Animated Flip Counter GIF Generator

Generate an animated GIF of a digital flip counter styled like a classic split-flap display.

Note: This project was vibe coded with GitHub Copilot.

Features

• Flip animation from start to target integer
• Transparent background by default
• Optional white background (--background white)
• Built-in style presets (--preset classic|slate|amber|purple|light)
• No looping by default (stops on target frame)
• No reflection is rendered in output GIFs
• Configurable duration, frame rate, dimensions, and output path
• Zero-pads to the widest digit width between start and target values

Requirements

• Python 3.9+
• Pillow (install from requirements.txt)

Install

pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

python flip_counter_gif.py <start> <target> [options]

Examples

python flip_counter_gif.py 56789 89012
python flip_counter_gif.py 7 123 --duration 1.5 --fps 30 --output out.gif
python flip_counter_gif.py 42 900 --background white --width 1200 --height 500
python flip_counter_gif.py 100 999 --preset amber --output amber_style.gif
python flip_counter_gif.py 100 245 --preset slate --loop --output looping.gif
python flip_counter_gif.py 1200 9876 --preset purple --output purple_style.gif
python flip_counter_gif.py 56789 89012 --preset light --background white --output light_style.gif

Options

• start: starting integer value (>= 0)
• target: target integer value (>= 0)
• --duration: animation length in seconds, from 0.5 to 5.0 (default: 2.0)
• --fps: frames per second (default: 24)
• --background: transparent or white (default: transparent)
• --preset: classic, slate, amber, purple, or light (default: classic)
• --width: output width in pixels (default: 1200)
• --height: output height in pixels (default: 500)
• --output: output GIF path (default: counter_<start>_to_<target>.gif)
• --loop: loop forever (default: off)

Style Presets

• classic: closest match to the original dark split-flap look
• slate: cooler blue-gray styling with softer reflection
• amber: warm brown/amber styling inspired by vintage displays
• purple: vibrant purple styling inspired by Nutanix button accents
• light: light gray cards and dark gray numerals for a white-background UI look

Preset Gallery (0 to 400, Transparent)

Preset	Preview
classic
slate
amber
purple
light

Generated with:

python flip_counter_gif.py 0 400 --background transparent --preset <preset> --output samples/<preset>_0_to_400.gif

Notes

• This v1 implementation supports integers only.
• Very large ranges over short durations may skip visible intermediate values because available frames are finite.