Pillow is a powerful Python library for image processing tasks. It provides the ImageDraw module, which allows you to create and modify images. In this tutorial, we will explore how to create and modify animated images using Pillow’s ImageDraw module.

Installation

Before we start, make sure you have Pillow installed. You can install it using pip with the following command:

pip install pillow

Creating an Animated Image

To create an animated image, we need to use the ImageSequence module of Pillow. This module allows us to create a sequence of images that will be displayed in a loop, creating the illusion of animation.

Here’s an example of how to create a simple animated image using Pillow:

from PIL import Image, ImageSequence

# Create a new image with a black background
image = Image.new("RGB", (500, 500), "black")

# Create a list to store the frames of the animation
frames = []

# Create a frame for each desired animation state
for i in range(10):
    # Create a new frame
    frame = image.copy()

    # Draw something on the frame
    draw = ImageDraw.Draw(frame)
    draw.rectangle([(i * 50, i * 50), ((i + 1) * 50, (i + 1) * 50)], fill="white")

    # Add the frame to the list of frames
    frames.append(frame)

# Save the frames as an animated GIF
frames[0].save("animation.gif", save_all=True, append_images=frames[1:], optimize=False, duration=200, loop=0)

In this example, we create a black image with a size of 500x500 pixels. Then, we loop through a range of 10, creating a frame for each animation state. Each frame is created by copying the original image, drawing something on it using the ImageDraw module, and adding it to the list of frames.

Finally, we save the frames as an animated GIF using the save method of the first frame. The save_all parameter ensures that all frames are included in the animated GIF, the append_images parameter specifies the frames to append after the first frame, the optimize parameter disables optimization of the GIF, the duration parameter sets the duration of each frame in milliseconds, and the loop parameter sets the number of times the animation should loop (0 means infinite looping).

Modifying an Animated Image

Once we have an animated image, we can modify it by applying various transformations to each frame. For example, we can rotate, resize, or apply filters to the frames to create different effects.

Here’s an example of how to modify an animated image by rotating each frame:

from PIL import Image, ImageSequence

# Open the animated image
image = Image.open("animation.gif")

# Create a list to store the modified frames
modified_frames = []

# Iterate through each frame
for frame in ImageSequence.Iterator(image):
    # Rotate the frame by 45 degrees clockwise
    modified_frame = frame.rotate(-45)

    # Add the modified frame to the list
    modified_frames.append(modified_frame)

# Save the modified frames as a new animated GIF
modified_frames[0].save("modified_animation.gif", save_all=True, append_images=modified_frames[1:], optimize=False, duration=200, loop=0)

In this example, we open an existing animated GIF using Pillow’s open method. Then, we iterate through each frame using the Iterator function of the ImageSequence module. Inside the loop, we rotate each frame by 45 degrees clockwise using the rotate method and add the modified frame to the list of modified frames.

Finally, we save the modified frames as a new animated GIF using the save method of the first modified frame, with the same parameters as before.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have explored how to create and modify animated images using Pillow’s ImageDraw module. We have seen how to create an animated image by creating a sequence of frames and saving them as an animated GIF. We have also learned how to modify an existing animated image by applying transformations to each frame.

Pillow provides many other features for image processing and manipulation. If you want to learn more about Pillow, check out the official documentation.