I recently created a couple of nature-themed animated GIFs. (Click the images to view larger.)
The first image is a blossoming tree. I thought the tree looked pretty, but I realized that part of the beauty came from the gentle swaying in the wind. So I decided to animate the image.
To do this, I snapped a quick series of photos. Then, I used GIMP to reduce unwanted noise and scale them down. Finally, I saved the images as a looping animated GIF. The result takes a while to load, and seems kind of jerky, so I'm not sure whether I like it.
My next image is a late snowstorm. In many snowstorm photos it is difficult to tell the difference between the falling snow and the already-fallen snow. Again, an animated image seemed necessary.
In this case, however, a series of photos wasn't quick enough, so I took a video instead. I then grabbed a sequence of 10 still frames from the video. Again using GIMP, I scaled them down and saved as a GIF.
The problem with animated images like this is that they take longer to load than regular photos. With GIFs, sometimes the animation doesn't begin for a few seconds. Maybe in a few years, with faster internet connections and faster devices, this will become more common.
Is it worth it? Comment below!
The first image is a blossoming tree. I thought the tree looked pretty, but I realized that part of the beauty came from the gentle swaying in the wind. So I decided to animate the image.
To do this, I snapped a quick series of photos. Then, I used GIMP to reduce unwanted noise and scale them down. Finally, I saved the images as a looping animated GIF. The result takes a while to load, and seems kind of jerky, so I'm not sure whether I like it.
My next image is a late snowstorm. In many snowstorm photos it is difficult to tell the difference between the falling snow and the already-fallen snow. Again, an animated image seemed necessary.In this case, however, a series of photos wasn't quick enough, so I took a video instead. I then grabbed a sequence of 10 still frames from the video. Again using GIMP, I scaled them down and saved as a GIF.
The problem with animated images like this is that they take longer to load than regular photos. With GIFs, sometimes the animation doesn't begin for a few seconds. Maybe in a few years, with faster internet connections and faster devices, this will become more common.
Is it worth it? Comment below!
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Its sometimes worth it, but having ALL the images on your site be GIFs is kind of annoying. BUT having a " GIF special feature" every once in a while will make your viewers get exited. And they will keep reading and suggest it to there friends!
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting! Sounds like a good idea - I'll definitely think about that.
Delete*their :)
ReplyDeleteThe swaying of the blossoms also brings the picture to life, and my brain interprets it more in 3D. It did take a while though to notice the movement, and it helped to right click and open the full size image in a new window.
ReplyDelete