GIFestivus 2012

And so it begins.

GIFestivus 2012 is underway.

At least that’s what I’m calling it.  Grant Potter is also using GIFestivus, and he’s already at the 6th Day of GIFestivus, but Alan Levine said the official announcement would go out today (Wednesday the 18th) and he might be calling it the ds106 GIFest. Regardless of what it’s called, there is a little holiday GIF cheer going around the ds106 community, and I’m going to see if I can learn a few things while playing along, and making some art, dagnabbit.

You likely know already that the Oxford Dictionary USA named GIF as its Word of the Year for 2012, that this was the year that the humble GIF turned 25 years old, and that there were a variety of celebrations around the world for this web-page-annoyance-now-turned-artform (Moving the Still, on Tumblr, on Paddle8.)

Here’s what I have reviewed this evening, with a focus on the following:

1. selecting a clip that might work as an animated GIF.
2. importing and limiting the number of frames.
3. copying and reversing frames to produce a seamless GIF (no forward and backward option in Photoshop, it would appear).
4. adjusting the frame timing to something that seems to work.

Et voila!

The Saint, with his halo, from “The Wonderful War”

This GIF is not part of any specific assignment or seasonal theme. It is simply an experiment for reviewing a few things necessary before I embark on this travail. I was looking to get something that works in the cinematic GIF / living movie stills category, as wonderfully illustrated on IWDRM: If We Don’t, Remember Me. My GIF above is from the pre-opening scene of the old TV favourite, The Saint, episode The Wonderful War.

Next up is to sort out the process of editing the individual images within the animation — presumably this means adjusting the specific layers prior to making the frames. And I’m also going to spend some time learning about masking. I’m hoping to post a modified version of this GIF tomorrow, after some sleep.

In the meantime, if you’re looking to follow along with GIFestivus2012, you might want to check out the following link:

DS106 Animated GIF assignments

There’s nothing like being animated!
It sure beats being unanimated.