Intro Screen for GIFs on Facebook

Question

I create social media animations in AF and export them using the GifGun plugin. They are then posted on Facebook and IG.

When scrolling through my personal FB feed, I have video autoplay turned OFF. I notice that some GIFs posted by companies show the LAST frame (or a specific frame in the animation that shows the relevant info) as it's "cover image"; then when I click play, the animation starts at the beginning - usually starting with a blank screen. Does anyone know how to select a cover image for a GIF? I'm stumped. Currently, if I create an animation that starts with a blank screen, that's what the user will see. I want to be able to show the part of the GIF that displays the relevant info to an offer as the cover image before a user clicks to play.

Any suggestions?

Rick Gerard · Answer

Gif Gun is a sledgehammer approach to creating animated GIFs. A more efficient approach if you start in AE is to create a comp that has no duplicate frames. If you need pauses in the animations, you create those in Photoshop when you export a movie and open it in AE. You can set the duration of a single frame to anything you want. I used to create animated GIF sales banners that would transition from one slide to another over 15 frames, pause for 10 to 15 seconds, then transition again. There were no duplicate frames, so I could create a one-minute looping gif that was only 90 frames. You can't do that kind of thing directly within AE using 3rd party plugins like Gif Gun.

If I was creating the kind of animations you are describing, I would go directly to Adobe Animate. If they have to be GIFs I would use software designed specifically to create animated GIFs.

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