Instant animations with Filter > Animation in Paint by Zaweba

Not every animation needs drawing. Filter > Animation in Paint by Zaweba generates the frames for you from a still image. It offers Rippling, Waves, Spinning Globe, Blend and Burn-In, and it builds the result as frames in a layer group plus Timeline frames, so you can play, tweak and export it like any other animation.

It is the quickest route from a single picture to something that moves.

The five effects

Rippling makes the image ripple as if seen through disturbed water. It suits reflections, dream sequences, and anything that should feel liquid or unsettled.

Waves sends regular waves across the picture. It works for flags, banners, water scenes and playful text.

Spinning Globe wraps the image around a sphere and turns it. A world map gives an obvious result, but a pattern, a texture or a logo makes a striking spinning ball too.

Blend moves smoothly from one image to another. It is a simple way to make a before-and-after loop or a gentle transition between two photos.

Burn-In reveals the picture gradually, as if it were burning onto the screen. It suits intros, title cards and dramatic reveals.

How the frames are built

Each effect writes its frames into a layer group, one layer per frame, and adds matching Timeline frames. Because the frames are real layers, you can edit any of them by hand: paint on a frame, fix an edge, add text that appears partway through, or delete frames you don't need.

The Timeline lets you set delays, loop settings and playback, exactly as for animations you build yourself.

Picking a good source

Choose the right source. Spinning Globe works best with an image that wraps sensibly, such as a map or a repeating pattern. Rippling and Waves look most convincing on pictures with clear detail for the distortion to move.

Keep the size modest. Every frame is a full layer, so a very large image creates a heavy document and a big export. Resize to the size you will actually use before running the filter.

Mind the loop. Effects that cycle, like Spinning Globe and Waves, loop naturally. For Blend and Burn-In, decide whether to play once, loop, or set a ping-pong in the frame settings so the reveal reverses smoothly.

Writing the animation out

Export Animation writes the result as an animated GIF, animated WebP, PNG sequence, or MP4 or WebM when the suite's FFmpeg is installed. For GIFs, Paint by Zaweba's own writer offers shared or per-frame palettes, dithering and frame differencing; distortion effects change most pixels every frame, so a per-frame palette with moderate dither is a sensible starting point, and the file will be larger than a simple graphic loop.

Combining with other tools

Filter animations are a starting point rather than the end. Place the generated group inside a larger design, add a text layer that stays still while the background ripples, or use keyframes to fade a title in over a spinning globe. Live Layer Art effects can add a glow or shadow to text on top.

For a website banner, an email header or a quick social post, a filter animation plus a line of text can be made in minutes in Paint by Zaweba, offline and without any extra software.