1. A computer-implemented method comprising: detecting, by a computing system, a trigger to initiate at least one of a pixelation animation or a depixelation animation for a media content item; generating, by the computing system, a set of pixelated images based on a source image associated with the media content item, wherein each pixelated image in the set of pixelated images has a greater image pixel size than the source image; determining, by the computing system, variable durations for presenting the set of pixelated images; and presenting, by the computing system, the set of pixelated images in a particular order, based on the variable durations, to produce the at least one of the pixelation animation or the depixelation animation, wherein the set of pixelated images is presented in an order of increasing pixel size of each pixelated image to produce the pixelation animation and the set of pixelated images is presented in an order of decreasing pixel size of each pixelated image to produce the depixelation animation.