Win One for the (Animated) Giffer?

Early this morning, just as the sun was rising.
I saw a little tweet that prompted me to rise.
Off to the kitchen,
Out came the Cheerios,
Next thing that I knew an Animated GIF was done.
(Sing in a robust voice to the tune of Early One Morning while accompanying yourself on the  recorder.)

Here is the exchange which initiated this little early morning creativity:

That was a productive early morning. Two blog posts, a bowl of cheerios, and a coffee. Soon I'll be running again #anewbava

— Jim Groom (@jimgroom) August 28, 2012

which then prompted this subsequent exchange:

@DrGarcia Exactly, I am definitely losing my mojo

— Jim Groom (@jimgroom) August 28, 2012

All this talk of Cheerios and MoJo had me up and in the kitchen, and posting a picture in response:.

“Cheerios — Get Your MoJo !!” by aforgrave, on Flickr

The posted Cheerios — Get Your MoJo !! instagram, however, was only one of a series of pictures taken during the setup, and so it seemed like a natural opportunity to make an animated GIF.  The iPhone, however, had been out of power at the time, and so the images had been taken using the iPad camera. What app did I have that could make an animated GIF? 

Turns out, I couldn’t easily find one, so I searched the iTunes Store and selected Giffer Pro for 99 cents. Here is the resulting product.

CheeriosMoJoANIMATED.gif made with Giffer Pro on the iPad

In hindsight, using a tripod to minimize extraneous movement would be very helpful — similar to when making a stop motion. Finding a good bracket/tripod setup for the iPad should be a little project for the fall. But the Giffer Pro app did allow me to pan and zoom images (provided the images were selected and inserted into the timeline one at a time) and let me adjust the timing by individual frame, but I couldn’t seem to get the Onion Skinning to work, which would have been helpful. It may only work if you use the camera from within the app. (In my case, I’d taken the pictures and was adding them from the Camera Roll.)

The app includes a link to a support/suggestions page, where the developers have replied to suggestions and seem to be very keen on supporting the product. I’m looking forward to exploring the app further.

Source for Notes.gif above