# animate — Display Image Sequences as Animation > Practical guide to animate from ImageMagick: play animated GIFs and image sequences in an X11 window, control frames and create quick previews. Source: https://www.jpkc.com/db/en/cheatsheets/images-media/animate/ animate is ImageMagick's playback tool that displays a sequence of images or a ready-made animation in its own X11 window. Reach for it to quickly review animated GIFs, rendered frame sequences or time-lapses before you process them further. Note that animate needs a running X server and does not work headless. Under ImageMagick 7 you invoke it preferably as `magick animate`; the classic `animate` call stays compatible. ## Basic Usage `animate ` — Display an animated GIF or multi-frame image. ```bash animate animation.gif ``` `animate ...` — Animate a sequence of image files. ```bash animate frame-001.png frame-002.png frame-003.png ``` `animate *.png` — Animate all PNG files in alphabetical order. ```bash animate frames/*.png ``` `animate -delay *.png` — Set delay between frames (in 1/100 second). ```bash animate -delay 10 frames/*.png ``` ## Playback Control `animate -loop ` — Set number of loops (0 = infinite). ```bash animate -loop 3 animation.gif ``` `animate -delay ` — Override frame delay (speed up or slow down). ```bash animate -delay 5 animation.gif ``` `animate -delay x ` — Set delay with custom ticks-per-second base. ```bash animate -delay 1x30 frames/*.png ``` `animate -pause ` — Pause for specified seconds between loops. ```bash animate -pause 2 animation.gif ``` ## Display Options `animate -resize x ` — Resize animation for display. ```bash animate -resize 640x480 animation.gif ``` `animate -coalesce ` — Reconstruct frames before displaying (fix optimized GIFs). ```bash animate -coalesce animation.gif ``` `animate -geometry x++ ` — Set window size and position. ```bash animate -geometry 800x600+100+50 animation.gif ``` `animate -title "" ` — Set the window title. ```bash animate -title "Preview" animation.gif ``` `animate -backdrop ` — Display with a backdrop covering the full screen. ```bash animate -backdrop animation.gif ``` ## Keyboard Controls (during playback) `Space` — Toggle play/pause. ```bash Press Space to pause or resume playback ``` `. (period)` — Step forward one frame. ```bash Press . to advance frame by frame ``` `< / >` — Slow down / speed up playback. ```bash Press > to increase playback speed ``` `q / Escape` — Quit the animation viewer. ```bash Press q or Escape to close ``` `F1` — Open the built-in help menu. ```bash Press F1 for keyboard shortcuts reference ``` ## Common Patterns `convert -delay 20 frames/*.png animation.gif && animate animation.gif` — Create an animation from frames and immediately preview it. ```bash convert -delay 20 render-*.png preview.gif && animate preview.gif ``` `animate -delay 50 -loop 0 -resize 50% *.png` — Preview frames at half size with slow playback. ```bash animate -delay 50 -loop 0 -resize 50% timelapse-*.png ``` `animate -coalesce -delay 10 animation.gif` — Fix and speed up an optimized GIF for preview. ```bash animate -coalesce -delay 10 animation.gif ``` ## Conclusion animate is a pure preview tool with no destructive risk: it shows your image sequences but never alters files. For everyday use `-delay`, `-loop`, `-resize` and `-coalesce` are usually all you need, the last one playing optimized GIFs back cleanly. Keep in mind that animate opens a graphical X11 window – on a headless server without a display it simply does nothing; there you are better off using `convert`/`magick` for processing or copying the file to a workstation. Under ImageMagick 7, `magick animate` is the recommended invocation. ## Further Reading - [ImageMagick: animate](https://imagemagick.org/script/animate.php) – official reference for animate and all its options - [ImageMagick: Command-line Tools](https://imagemagick.org/script/command-line-tools.php) – overview of all ImageMagick command-line utilities ## Related Commands - [display](https://www.jpkc.com/db/en/cheatsheets/images-media/display/) – view and interactively inspect single images in an X11 window - [convert](https://www.jpkc.com/db/en/cheatsheets/images-media/convert/) – convert, resize and build animations from image frames - [montage](https://www.jpkc.com/db/en/cheatsheets/images-media/montage/) – combine multiple images into a contact-sheet overview