Working with animated GIFs

The Time option in the Properties palette enables you to move from frame to frame of an animated GIF. This is useful if you want to animate the frames of an imported animated GIF image so that it slows down, speeds up, or goes backward in time compared to how it ordinarily plays.

For information on placing GIFs in a composition, see Placing image files.

To work with an animated GIF:

1. Place and select the animated GIF.
2. In the Timeline window, expand the animated GIF's Object Attributes > Object Time property. There should be an Object Time keyframe at the beginning and the end of the animated GIF's timeline. To change the rate or direction of the animation, continue with the remaining steps.
3. In the Timeline window, move the current-time marker to a frame other than frame 0.
4. Choose Window > Properties to display the Properties palette.
5. In the Properties palette, enter different values for the Time option. Higher numbers move the GIF further forward in its animation.

The Object Time attribute is added to the animated GIF's timeline properties.

6. In the Timeline window, expand the Object Attributes list for the animated GIF.
7. Click the Object Time stopwatch and animate the frames of the animated GIF.
8. Move the current-time marker back to time 0 and set the time slider in the properties palette to 0.