“Choosy developers choose GIF,” developer Steve Wilhite once said about the new file format when it was introduced in 1987. The catchy tagline was a riff on the then-popular JIF peanut butter commercial. Today, GIFs are ubiquitous. They are widely shared and even the news is delivered with little snippets of the compressed animation. But […]
Tag: animated gifs
Obsessive GIF Artist Al Boardman on the Importance of Personal Projects
Al Boardman, prolific GIF-creator and expert animator, has created motion graphics for an impressive list of famous brands (including Nike, IBM, and Twitter). His signature style is simple yet sophisticated, with a color palette and a smoothness that sucks the viewer in. Along with work for clients, Boardman creates tons of personal projects that gets […]
Op Art and Fizz: Illustrations and Animated GIFs by Karan Singh
Similar to the bright Hadeko fashion style in Tokyo (selecting a few basic colors and repeating them throughout the ensemble) is Karan Singh’s illustrations of repeated colors and patterns. The Aussie known for his “playful interpretation of minimalism” moved to the metropolitan prefecture of Japan and has continued working with international clients like Appy Fizz […]
Dark Matter: The Experimental Motion Graphics of Joe Street
There are days that you need to sit back, relax, and look at something soothing. But no sunsets or ocean views, we need to get a bit dark and unusual than that; like blobby molecules moving around in space and a bunch of cool explosions (indeed breaking stuff can be a form of therapy). We […]
10 GIF Artists Who Will Blow Your Mind on Ello
The animated GIF—which stands for “Graphics Interchange Format”—has been around before the advent of the World Wide Web. First introduced in 1987 by CompuServe, it was eventually adopted for use on early web pages. This was mostly crude animations that served as flashy banners, but as technology became more sophisticated, the use for the GIF […]
Mauro Gatti’s Funny (GIF) Tribute to Favorite Swear Words and More
“Fuck” and “Penis” are words that easily get censored on certain search engines and social networking sites. But even though the P word is the medical term for the external male organ, it doesn’t matter, it gets red flagged and often banned. Now the fun part is using these words in a humorous and web-animated […]
GIF Artist A. L. Crego Makes Graffiti Pieces Come to Life
In collaboration with design studio Mutante Creativo, videographer A. L. Crego created a promotional trailer for the annual outdoor art festival Rexenera in Spain. Footage included the making of massive murals by international graffiti stars Dulk, Pixel Pancho, Aryz, Bordalo II and Nómada. Not being content with just a video, Crego (also a GIF maker) […]
Subtly-Animated GIFs of Landscape Scenes by Nancy Liang
Sydney-based illustrator Nancy Liang uses dark, nearly abandoned landscapes to tell intriguing stories. Using textured papers and mixed media, she draws out social, cultural, and personal narratives. Each scene contains subtle movements like a flickering light, billowing chimney smoke, and even a floating van. These small animated details, shown in the moonlight, add a sense […]
GIF Art: Hateplow X-rays Stone Sculptures from a Past Era
To produce top level animated GIFs requires artistry like in any other art form. These 3 to 4 second motion loops can take up to 10 hours to create—photographing objects and digitally tinkering in Cinema 4D. Portland GIF maker Zack Dougherty (alias Hateplow) is an artist on the rise, capturing the interest of the web […]
Strange Ghostly Figures in Motion by Jon Jacobsen
Jon Jacobsen creates unsettling manipulations of the human body in his surreal photographic portraits. He uses animated GIFs to bring his ghoulish subjects to life, further exaggerating their pained expressions. His latest project “Insula” is a collaboration with Colombian designer Daniel Ramos Obregón, which explores how technology has become an extension of ourselves. The series […]