Turn any still into a looping GIF — workflow skill for animation & motion graphics

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A still, mascot or prompt to a looping GIF on GPT Image 2.6: frame sizes that fit, loop wording, WebP export.

• Type: Workflow · Animation & motion graphics
• Slug: gpt-image-gif
• Status: live
• Publisher: varg (varg, verified)
• License: MIT
• Source: https://github.com/vargHQ/skills/tree/main/gpt-image-gif
• Works in: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI
• Requires: varg API key (VARG_API_KEY) or the varg MCP
• Cost: 6-7 credits per GIF — A GIF costs the same as one image: 6-7 credits. Measured 2026-11-05 on varg.
• Runtime: About 10-60 s per image on varg (Sunburst ~50 s); scripts run locally in seconds

What it does

Turn a still, mascot, logo or a plain prompt into a looping animated GIF with GPT Image 2.6 on varg (output_format gif): the sprite-sheet pixel budget with a measured table of frame sizes that fit 2, 4, 6, 9, 12 and 16 frames, the approve-a-still-first workflow, loop-lock prompt wording, frame_duration_ms, transparent backgrounds, the failure modes (text in frames, fast motion, boiling backgrounds) and post-processing to animated WebP and MP4 with scripts/gif2web.sh. Use when someone asks for a GIF, an animated mascot or logo, a looping wave, blink or bounce, a reaction GIF, "animate this image" as a GIF, or a GIF that was rejected or came back broken. Not for sticker packs per messenger (gpt-image-sticker-pack), game sprite sheets and atlases (gpt-image-sprite-sheet) or real video clips (varg-ai, kling-4-prompting).

Use when

• Turn a still, mascot or logo into a looping GIF
• Make a reaction GIF or a GIF from a text prompt
• A GPT Image 2.6 GIF was rejected or came back broken
• Shrink a GIF to animated WebP or MP4 for the web

Not for

• sticker packs per messenger (gpt-image-sticker-pack)
• game sprite sheets and atlases (gpt-image-sprite-sheet)
• real video clips (varg-ai, kling-4-prompting)

Install

• Claude Code: claude plugin marketplace add vargHQ/skills && claude plugin install varg@varg
• Codex: npx skills add vargHQ/skills --skill gpt-image-gif -a codex -y
• Cursor: npx skills add vargHQ/skills --skill gpt-image-gif -a cursor -y
• Gemini CLI: npx skills add vargHQ/skills --skill gpt-image-gif -a gemini-cli -y
• Any agent, with the vargai CLI: vargai install gpt-image-gif

Example output

https://s3.varg.ai/files/4325c578-378d-4c43-ae53-3cc3218df1ea/file_76feb742f1fb.mp4 — The Pip mascot still turned into a 9-frame looping GIF on GPT Image 2.6 (768x768 frames) (credit: varg, https://github.com/vargHQ/skills/tree/main/gpt-image-gif)

More animation & motion graphics skills

• Turn a character into a game sprite sheet: 2D game sprite sheets on GPT Image 2.6: a 4x4 spec that slices cleanly into frames, a GIF and a Phaser atlas.
• Day in My Life: A 60–75 s hand-drawn ink film of your agent's day with you, built from local Claude Code history, scored for strings.
• p5 Paint Animation: Handwriting that writes itself, photos that paint themselves and clips repainted as living paintings, in p5.js code.
• Session Story: A 40–70 s watercolor film of a typical session with your agent, told in your real messages, with its own score.
• Remotion Markup: Write Remotion markup that animates well: timing, transitions, motion blur, effects, audio, fonts and 3D.
• Motion AI Kit: Write production-grade UI animation with Motion or CSS: best practices, docs search, springs, perf audits.