story book thumbnails

GIF Article Response

                         I Have always viewed GIFs as a quirky yet eye catching technique to draw attention to the picture or advertisement which they are a part of.  Much like Olia, in her blog, “In memory of Chuck Poynter, user and GIF maker”, GIFs to me always have an amateur feel to them but I don’t believe this to be a negative characteristic.  I also agree with the blog author Olia that certain inconsistencies make GIFs feel all that much more original.  Olia used the single pixel on the bottom of the famous dancing girl Gif as an example of this.  Some of the most humorous online content I have seen were in the form of GIFs.  Additionally, GIFs can be effectively used as advertisements to draw the viewer’s eye over to the moving image.  After reading the articles I have even more respect and admiration for GIFs in general.  I found it interesting that GIFs existed before the internet and can appreciate Chuck Poynter’s works (and people like him) much more knowing that he started out doing them just for the love of it.  

                In today’s social landscape the GIF has retained much of its original appeal.  These simple yet poignant animations still strike the same emotions as I am sure Mr. Poynter had intended.  In 2017, GIFs still are the perfect accompaniment to a well thought out webpage.   There is no doubt in my mind that a webpage with a GIF will draw more attention than one without it.  One must be careful however not to include too many so the viewer does not get distracted.  For example, a company’s logo on the top of a webpage that is animated could be a great advertising strategy even today to reinforce the company image.  However, because of their amateur feeling nature many large companies tend not to use them.  However, if a webpage uses heading, animations, logos, and other forms of GIFs simultaneously, the webpage becomes difficult to read, as the reader can become distracted.  The blog created by Sha is a great example of this.  I found this blog very difficult to read and navigate through without being distracted.   To me, Gifs work best for informal or humorous applications, like political campaign remarks, social media posts, and other similar applications.   

                I don’t think we have seen the end of GIFs, with the small file size and appeal, they are perfect for certain applications.  It is sad that to save 24 bytes Mr. Poynter’s signature was removed from his files by ungrateful patrons, but I am glad that Mr. Poynter’s son has recreated his father’s works on a webpage so that history is preserved.  His legacy will be continued and his original works will always be the foundation for which they are built.     

Animations

Chimeras, Hybrids, and Monsters

For the Chimeras piece, I wanted a variety of characters with some of them in the sky and some on land to make it more realistic.  I chose a desert background for the Chimera and added a rock to add more depth to the photo.  I carefully chose characters that already had a white background and used the magic eraser to ensure a clean looking final product.  I resized the Chimeras to make them look proportional. When I added the rock I chose to make that larger to stand out in the desert.

          For the Hybrid piece, I chose unique and interesting Characters that would stand out.  I intentionally picked hybrids that were of two completely different species, but with similar colors.  For example, the cat/fish are two species that are as different as I could think, but the colors make it look somewhat realistic. I chose a nature scene with a wooded background so all of these interesting animals can explore the woods together. 

When Resizing the Hybrid characters I made them all about the same size except for the banana bird which is a bit bigger because I wanted it to be noticed between the trees. The rabbit/duck is larger than the rest because I wanted to imply that it is very large (even though it is in the background).  To imply the cat/dog is behind the tree, I removed the bottom of the tree to place the half cat/dog in the location then pasted the tree over top of the creature in a new layer. I also removed the middle tree closes to the right front so the banana bird would stand out.

For the monster piece I wanted to challenge myself with a different type of background.  I selected a swap background so the monsters look more realistic.  Likewise, I chose monster characters that would fit with the background, except for the one eyed green monster who works is on land instead of in the swamp.  My method for resizing the monsters is similar to the other pieces.  The monsters that are closer the front are larger and the ones that are toward the back of the landscape are smaller to show perspective.  I tried a new tool in Photoshop called “liquefy” to add some swirl effects to the water.  This helped to give the illusion of movement within the water.