Try using one of the most obscure methods of UIImageView
.
UIImageView *myImageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:...];
myImageView.animationImages = images;
myImageView.animationDuration = 3.0 * images.count;
[self.view addSubview:myImageView];
Then, when you wanna start animating
[myImageView startAnimating];
I don't know what you plan on doing with this, but 3 seconds might be too much. If you're doing some sort of presentation-ish, then this method might not be very good, since there's no easy way of going back.