Looks like a nice idea. Here's my two cents:

1. It's a bit hard for me to tell when the GIF starts or loops, specially when I try to read the text below it. Perhaps there could be some small delay at the end, or a progress indicator?

2. Could you possibly make the next/previous arrows regular links (with return false or whatever is used to prevent it from reloading the page)? I'm in a setup where using the mouse is awkward, and I can't reach that arrow using only the keyboard.