HOW-TO: Animate Your Twitter Avatar

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Due to updates on Twitter, this hack is unlikely to work. Thanks for playing! Check out the BuzzFeed article for a better, more up-to-date tutorial.

Pimp your Twitter avatar. Make it animated.

Updated 23 Feb 2011: Twitter hack now allows for larger animated avatars (128×128 pixel dimensions)!

Instructions (Easy):

  1. Find your imagery (or use 3fram.es to make an animated GIF and save to your computer).
  2. Upload your animated GIF to be resized:

  3. Download the resized image and upload to your Twitter profile!
    Click ‘Upload to Twitter’ to automatically have your avatar image changed!
    Twitter has disabled this app from using their API due to a violation of their Terms of Service (without mentioning what specifically was in violation). You will need to download and upload to Twitter manually.

 
Instructions (Advanced):

  1. Find your imagery (or use 3fram.es to make an animated GIF).
  2. Import your animated GIF into Photoshop (details), or create your animation from still frames.
  3. Resize your image to a 48×48 (the secret dimensions!).
  4. ‘Save for Web’ as a GIF, tweak your colors, and save.
  5. Upload to your Twitter profile!

 
Share your results by posting your Twitter URL in the comments! or browse the latest uploads.
 

Note: Animated image URLs are validly returned in the Twitter API, however some apps may not animate your GIFs.


Inspired by all the Blah Blah Blah on Twitter. Hacked by @gleuch.
Props to @aarontweets for 3fram.es.

Tags: , , ,

Posted on January 10, 2011

BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
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    • COMMENTS

    1. Saxamo says:
      January 10, 2011 at 12:26 pm

      4 hours? 4 nachos!

    2. Matthias says:
      January 10, 2011 at 1:41 pm

      yea http://twitter.com/cmbgk

    3. Trev says:
      January 10, 2011 at 2:08 pm

      http://twitter.com/#!/trevmichael

    4. yvonne says:
      January 10, 2011 at 3:37 pm

    5. James says:
      January 10, 2011 at 3:43 pm

      whoot!

      http://www.twitter.com/JamesCrabb

    6. Nate says:
      January 10, 2011 at 6:05 pm

      You’ll have to pay attention to it to see the animation.

      http://twitter.com/natefanaro

    7. LaShaundra says:
      January 10, 2011 at 6:10 pm

      :D

      http://twitter.com/VeiledHeart

    8. Animating Your Twitter Avatar Is Easier Than Ever — Consider Yourself Warned | Tech News Daily says:
      January 10, 2011 at 6:14 pm

      […] which you’ll save to your computer. Then, just re-size the saved image using Leuch’s automated uploader, download the tailored animation, and voilà. You’ve got your very own dynamo of an […]

    9. Animating Your Twitter Avatar Is Easier Than Ever — Consider Yourself Warned | BuyElectro.com says:
      January 10, 2011 at 9:11 pm

      […] which you’ll save to your computer. Then, just re-size the saved image using Leuch’s automated uploader, download the tailored animation, and voilà. You’ve got your very own dynamo of an […]

    10. Turn Your Twitter Icon Into an Animated GIF says:
      January 11, 2011 at 3:21 pm

      […] will let you do just that.All one has to do is create a GIF using 3fram.es, resize the GIF on the F.A.T. website, and download it for easy uploading to Twitter.According to Leuch, the project has been used to […]

    11. Cómo usar un Gif animado como avatar de Twitter says:
      January 11, 2011 at 4:13 pm

      […] crear una a partir de 3 frames.El siguiente paso sería cambiar su tamaño, lo que puede hacerse en fffff.at, justo antes de subirlo a nuestro perfil de Twitter.Aunque la mayoría de las veces el efecto […]

    12. Make'n Music says:
      January 11, 2011 at 5:09 pm

      http://twitter.com/makenmusic

      This is great for our business!

    13. Mr. Me says:
      January 11, 2011 at 6:50 pm

      My twitter has been animated :)
      I bet this will attract people to my twitter account :) :) :D

    14. Michael says:
      January 11, 2011 at 7:25 pm

      You can use other sizes besides 48×48 if you rename the .gif to .png. I’ve had a 50×50 animated avi up for more than a year now:

      http://twitter.com/thxithink

      Of course, your mileage may vary; it’s been a while since I did it and Twitter may have added code to catch the GIF disguised as a PNG now.

    15. Πως να βάλετε ένα animation για twitter avatar! « macedonas.gr says:
      January 11, 2011 at 9:10 pm

      […] τις αυτοματοποιημένες οδηγίες στο ακόλουθο link. Have fun! Tags: social networks, Twitter | Leave your comment […]

    16. Turn Your Twitter Icon Into an Animated GIF says:
      January 11, 2011 at 9:36 pm

      […] one has to do is create a GIF using 3fram.es, resize the GIF on the F.A.T. website, and download it for easy uploading to Twitter […]

    17. yh66600 says:
      January 11, 2011 at 10:41 pm

      you can’t read what i wrote though

    18. yh66600 says:
      January 11, 2011 at 10:42 pm

      oops i forgot to put my twitter link
      twitter.com/yh66600

    19. Как сделать анимированную аватарку для Твиттера | Social Media News - Woldemar says:
      January 12, 2011 at 5:40 am

      […] создать GIF изображение на 3fram.es, подогнать размер GIF на сайте F.A.T., и скачать его на […]

    20. K says:
      January 12, 2011 at 6:01 am

      …Or if you want an animated gif with more than 3 frames, try http://piterwilson-toys.com

    21. Como usar um gif animado no avatar do Twitter says:
      January 12, 2011 at 8:15 am

      […] podemos criar uma usando 3 frames.Depois teríamos que mudar o tamanho, o que pode ser feito no fffff.at, antes de subir o resultado no nosso perfil do Twitter.Ainda que a maioria das vezes o efeito […]

    22. Cómo hacer que tu icono de Twitter esté animado - Que 2.0 says:
      January 12, 2011 at 8:21 am

      […] Vía | 3fram.es – F.A.T. […]

    23. Cómo hacer un avatar animado para Twitter says:
      January 12, 2011 at 9:48 am

      […] demasiado. Si no sabes hacerlo por tu cuenta entonces lo que puedes hacer es ir a este enlace en fffff.at donde puedes subir tu GIF y esa aplicación web hará todo el trabajo por […]

    24. bennett4senate says:
      January 12, 2011 at 10:05 am

    25. Превратите вашу Twitter-иконку в анимированную gif-картинку says:
      January 12, 2011 at 10:10 am

      […] используя 3fram.es, изменить размер изображения на сайте F. A. T. для легкой загрузки нового юзерпика в […]

    26. Как сделать анимированный аватар в твиттере says:
      January 12, 2011 at 10:20 am

      […] используя 3fram.es, или изменить размер вашего GIF на сайте F.A.T. и потом просто залить его в ваш твиттер […]

    27. 3frames: realizzare un’animazione GIF scattando foto con la webcam - maestroalberto says:
      January 12, 2011 at 10:32 am

      […] La GIF può essere utilizzata per esempio come avatar nelle reti sociali. Se in particolare la volete ottimizzare per Twitter potete usare uno strumento di ritaglio messo a disposizione da F.A.T. […]

    28. Hidupkan Avatar Twitter-mu | NURWANTO.NET says:
      January 12, 2011 at 4:06 pm

      […] avatar-mu untuk mengikuti latihan di sebuah negeri yang terletak diatas awan. (buka website ini, lalu upload file animasi GIF-mu untuk di resize, tunggu hingga proses […]

    29. Превратите вашу Twitter-иконку в анимированную картинку | Новости социальных сетей и Интернет-бизнеса says:
      January 12, 2011 at 5:31 pm

      […] используя 3fram.es, изменить размер изображения на сайте F. A. T. для легкой загрузки нового юзерпика в […]

    30. Cambiar mi ícono de Twitter a un GIF animado como avatar says:
      January 13, 2011 at 5:44 pm

      […] debes crear un Gif utilizando 3fram.es, seguidamente debes cambiar el tamaño en el sitio web de FAT, y finalmente descargarlo para subir fácilmente a […]

    31. Cómo hacer un avatar animado para Twitter « Hashikto´s Blog says:
      January 13, 2011 at 10:54 pm

      […] que no “pese” demasiado. Si no sabes hacerlo por tu cuenta entonces lo que puedes hacer es ir a este enlace en fffff.at donde puedes subir tu GIF y esa aplicación web hará todo el trabajo por […]

    32. Cambiar mi ícono de Twitter a un GIF animado como avatar | Blogs y Bloggers says:
      January 13, 2011 at 11:43 pm

      […] debes crear un Gif utilizando 3fram.es, seguidamente cambia el tamaño en el sitio web de FAT, y finalmente descargarlo para subir fácilmente a […]

    33. 3frames, crea Gif con las fotos de tu cámara web says:
      January 14, 2011 at 2:06 am

      […] optimizar para Twitter se puede utilizar una herramienta de recorte puestos a disposición por FAT […]

    34. Tutorial Web » Realizzare animazione gif con web cam says:
      January 14, 2011 at 8:44 am

      […] la volete ottimizzare per Twitter potete usare uno strumento di ritaglio messo a disposizione da F.A.T. Tag:gratis, servizi […]

    35. Creare un avatar animato per Twitter | Icefox Software says:
      January 15, 2011 at 4:02 am

      […] Dopo di che andate sul sito F.A.T. che vi permetterà di ritagliare e di caricare su Twitter la vostra GIF […]

    36. Transforme sua foto do Twitter em um GIF animado | Rotina Digital says:
      January 17, 2011 at 9:53 pm

      […] e crie seu avatar animado no http://3fram.es, você vai precisar de uma webcam, depois acesse o F.A.T. e altere o tamanho da imagem, por fim faça o carregamento da foto para seu perfil no Twitter. […]

    37. Ryan says:
      January 24, 2011 at 9:31 am

      Go on; fantastic!!
      http://twitter.com/reebeast

    38. Martin says:
      March 10, 2011 at 11:40 am

      It did not work. When I tried to upload it to Twitter I got something that says, Bigger_spinner in place of the gif.

    39. WJAY says:
      March 22, 2011 at 8:02 pm

      This doesn’t work :(

    40. esosh says:
      March 24, 2011 at 4:48 am

      Mine only shows on my own twitterpage, not in my tweets :(
      how can i solve this?

    41. molly says:
      March 31, 2011 at 2:36 pm

      how do you upload it to twitter once resized?

    42. ozl says:
      April 14, 2011 at 12:28 pm

      Didnt work :(

    43. ozl says:
      April 14, 2011 at 12:28 pm

      http://twitter.com/wii4everybody

    44. EBMGO says:
      May 3, 2011 at 9:56 pm

      http://twitter.com/ebmgo

    45. Creating Animated Gifs for Twitter | Millard Latimer says:
      May 3, 2011 at 11:18 pm

      […] Animated gif Now that you have your animated gif via Photoshop or 3fram.es, you can head over to Free Art and Technology (F.A.T.) and resize your animated gif for twitter. When your gif has been converted, simply upload it to […]

    46. Using an animated gif as an avatar of | EBOOKS FREE TO DOWNLOAD says:
      May 21, 2011 at 5:14 pm

      […] https://fffff.at/how-to-animate-your-twitter-avatar/ [!] Report this post to delete, thanks Processing your request, Please […]

    47. Twitter Icon als animiertes GIF says:
      May 27, 2011 at 7:36 am

      […] die Entwickler von 3fram ausgedacht. Eine Anleitung zum Animieren des Twitter Avatars findet Ihr hier! Eine Sammlung aus über 400 Avatars besteht bereist […]

    48. Loreal says:
      May 29, 2011 at 11:26 pm

      Worked for me !!

    49. Shukakek says:
      June 14, 2011 at 7:54 am

      http://twitter.com/shukakek

    50. goofykid says:
      July 15, 2011 at 1:25 am

      http://twitter.com/LukeKerrILM

      This shit is fucking gold! GOLD I TELL YOU!

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