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ORIGIN

GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format and it was developed by a team of computer scientists at CompuServe, led by Steve Wilhite in 1987. The format used a compression algorithm called Lempel-Ziv-Welch, which allowed detailed, coloured images to be saved on a computer without taking up too much space. The algorithm simplified an image’s patterns and shortened them without trimming any data. Initially, the GIF was mostly used for still images, however what made it unique to other image formats was its ability to store multiple versions of an image and flip between them in a loop in order to create an animation. Image source: giphy.com

PRONUNCIATION

Image source: tenor.com One of the biggest debates surrounding the GIF would probably be regarding the pronunciation of the term. Despite the original creators of the GIF clarifying that the word uses a soft g sound - mimicking the American peanut butter brand Jif - the majority of the public insists on using the hard g sound. The debate became so wide-spread that shows like Jeopardy! and even The White House had their own contributions.

MEMES

The GIFs contribution to meme culture is one that cannot be ignored. One of the first viral videos on the internet dates back to the mid 1990s and it is known either as “The Dancing Baby” or “Baby Cha-Cha”. The GIF itself shows a 3D-rendered animation of a dancing baby in front of a black background. The animation was created by a team of artists working for Unreal Pictures - a company started by Michael Girard and Susan Amkraut - that was tasked with developing a series of sample animations for a project named “Biped”. It was later converted into a GIF format and spread online. Image source: gifer.com

GIPHY

GIPHY is an online database and search engine that stores a large variety of GIFs from across the internet. GIPHY also allows users to create their own GIFs from videos they upload, by transforming them into the right format. This is probably the easiest and quickest way to create a GIF in the current day.

MY ATTEMPTS AT USING GIPHY:

PNG GIF

Another type of GIF type combines the format with the PNG - an image format with a transparent background. This style creates an even more seamless factor to the GIF, allowing the animated image to blend into any background or page.

MY ATTEMPTS AT PNG GIFS:

To create the GIFs I used an editing software called GIMP and drew each individual frame of the animation. These were then exported into the GIF format. To make the process quicker I settled for small, pixel-art animations.