diff --git a/src/animation.jl b/src/animation.jl
index e0a12d9f..f83880a0 100644
--- a/src/animation.jl
+++ b/src/animation.jl
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ function buildanimation(anim::Animation, fn::AbstractString,
                         is_animated_gif::Bool=true;
                         fps::Real = 20, loop::Integer = 0,
                         variable_palette::Bool=false,
+                        verbose=false,
                         show_msg::Bool=true)
     if length(anim.frames) == 0
         throw(ArgumentError("Cannot build empty animations"))
@@ -79,20 +80,23 @@ function buildanimation(anim::Animation, fn::AbstractString,
     fn = abspath(expanduser(fn))
     animdir = anim.dir
     framerate = ffmpeg_framerate(fps)
+    verbose_level = (verbose isa Int ? verbose :
+                        verbose ? 32  # "info"
+                                : 16) # "error"
 
     if is_animated_gif
         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"
-            ffmpeg_exe(`-v 0 -framerate $framerate -loop $loop -i $(animdir)/%06d.png -lavfi "$palette" -y $fn`)
+            ffmpeg_exe(`-v $verbose_level -framerate $framerate -loop $loop -i $(animdir)/%06d.png -lavfi "$palette" -y $fn`)
         else
             # generate a colorpalette first so ffmpeg does not have to guess it
-            ffmpeg_exe(`-v 0 -i $(animdir)/%06d.png -vf "palettegen=stats_mode=diff" -y "$(animdir)/palette.bmp"`)
+            ffmpeg_exe(`-v $verbose_level -i $(animdir)/%06d.png -vf "palettegen=stats_mode=diff" -y "$(animdir)/palette.bmp"`)
             # then apply the palette to get better results
-            ffmpeg_exe(` -v 0 -framerate $framerate -loop $loop -i $(animdir)/%06d.png -i "$(animdir)/palette.bmp" -lavfi "paletteuse=dither=sierra2_4a" -y $fn`)
+            ffmpeg_exe(`-v $verbose_level -framerate $framerate -loop $loop -i $(animdir)/%06d.png -i "$(animdir)/palette.bmp" -lavfi "paletteuse=dither=sierra2_4a" -y $fn`)
         end
     else
-        ffmpeg_exe(`-v 0 -framerate $framerate -loop $loop -i $(animdir)/%06d.png -pix_fmt yuv420p -y $fn`)
+        ffmpeg_exe(`-v $verbose_level -framerate $framerate -loop $loop -i $(animdir)/%06d.png -pix_fmt yuv420p -y $fn`)
     end
 
     show_msg && @info("Saved animation to ", fn)