Go online and visit the site LunaPic (see Resources). LunaPic offers free resources to edit and animate photos.
Click "Browse" to add a photo you would like to animate, then click "Upload Now." Your photo will appear with several options for editing it. Click on "Animation" to animate your photo, then select a style in the animation screen. You will see choices such as "Transition Effects," "Reflecting Water," "Rotating Cube" and "Sparkles Effect."
Select an animation effect and preview your image. If you choose "Rotating Cube" or another option that requires more than one picture, you will be asked to upload another image. Upload another photo if prompted. Once you have the animation effects you want, save your image by clicking one of the links beneath it. Save options include "Your Computer," "LunaPic Account," "Email," "MySpace," "Twitter," "Picasa," "Facebook" and "ImageShack."
Go to the site Online Image Editor and scroll down to the label "To start uploading a picture now." Note that the animation options work only if your picture is larger than 250 pixels by 250 pixels. Check the box next to "Resize during upload to" and select the percentage from the drop-down menu to the right of that. Click the "Upload" button at the bottom of the page. You will see your image displayed on a new page with button options above it.
Place your mouse pointer on the navigation button that says "Effects" at the top of the page. Select "Add Animated Mask," "Start Stars Wizard," "Start Glitter Wizard" or "Start Animation Wizard" to add an animation to your photo. If you choose the latter, you will be prompted to upload more photos. For the latter three options, scroll down the page to choose an animation effect, then scroll back up to choose a percentage from the "Set the fuzz" option, and select a choice from "Set fill type." Click "Create My Animation" at the large button link below.
Go to the "File" button at the top of the next page and scroll down to "Save." You will be brought to a new page that gives you a choice of either saving your animation to your computer's hard drive or to ImageShack.
Open a graphics add-on program to your computer (Corel Animation Shop works best for adding animations).
Go to "Effects" and select "Apply Image Effect." From the drop-down menu, you will see a variety of choices of animation effects, including "Posterize," "Fade to Grey," "Gaussian Blur" and "Scratches. Experiment by selecting different effects until you see one you like best, then select that one.
Go back to "Effects" and choose "Insert Image Effect." Select the "Effect Length" with how many seconds you would like the effect to show and set the number for how many frames per second it should last, then click "OK."
Right-click on your image and select "Animation Properties," then choose the "Looping" tab. Make sure the "Repeat the Animation Indefinitely" option is selected and click "OK."
Right-click on the image again and select "View Animation" to preview your work. Save your picture by going to "File" and "Save As," then choosing a new name for your animated image. The default file extension in Animation Shop is .gif, which is what you want when creating an animated picture.