LICEcap can capture an area of your desktop and save it directly to.GIF.

Features and options:

• Record directly to.GIF or.LCF.
• Move the screen capture frame while recording.
• Pause and restart recording, with optional inserted text messages.
• Global hotkey (shift+space) to toggle pausing while recording
• Adjustable maximum recording framerate, to allow throttling CPU usage.
• Basic title frame, with or without text.
• Record mouse button presses.
• Display elapsed time in the recording.