Stop Animations is a Chrome add-on developed by craig.francis. It is a free tool that aims to eliminate distracting animations while you read. With this add-on, you can stop GIFs, Flash, and even JavaScript animations with a simple press of the escape key [esc]. Pressing the escape key again will restore the animations.

One of the key features of Stop Animations is its ability to change the shortcut. By going to chrome://extensions/shortcuts, you can customize the shortcut according to your preference.

The add-on works by taking a screenshot and layering it over the page, effectively stopping the animations. However, it is worth noting that it cannot capture a full screenshot, as mentioned in the crbug reportAs a result, the add-on re-updates the screenshot when you scroll or resize the window.