GIFs are just a part of life now, and form a new and innovative
part of editorial illustration. They are more compelling than a static photo
and more immediate than Web video, the animated is a uniquely digital mode of
conveying ideas and emotion. There is no limitation to the content of a GIF, there are GIFs created
based on fashion GIFs 'Reed and Rader' and arty GIFs 'If We Don't, Remember Me', and there are artists who make psychedelic GIFs Mr. Div and people who keep GIF personal
journals Gif Diary.
 |
| Fig 1 Rebecca Mock- Main Street Blues- New York Times |
Below are are few of the advantages in using animated GIFs
for editorial illustration.
- GIFs are simple to make using an animation program and a series of images.
- They do not require your web browser to have a plug-in, Flash animations require the user’s computer to have the necessary plug-ins installed but GIFs are treated as normal images.
- Gifs have lossless compression so that the file size can be reduced without too much distortion.
- Animated GIFs have a relatively small file size, Flash files often have very large files and can slow a website down.
- GIFs are easy to use when creating a webpage, no special coding of formatting is required when adding a GIF to a webpage as they are normal image files.
- And they are supported by all web browsers, there are very few web browsers that will not support animated GIFs.
But they do have disadvantages:
- They have a maximum colour depth of 256 bit, Other image and animation formats have much larger bit depths but 265 bit is normally well suited to a webpage.
- They can slow a webpage down, If large numbers of them are used on a webpage it can take a very long time for them all to load.
- The often have a pixelated appearance reducing the overall quality.
- GIFs use of ‘Dithering’ to prevent harsh colour contrast restricts how much the file can be compressed, this takes up quite a lot of file space and therefore restricting how much the can be compressed.
- Too few frames in the animation results in a jerky animation
- If not done well they can make a website visually unappealing, If they are not used well or too many are used the can give the site an unprofessional look.
- GIFs can only be used on a digital platform, which may limited its readers and viewings, rather than an image being printed in a publication.
For my GIF I took inspiration from Rebecca Mock a
freelance illustrator and comic book artist from Brooklyn. Her past freelance
clients The New Yorker, NY Times, Time, BBC Radio, Nautilus, Medium.com,
Reader's Digest, Fullbright, HBO, and Jet Blue.
 |
| Fig 2 Rebecca Mock- Summering Reading 2013 (cover), The Walrus |
Unlike some GIFs which are rather rash Mock has a very
subtle and sophisticated style. Sometimes the only thing moving in the whole
image is a flashing light on a laptop, or the endless sideways scroll of an
iPad. Mock as well as Aude Van Ryn editorial illustrators often illustration
the world of business, the idea of not having enough time in this busy digital
world, so I thought I would have a go at creating my own GIFF based around this
concept that we see daily.
 |
| Fig 3 Rebecca Mock- Art History Final (art poster), JStor |
I started out my drawing some simple items that you would
find in an office, using Photoshop. This would become my basic/static images
for my GiF.
I then started to animate, by copying my base layer and
changing/ adding items like the envelope appearing, and messages appearing on
the phone. I repeated this several times until I was satisfied, to make the
animated smoother through the transition between the last and the first image I
decided to invert the images and repeat them in reverse order so that the items
disappeared.
I then again using Photoshop converted the layers into frames and
made a looped animation, which I exported as a GIF file.
I am overall pleased with the outcome, I think that the
pastel colours work well, as inspired by Aude Van Ryn subtle colour scheme. I
have also enhanced my digital and technological understanding as well as increased
by knowledge about how GIFF file work, and how they could potentially increase
the visual appearance of some of my online platforms
Image References
Fig 1-rebecca mock//rmmock@gmail.com. (2016). Illustration/gifs. [online]
Fig 2-rebecca mock//rmmock@gmail.com. (2016). Illustration/gifs. [online]
Fig 3-rebecca mock//rmmock@gmail.com. (2016). Illustration/gifs. [online]
Bibliography
- Animation. (2016). Advantages and Limitations of GIFs. [online] Available at: https://stories4all9858180.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/advantages-and-limitations-of-gifs/ [Accessed 17 Nov. 2016].
- Gifdiary.com. (2016). Dear Gif Diary. [online] Available at: http://gifdiary.com [Accessed 17 Nov. 2016].
- ItsNiceThat. (2016). Articles/refecca-mock. [online] Avaliable at http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/rebecca-mock
- Iwdrm.tumblr.com. (2016). IF WE DON'T, REMEMBER ME.. [online] Available at: http://iwdrm.tumblr.com [Accessed 17 Nov. 2016].
- Mrdiv.tumblr.com. (2016). [online] Available at: http://mrdiv.tumblr.com [Accessed 17 Nov. 2016].
- rebecca mock//rmmock@gmail.com. (2016). Illustration/gifs. [online] Available at: http://rebeccamock.com/illustrationgifs.html [Accessed 17 Nov. 2016].
- Reedandrader.com. (2016). REED + RADER: Pamela Reed and Matthew Rader. [online] Available at: http://www.reedandrader.com [Accessed 17 Nov. 2016].
No comments:
Post a Comment