bogusnbananas

[jaunty skiff]

Please be patient

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[dapper sentinel]

The gérondif is used for simultaneity. For example:
« Émilie continuait à faire ses tâches tout en étant calme. (Émilie continued to do her work all while being calm.) »
Here, we have two actions: Émilie doing her tasks and Émilie being calm. To show simultaneity, we use the gérondif.

The participe présent has a few uses. It's most common is replacing a clause.
The first is a subjective clause. The participe présent can be reworded as « qui [verbe] ».
« Émilie, étant fatiguée, s'endort. (Émilie, being tired, falls asleep.) »
Here, « étant fatiguée » represents « qui est fatiguée » :
« Émilie, qui est fatiguée, s'endort. (Émilie, who is tired, falls asleep.) »
The second is a circumstantial clause which just means a clause used to add background information.
« Étant fatiguée, Émilie décide de revenir chez elle dès que possible. (Being tired, Émilie decides to go home as soon as possible.) »
Here, « étant fatiguée » describes Émilie's 'reasoning' or 'circumstances' which led her to going home. We can reformulate « étant fatiguée » as « puisque/parce qu'elle est fatiguée » to give us:
« Puisque/**Parce qu'**elle est fatiguée, Émilie décide de revenir chez elle dès que possible. (Since/Because she is tired, Émilie decides to go home as soon as possible.) »

There are other types of circumstantial clauses but honestly none come to mind rn

[silk hawk]

is the meaning different at all?

it seems like just the usage of being an adv. vs. an adj. is different