How to Make an Animated Avatar on Twitter
November 30th, 2008 | 
Author: Some people love ‘em, some people hate ‘em. I loved it when I saw it, so I did it. Some people unfollow when you do it. I’m talking about animating your avatar on Twitter!
If you head over to look at my avatar here: http://www.Twitter.com/TiffanyDow you will see my animated avatar. I saw another girl whose pic was animated and DM’d her to ask how she did it and she told me, so I’ll pass it along to you:
Step 1: Create a short video clip - under 8 seconds. Mine was 3 seconds. All I’m doing is waving and mouthing “Hi!” I used my handy dandy Flip Mino. I plugged it in and imported it to Camtasia.
Step 2: Produce the video as a GIF file. I chose 64 colors. I played around with this - too many colors made the file too big. Too few and was just a bunch of dots hopping around the screen. Set it to custom size 150×112. On file size, make sure both options are checked - Disable callout fade…and use instant zoom-n-pan. Both options help reduce file size. Name it and finish it.
Step 3: Log into Twitter and go to Settings - Picture. Click browse and find the GIF file on your computer. When I tried doing it through FireFox, it kept saying Twitter is over capacity. But I then tried through AOL and it worked instantly!
Now enjoy your animated Twitter avatar. I’m animated on other people’s profiles, too - in my thumbnail. This could attract more followers who think it’s neat or repel people who hate the movement.
Tiff 
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Your avatar looks great! Glad I could help.
I love it!
Your twitter background too! That’s your next post. How to get a background like yours made. Post post post!
cool post Tiff!
I think your animated avatar is cool, can’t imagine why it would put some people off, it catches the eye immediatly…
cheers,
@MattGarrett
Hey Tiff,
Love the animated avatar -
the way you did it, it was
hardly noticeable at first
but then it sort of catches
your eye when you start
to wave.
I don’t know what would
happen if a lot of people
started using it - I think
that would drive me crazy,
but once in a while it’s good.
Thanks for the post,
Carolyn Carey
Global Success Creators
Is there any special way of saving the animated GIF? I’ve tried it and haven’t had any success. When I put the GIF on a website, it will be animated. But, when I upload it to Twitter, Twitter just shows the first frame and no animation occurs.
I’ve been animated since joining but now that it’s getting crowded with anime I’m going to start a new trend: “retro”. Nobody move. Seriously, I like the smoothness of your motion.
That is the coolest ever! I was taken by that, gave you a good minute and even waved back at you! Lifes’ little pleasures! Or is it that I amuse easily?
You got my attention. Thanks for the “How to”!
It caught my eye. I’m thinking about doing it. Thanks for the “how to”.
Hi Tiffany,
Thanks for sharing how to create the animated avatar. I think it adds personality, but like an earlier post said, if everyone does it, you could get dizzy.
I’ll check it out and see if I can come up with something unique.
Love your site,
Theresa
Hi Tiffany,
Animated avatars certainly attract attention. I have seen a few before and wondered how it was done.
Thanks for sharing this. I am now following you.
Cheers
Ken
Thanks for sharing this info. This is the reason I followed you on Twitter - because your picture stood out from the rest.
That little pic is so cute!
Don’t have AOL, how else to post up to Twitter. Also, have same prob. as previous post - shows first frame, no animation?
Is it a Mac thing?