Eric wanted an animated Facebook profile picture, so tonight we put together the following:
Not bad for two takes and fifteen minutes' work.
Update
I have been getting a lot of hits from people searching for how to make an animated Facebook picture like this one. Let me share the following IM conversation with one such visitor. It explains how Eric and I made that picture work on Facebook:
(00:58:46) The Visitor: hello?
(00:58:58) Me: oy
(00:59:00) Me: who's this?
(00:59:09) The Visitor: hey this is a stranger
(00:59:21) The Visitor: was just checkn your website and had a question for ya
(00:59:32) Me: ah ok.
never got an IM from a stranger before.
exciting.
(00:59:36) Me: what can I do for you?
(00:59:53) The Visitor: yeah i was wondering how exactly did you make a animated facebook picture
(01:00:24) Me: ah yeah. my roommate and I had to fight with it a while.
we think they have a size limit on the picture. They also make it look like a .jpg when it's really a .gif.
(01:00:37) Me: we made an animation and resized it until it worked
(01:00:42) The Visitor: i see
(01:00:49) Me: we should've recorded the size.
(01:00:58) Me: I've been getting a lot of hits from people looking for how to make one
(01:01:06) The Visitor: oh lol
(01:01:31) The Visitor: well yeah i just have a couple of gifs on my pc and was just curious of how the hell i upload one of them
(01:02:49) Me: ah.
click "view my profile" on the main page after login
click "edit" at the top right of the on the picture box in the top left of the content area
upload away
(01:03:11) Me: just click the "browse" button and choose the picture
(01:03:29) The Visitor: ok im following all of that
(01:03:43) The Visitor: but when i upload it it's a still picture
(01:03:51) Me: no animation, you mean?
(01:03:51) The Visitor: do i need to save it a certain way?
(01:03:55) The Visitor: yeah
(01:04:09) Me: check your profile. it may display differently there.
(01:04:17) Me: if not, try uploading a smaller picture
(01:04:47) The Visitor: yeah it's still not moving
(01:04:53) The Visitor: is there a way to make the gif smaller?
(01:05:01) Me: hm.
do you have Adobe Imageready?
(01:05:20) Me: that's what we used. I am not sure what other programs would do it for you
(01:05:32) The Visitor: yeah i think so
(01:06:34) Me: Image > Image Size on the main menu will resize it and should retain the animation
(01:07:35) The Visitor: k thanks
(01:07:38) Me: works?
(01:07:56) The Visitor: so if the picture doesn't work it just means it's too big?
(01:08:11) Me: *shrugs*
that is the only thing my roommate and I could think of.
(01:08:25) The Visitor: k thanks alot
(01:08:32) The Visitor: sorry to bother ya
(01:08:33) Me: because facebook does some dynamic resizing in places that we think messes with the animation
(01:08:36) Me: no bother. glad to help