While there are plenty of animated gif players, none of them allow you to control the animated gifs like a slide show. This guide will show you how to build 2 different Animated Gif Players that allow you to control the speed and direction with a rotary encoder based on the hardware you have available. Build one yourself and join the Rotary Gif club!

In the first one, the Mini PiTFT Player, is an Animated Gif Player that is similar to the Gif Player in the PiTFT Python + Pillow Animated Gif Player guide and is in fact based on the animated Gif player from that guide. However, the code has been modified to be controlled by a rotary encode that can be connected easily by STEMMA QT.

In the second player, the PyGame Player, is a similar player that uses the Official Raspberry Pi 7" Display and a Rotary Trinkey. This version uses PyGame to create a full-sized window on a desktop version of Raspberry Pi.

Parts

You'll need the following parts for both. Any of the Raspberry Pi 4 models should work fine.

Mini PiTFT Player Parts

PyGame Player Parts

These parts are more optional since it could be run on an external monitor, but it tidies up everything.

Because the Smarti Pi display orients the Trinkey with the knob in the rear, you may want to also pick up a short USB extension cable.