animated gif
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The animated GIF as art: Google puts six loopy images on display
It's easy to sneer at the idea of artists piggybacking on the GIF craze, but Google is taking the whole thing pretty seriously, especially now that Google+ supports the animated file format. The search giant is collaborating with the Saatchi Gallery in West London to host a number of looped moving images, displayed on giant TV screens, which it feels are worthy of public recognition. There's a hint of competitiveness, as a panel of judges (including His Artiness, Baz Luhrmann) will select a single winning GIF tonight. In the meantime, we've embedded the finalists from six different image categories after the break, ranked according to how much we like them and whether any of the artists are mates of ours.
PBS traces the history of animated GIFs: deal with it (video)
PBS's Off Book has a new short doc available online called Animated GIFs: The Birth of a Medium which, as you may have guessed, traces the history and evolution of the animated GIF over the course of a very informative six and a half minutes. The makers don't settle the dispute over pronunciation (and, really, who could), but they do mine its origins as relic of internet eras past to a post-modern staple of web 2.0 culture. We could tell you more, but that would just ruin the fun. Head on after the break to watch the episode in full.
NY Public Library turns stereographs into animated GIFs, reminds your 3D TV of its roots
Digging your 3D TVs, video game consoles and laptops? Thank the past -- the New York Public Library is here to remind you that streographic entertainment has been blowing minds for over 100 years, and has the animated gifs to prove it. The Library recently introduced Stereogranimator, a web app that taps into the institution's large collection of historical stereographs and allows user to convert them into wiggling GIF animations and 3D anaglyphs. The program was inspired by "Reaching for the Out of Reach," a manual labor of animated stereographs started by San Francisco artist Joshua Heineman. The library currently has over 40,000 pairs of stenographic images just begging to be converted to depth-suggesting wigglepic. Interested? The link is below, friends -- go ahead and create your own psudeo-3D view of history. Too lazy to make your own? Fine, read on for a shaky and colorful look at an orange tree.
3frames brings animated GIF creation to the iPhone
Animated GIFs, the bane of many flashy websites circa the mid-to-late '90s, have made a comeback thanks to resurging popularity on places such as Tumblr. Jumping on the revival bandwagon is 3frames, a US$2.99 app that lets you use your iPhone or iPod touch to create animated gifs. The app features a "burst mode," similar to what sports photographers use to capture rapid action, which will let you catch several frames of footage quickly. In fact, you can grab up to 10 shots in a row very easily, which can make for some pretty interesting animated gif compositions. Edit the footage using the in-app editor and unleash it on the world via Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr. [via The New York Times]
Visualized: 37 years of Roland synths in one awesome animated GIF
You know how much we love our vintage MIDI gear, and apparently our friend Ronny from Das Kraftfuttermischwerk is every bit as big a fan as we are. To that end, he's taken Music Radar's recent guide to all-things Roland and turned it into an awesome (and headache-inducing) animated GIF. Apparently the collection lacks the TR and TB series instruments, otherwise everything the company has produced between 1973 and 2010 should be there. What are you waiting for? Check it out after the break.
