animating library collections with gifs
TRANSCRIPT
• Introductions and handouts
By the end of this session you will:• know what a GIF is• have learnt how to make a GIF• appreciate how to use GIFs effectively by
yourself and for your institution
Simple answer: GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format.
Slightly more complicated answer:It’s a type of image format that can be a single static image or a moving image. It can be compressed to a small size but still support up to 256 colours.
Think of them as short, silent and looping films…
• Invented in 1987, and updated in 1989 to allow animation, transparency and metadata
• Compatible with all browsers since 1994• Edged out of the static image market by JPEG and PNG• Fell out of favour for a bit because of Geocities tackiness
• Naff GIFs were among the first memes of the internet.
• The rise of Web 2.0 and videos didn’t kill GIFs – in fact, the rising popularity of video and YouTube just created even more material for GIFs.
• Tumblr became the home of GIFs, but Buzzfeed perfected their use as narrative tools.
• Shareable– Most social media platforms now have GIF Search functions
• Relatable– GIFs are off-the-shelf emotions, thoughts and reactions– People can reference pop culture and famous scenes easily
• ‘Of the moment’– Sometimes a GIF is the perfect reaction to an event,
comment, or…anything. See www.reddit.com/r/retiredgifs• Convenient
– GIFs play in every browser and every social media platform
• Shareable– Most social media platforms now have GIF Search functions
• Relatable– GIFs are like off-the-shelf emotions and thoughts– People can reference pop culture and famous scenes easily
• ‘Of the moment’– A perfect GIF is the perfect reaction to an event, comment,
or anything. See www.reddit.com/r/retiredgifs• Convenient
– GIFs play in every browser and every social media platform
• Used by everyone; companies and individuals
• Entire conversations can be had with GIFs
• A new visual communication with its own unwritten conventions and styles
• Old-fashioned search engines. Use a Google Image search for anything, and add ‘gif’ to the end
• Go to the source, search within– Giphy.com– Imgur.com– Tumblr.com
• The GIF searches available on Twitter and Tumblr (and kind of Facebook…)
• On your computer! Save your GIFs in one place so you don’t have to repeat searches.
• Facebook – link from Giphy.com or Imgur.com• Twitter (5MB limit)• Tumblr (2MB limit)• Pinterest (but you have to click on it)• Blogs
In conversation
To punctuate or soften a message
To make a message less boring
To bring collections to life through manipulation
To bring collections and your work to life
To bandwagon and bring in more followers
• The Bodleian’s most popular Facebook post.• GIFs have featured among our top posts for
Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr for the past three months.
• Consistently positive feedback from our followers.
• The quiet satisfaction of being ‘on trend’…
• COPYRIGHT• Ethics• Tone– Make sure you use GIFs responsibly. We use
‘reaction’ GIFs sparingly, as it could damage our brand.
• GIFs aren’t a silver bullet, they’re just another way to communicate.
• Task 1: Creating a stop-frame animation using photographs on:– Gifmaker.me– GIMP
• Task 2: Making an animated title using GIMP
Links• Smithsonian Libraries guide to GIFs:
– https://blog.library.si.edu/2014/02/library-hacks-creating-animated-gifs/
• How to make GIFs using Photoshop:– http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/how-to-make-an-animated
-gif/
– https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/how-to/make-animated-gif.html• Online gifmakers:
– http://ezgif.com/maker– http://gifcreator.me/– http://gifmaker.me/
• Easily create a gif from an online video:– http://imgur.com/vidgif/