So I stumbled upon gifwich's promise of having your gif animation viewed within time square just an hour ago and thought "man, I'll bet $5 someone is going to sneak in a subtle hello.jpg reference." Then it dawned on me, I could be that someone. Documentation of my mad struggle for internets victory follows that you may gain wisdom from it brave squires.

Step 1: Step 1: Gather Your Supplies

Timing is of the essence. Head to the local pharmacy's post Christmas sales bin and picked up what you lack of the following:

Painters tape
Blinkie silver ribbon
Hobby knife
Scissors
Poster board
Large Cardboard box
New Year's Eve appropriate wrapping paper.
Projector
Laptop

Step 2: Step 2: the Words

First, type up your message, preferably with a relatively round orientation reminiscent of a certain prank jpeg well known around these parts. Choose a friendly, welcoming, seasonal font that will fly under the radar for most. Then, adjust projector until desired image size is reached, fix your poster board over the image, and trace that lettering as quickly as you can. Make it pretty with the right balance of professionalism and down home flair.

Step 3: Step 3: Readying the Package

When finished tracing your lettering, go back over you letters for any rough spots and to add a little flair. Here a starbust design was added to complement the image and fill some of the negative space. Next, affix your poster to a large cardboard box via painter's tape and cover the front of the box completely with wrapping paper. Score a small rip pattern into the front of the box with your hobby knife and hide via ribbon bow.

Step 4: Step 4: Film

Set up even, warm lighting for that old timey flair and mount a video camera in front via tripod for a close, full frame view of the action. Quickly edit your clip, cropping to the appropriate action and with transitions as desired.

You should get something like this:

Step 5: Step 5: Giffing It

Now that the image is done, you'll need a gif to increase your viral post potential. As a high resolution image is not needed, simply pause the video at desirable frames, capturing, cropping, and saving screen snapshots as individual images. Then upload your images to gifninja.com and arrange in order before finalizing the animation.

Step 6: Step 6: Spread It

That's it, you're done! Now the burden falls upon you to spread your good work. Hit image posts, facebook, twitter, popular how to websites, whatever you like.

Good luck and godspeed ye merry pranksters, happy new year!