Format Conversion questions, what's allowed?

Question

I have encountered a slightly grey line with respect to something I wanted to ask and wanted to see how I can present it so that it is acceptable or just forgo altogether even trying. I want to avoid flaming, arguments and unnecessary downvotes if I can avoid it, because it won't be helpful.

SO here is my dilemma: We can all pretty much can agree that the GIF format is a graphics design relevant topic. However, we also know that GIFs can and often are animated. This means that some videos can be presented in GIF format for the sake of easier playback or whatnot. Now the video aspect makes me wonder if it would be outside the scope of graphic design, although many arguments can be made that they are relevant parallel fields.

SO my question: Are questions about conversion say form an OGV, FLV, MP4, AVI or whatnot format to GIF (animated of course) consistent with the site? Can we ask about it? or is it going to get hit with the barrage of off-topic votes if not gratuitous downvotes? or even derogatory answers to make the question get stuck and become protected from deletion?

Please advise, thank you.

Answer 1

It's typical for video questions to get migrated over to the Video Production site. There aren't a whole lot of questions related to GIFs over there, but it doesn't look explicitly off topic.

Based on the existence of this question, I'd lean towards it being a better fit over there.

Answer 2

There are video-to-gif conversion questions on the VP site, so clearly they don't consider it off-topic. That said, I don't know why we would either.

As a designer I do a fair bit of motion graphics in both After Effects and more recently Edge Animate, as well as video, in design projects that span media. I'd be reluctant to say that questions about animation or even use of video in, say, a website, a fixed-layout ePub or a tablet app (such as from Edge Animate and InDesign via Adobe DPS) were not suitable for gd.se. These days, graphic designers are perforce working beyond print or static websites.

Video production questions ("Is there a best practice for combining P2 and DSLR Raw video formats in a Final Cut Pro X workflow?") clearly belong on vp.se, but it seems to me that "Will animated gifs play nice with iBooks Author?" or "Is there a way to convert an animated logo from video to something usable on my client's website, without having to use Flash?" would be gd.se questions.