About OLED Display Animation Maker

By Ashish · oledanimationmaker.com · Free for makers & educators

OLED Display Animation Maker is a free, browser-based tool at oledanimationmaker.com that helps you create animations for Arduino and other microcontrollers with small monochrome OLED screens. Instead of manually converting images to hex arrays and writing playback loops from scratch, you pick a template, draw or import frames, preview the result, and download ready-to-flash code.

Who built this?

I’m Ashish, a maker and educator working with Arduino, ESP32, and WitBlox-style learning kits. I built this tool because students and hobbyists kept hitting the same wall: they could wire an SSD1306 OLED in minutes, but turning a fun idea — a loading spinner, a weather icon, a pixel face — into working animation code took hours of spreadsheet work and trial-and-error flashing.

OLED Display Animation Maker started as an internal helper for workshops and grew into a public site used by makers worldwide. The goal is simple: lower the barrier between “I have an OLED” and “my project looks alive.”

What does the tool do?

The editor runs entirely in your browser. No account, no install, and your animation projects stay on your device (saved in browser storage for “Your Animations”). Core features include:

• 100+ animation templates — weather, loaders, UI icons, faces, brands, and procedural effects like waves and radar.
• Pixel editor — pencil, shapes, fill, undo, and a multi-frame timeline with adjustable FPS.
• GIF and image import — convert animated GIFs or PNGs to 1-bit OLED bitmaps with dithering.
• Code export — Arduino C++ (Adafruit SSD1306, U8g2) or MicroPython (framebuf) with PROGMEM arrays and playback loops.
• Live hardware preview — stream frames over USB (WebSerial) or WiFi on ESP8266/ESP32.
• Wiring diagrams — interactive pin tables for Uno, Nano, Mega, ESP32, ESP8266, and Pi Pico.
• Dual OLED support — generate code for two SSD1306 displays at I²C addresses 0x3C and 0x3D.

Supported hardware

The tool targets common 128×64, 128×32, and 72×40 OLED modules using the SSD1306 or SH1106 driver over I²C. Boards supported in export presets include Arduino Uno, Nano, Mega, ESP32 DevKit, ESP8266 (NodeMCU, Wemos D1), WitPro, and Raspberry Pi Pico (MicroPython). If you are new to wiring, start with our Arduino OLED display tutorial.

How is this different from image converters?

Tools like image2cpp are excellent for turning a single picture into a byte array. OLED Display Animation Maker goes further: it is built specifically for multi-frame OLED animations. You get a timeline, FPS control, template library, SH1106 offset handling, dual-screen layouts, live preview on real hardware, and a complete sketch — not just a static bitmap header file.

For a deeper comparison, see our image to byte array guide and SSD1306 animation tutorial.

Tutorials and learning resources

The OLED Arduino blog publishes free, original step-by-step guides — not auto-generated filler. Popular articles include:

• Wireless WiFi OLED live preview — ESP8266/ESP32 without USB
• Live connect with WebSerial — real-time USB preview
• ESP32 OLED animation guide — wiring, export, and preview
• GIF to OLED Arduino — import and convert animations
• SH1106 vs SSD1306 — pick the right driver

Is it really free?

Yes. The editor, templates, export, and tutorials are free to use. The site is supported by advertising (Google AdSense) and analytics (Google Analytics) so I can keep hosting and improving the tool. See our Privacy Policy for how data is handled.

Contact and feedback

Found a bug, have a feature idea, or used the tool in a classroom project? I’d love to hear from you on the Contact page or via @oled_animator on Instagram.