Can you control GIF animation with Javascript?

Question

Is it possible to use javascript to control which frame of a GIF image is showing and/or stop the animation. I want to be able to load a GIF with several frames and only show one of them.

I know I could do it with lots of separate images, but if I can do what I want with a GIF, it will only be one file to worry about.

Faintheart

You can also do it with one big image with sprites and only show exact sprite by clipping image – Marrero

Agree with @MBO, with sprites is fairly simple, check this related question: #1737422 – Morry

Use video without sound. just like 9gag – Ambitious

I think the short answer is no. If you want to use JavaScript, you’re most likely alternatives are controlling genuine video or using CSS sprites. The benefit of using CSS sprites is that you end up transferring a single image, and that image has better overall compression than multiple individual images. – Stedman

Answer 1

You can do it with a single image using CSS sprites.

Servo

This is true so long as what one wants to do is split up different variations of an image around the 2D plane, and not to split it up as separate frames. – Asper

Answer 2

You can use the libgif library.

It allows you to start/stop the gif and control which frame the gif is on.

<script type="text/javascript" src="./libgif.js"></script>
<img src="./example1_preview.gif" rel:animated_src="./example1.gif"
 width="360" height="360" rel:auto_play="1" rel:rubbable="1" />

<script type="text/javascript">
    $$('img').each(function (img_tag) {
        if (/.*\.gif/.test(img_tag.src)) {
            var rub = new SuperGif({ gif: img_tag } );
            rub.load(function(){
                console.log('oh hey, now the gif is loaded');
            });
        }
    });
</script>

(most of the code is taken directly from their example)

Wort

This code doesn't seem to work for me. It plays the gif with sup1.load(), then when the gif is done, it goes to the first frame with sup1.move_to(frame). I also tried using pause() but it didn't seem to freeze the gif on the first frame either. I edited the original code so that it stops on the first frame, but is there a way to pause the gif on the first frame without editing the code? – Sociolinguistics

@LeoCHan I've updated the example code to the latest api, try it now – Wort

This answer adresses the question a lot better than the acccepted one. – Benedikta

I must be missing something here. What is the $$ ? I get undefined. – Vassalage

To make this work with jQuery, $$ should be $ or jQuery, don't pass img_tag to the anonymous function, and simple use this in the function, instead of img_tag – Dilettantism

On latest chrome all their examples fail for me. – Byssinosis

Very important to note the caveat in this library's fine print. Caveat: same-domain origin. The gif has to be on the same domain (and port and protocol) as the page you're loading. – Ethel

Answer 3

If you are OK with converting your gif to a sprite sheet, you can do it this way (using ImageMagick):

montage animation.gif -coalesce -tile x1 -geometry +0+0 -background None -quality 100 spritesheet.png

It is even likely that the new image will be of lesser size.

Once you have a sprite sheet, use CSS animation. An animation with a fixed frame time is used here:

var el = document.getElementById('anim');
function play() {
  el.style.animationPlayState = 'running';
}
function pause() {
  el.style.animationPlayState = 'paused';
}
function reset() {
  el.style.animation = 'none';
  el.offsetHeight; /* trigger reflow to apply the change immediately */
  el.style.animation = null;
}
function stop() {
  reset();
  pause();
}

#anim {
  background-image: url('https://i.sstatic.net/J5drY.png');
  width: 250px;
  height: 188px;
  animation: anim 1.0s steps(10) infinite;
}
@keyframes anim {
  100% { background-position: -2500px; }
}

<div id="anim" title="Animated Bat by Calciumtrice"></div>
<button onclick="play()">Play</button>
<button onclick="pause()">Pause</button>
<button onclick="reset()">Reset</button>
<button onclick="stop()">Stop</button>

If you want the animation to not start automatically, add paused to the end of animation rule.

Mast

This is an awesome and simple way to solve this problem, gratz! – Jurisprudent

This method worked for me; it's easy to implement and adjust to your liking. I used ezgif here to create my sheet: ezgif.com/gif-to-sprite – Womble

I know this is an old question and answer, but I have a question. I like this answer a lot and I would like to know if you can hide or make the animated GIF disappear and then reappear with this answer. – Poteat

@Poteat I know this is an old question and answer and follow up question, but the answer is yes. – Kearney

@Womble Can you help me play this animation with 30 fps? codepen.io/alexsafayan/pen/abqgoEM – Kearney

Answer 4

I use x-gif it's pretty cool and easy to setup.

From Github:

<x-gif src="probably_cats.gif"></x-gif>

Where you can add the following as attributes:

• Playback modes:
  • speed="1.0" (default mode) multiplies the speed by the value of the attribute;
  • sync defers playback to an external object;
  • bpm="120" syncs GIFs to a given beats-per-minute;

• Options:

  • stopped prevents the GIF from animating;

  • fill causes the GIF to expand to cover its container;

  • n-times="3.0" (speed mode only) stops playback (by adding the attribute stopped) after a set number of times;
  • snap (sync & bpm modes only) instead of allowing longer GIFs to sync to multiple beats, force them to fit into only one;
  • ping-pong plays the GIF front-to-back then back-to-front;
• Debugging:
  • debug turns on debug output from the Gif Exploder;
  • exploded stops playback, and renders each frame out side-by-side.

Comer

From their Github page it works like this <x-gif src="probably_cats.gif"></x-gif>: you can add several attributes to this tag with playback modes, options and debugging. I tried to edit your answer providing a summary with them, but it was rejected, if you have the time, you can edit it yourself. – Concoction

Answer 5

Update 2024

This question was posted in 2010 and is in need of an update. The previous answers use techniques and libraries that are rarely used anymore. Yet, it continues to be cited as a solution.

screenshot

Browsers now support the video element. These will not play animated GIF images directly. Yet, it's very easy to convert GIF images to MP4 format using graphics applications or one of the many online converters. The WEBM format is a widely supported alternative when a transparent background is required.

Video has many advantages over an animated GIF. A few of these are:

• Greatly reduced file size
• No libraries are required
• Plays while loading
• Ability to use media sources
• Visually the same as the GIF
• And more...

Code Snippet

The snippet plays an MP4, WEBM, and GIF side by side. The MP4 and WEBM use an HTML-5 video element. The GIF uses the library from the most upvoted answer. There are buttons for play, pause, and seek.

const toggle = document.querySelector('input[type=checkbox]');
const mp4 = document.querySelector('#mp4 video');
const webm = document.querySelector('#webm video');
const gif = new SuperGif({
  gif: document.querySelector('#gif img'),
  loop_mode: true,
  auto_play: true,
  max_width: 150,
  // on_end:.
  // loop_delay:
  show_progress_bar: false
});

gif.load();

play.addEventListener('click', () => {
  mp4.play();
  webm.play();
  gif.play();
})

pause.addEventListener('click', () => {
  mp4.pause();
  webm.pause();
  gif.pause();
})

seek.addEventListener('change', () => {
  let percent = seek.value / 100;
  let frame = Math.floor(gif.get_length() * percent)
  gif.move_to(frame);
  let position = Math.floor(mp4.duration * percent);
  mp4.currentTime = position;
  position = Math.floor(webm.duration * percent);
  webm.currentTime = position;
})

mp4.addEventListener('timeupdate', () => {
  seek.value = Math.floor(100 * mp4.currentTime / mp4.duration);
});

body {
  font-family: sans-serif;

.container {
  margin-top: 1rem;
  display: flex;
  background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom right, red, yellow);
}

input[type=button] {
  min-width: 4rem;
}
input[type=range] {
  min-width: 20rem;
}
figure {
  border: thin solid white;
  border-radius: 0.5rem;
  display: inline-block;
  padding: 0.25rem;
  margin: 0.5rem;
  background-color: transparent;
}

figcaption {
  color: white;
  text-align: center;
}

video,
img {
  width: 150px;
  height: auto;
}

<input type="button" id="play" value="Play">
<input type="button" id="pause" value="Pause">
<input type="range" id="seek" min="0" max="100" value="0">

<div class="container">
  <figure id="mp4">
    <figcaption>
      205kb Video MP4
    </figcaption>
    <video autoplay muted loop>
      <source src="https://i.yourimageshare.com/i0rmDubApf.mp4">
    </video>
  </figure>

  <figure id="webm">
    <figcaption>
      222kb Video WEBM
    </figcaption>
    <video autoplay muted loop>
      <source src="https://i.yourimageshare.com/S1S9fJww3M.webm">
    </video>
  </figure>

  <figure id="gif">
    <figcaption>
      746kb Animated GIF
    </figcaption>
    <image src="https://i.postimg.cc/t4zZRyZH/rubik.gif" />
  </figure>
</div>



<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/buzzfeed/libgif-js/libgif.js"></script>

Ruble