side: For detailed pricing, see OSS Pricing

  API	Billable item	Description
  GetObject	GET requests	Request fees are calculated based on the number of successful requests.
  	Outbound Internet Traffic Fees	If you call the GetObject operation using a public endpoint (for example, oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com) or an acceleration endpoint (for example, oss-accelerate.aliyuncs.com), you are charged for outbound traffic over the internet. Fees are calculated based on the data size.
  	Volume of retrieved Infrequent Access (IA) data	If the retrieved data is IA data, you are charged for the volume of retrieved IA data. Fees are calculated based on the volume of retrieved data.
  	Volume of data retrieved from Archive objects using real-time access	If you read an Archive object and real-time access of Archive objects is enabled for the bucket, you are charged for the volume of data retrieved from the Archive object. Fees are calculated based on the size of the retrieved data.
  	Transfer acceleration	If you enable transfer acceleration and use an acceleration endpoint to access your bucket, you are charged for transfer acceleration. Fees are calculated based on the data size.
  PutObject	PUT requests	Request fees are calculated based on the number of successful requests.
  	Storage fees	Storage fees are charged based on the storage class, size, and duration of an object.
  HeadObject	GET requests	Request fees are calculated based on the number of successful requests.

• IMM: For more information about pricing, see IMM billable items

  Important

  Starting at 11:00 UTC+8 on July 28, 2025, the IMM Video-to-animated-image conversion service will upgrade from the free tier to a pay-as-you-go billing model. The specific billable item is MediaAnimation. For more information, see IMM Billing Adjustment Notice.

  API	Billable item	Description
  CreateMediaConvertTask	MediaAnimation	The fee for video-to-animated-image conversion is calculated based on the number of frames in the output animated image.

Notes

• Video-to-animated-image conversion supports only asynchronous processing (x-oss-async-process).

• Anonymous access will be denied.