diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index 0d611db2..ce061ba5 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ version = "0.25.3"
 Base64 = "2a0f44e3-6c83-55bd-87e4-b1978d98bd5f"
 Contour = "d38c429a-6771-53c6-b99e-75d170b6e991"
 Dates = "ade2ca70-3891-5945-98fb-dc099432e06a"
+FFMPEG = "c87230d0-a227-11e9-1b43-d7ebe4e7570a"
 FixedPointNumbers = "53c48c17-4a7d-5ca2-90c5-79b7896eea93"
 GR = "28b8d3ca-fb5f-59d9-8090-bfdbd6d07a71"
 GeometryTypes = "4d00f742-c7ba-57c2-abde-4428a4b178cb"
diff --git a/src/Plots.jl b/src/Plots.jl
index 0849c20b..4fd536b5 100644
--- a/src/Plots.jl
+++ b/src/Plots.jl
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ import GeometryTypes
 using Dates, Printf, Statistics, Base64, LinearAlgebra, Random
 import SparseArrays: findnz
 
+using FFMPEG
+
 @reexport using RecipesBase
 import RecipesBase: plot, plot!, animate
 using Base.Meta
diff --git a/src/animation.jl b/src/animation.jl
index f4db54be..b6d45f36 100644
--- a/src/animation.jl
+++ b/src/animation.jl
@@ -76,15 +76,15 @@ function buildanimation(animdir::AbstractString, fn::AbstractString,
         if variable_palette
             # generate a colorpalette for each frame for highest quality, but larger filesize
             palette="palettegen=stats_mode=single[pal],[0:v][pal]paletteuse=new=1"
-            run(`ffmpeg -v 0 -framerate $fps -loop $loop -i $(animdir)/%06d.png -lavfi "$palette" -y $fn`)
+            ffmpeg_exe(`-v 0 -framerate $fps -loop $loop -i $(animdir)/%06d.png -lavfi "$palette" -y $fn`)
         else
             # generate a colorpalette first so ffmpeg does not have to guess it
-            run(`ffmpeg -v 0 -i $(animdir)/%06d.png -vf "palettegen=stats_mode=diff" -y "$(animdir)/palette.bmp"`)
+            ffmpeg_exe(`-v 0 -i $(animdir)/%06d.png -vf "palettegen=stats_mode=diff" -y "$(animdir)/palette.bmp"`)
             # then apply the palette to get better results
-            run(`ffmpeg -v 0 -framerate $fps -loop $loop -i $(animdir)/%06d.png -i "$(animdir)/palette.bmp" -lavfi "paletteuse=dither=sierra2_4a" -y $fn`)
+            ffmpeg_exe(` -v 0 -framerate $fps -loop $loop -i $(animdir)/%06d.png -i "$(animdir)/palette.bmp" -lavfi "paletteuse=dither=sierra2_4a" -y $fn`)
         end
     else
-        run(`ffmpeg -v 0 -framerate $fps -loop $loop -i $(animdir)/%06d.png -pix_fmt yuv420p -y $fn`)
+        ffmpeg_exe(`-v 0 -framerate $fps -loop $loop -i $(animdir)/%06d.png -pix_fmt yuv420p -y $fn`)
     end
 
     show_msg && @info("Saved animation to ", fn)