One of the things that I am incredibly happy about in the last couple years is the return of the GIF as an image format that is appreciated and shared by so many people. This 2012 article from NJ.com explains what GIFS are, why they went away, and how they have come back in a more concise way than I could. I want to focus on one project using animated GIFs that I think is pretty phenomenal.
This piece was created by Rino Stefano Tagliafierro and incorporates the use of renaissance paintings that were taken into Adobe After Effects, animated and turned into GIFS that were then put together as a film that spanned the topic of life and death. It is an amazing and beautiful use of a medium that is more often than not used for humor and frivolity.
As producers we have tools at our disposal that give us a wide range of capabilities to tell story and connect with an audience. As with all things that we do going forward, we must know which tool to use and how best to utilize it. Telling story with GIFs is much like approaching a topic with photos, you’re story will only be as strong as the ability to get the story across visually, and like a photo spread when you tie many images together in a cohesive format you can make a powerful and beautiful statement.
GIFs are fun (just don’t ask people how to say the word, the two camps are violently opposed to each other on the actual way the word is to be said) and they can be used as Tagliafierro has done to add new elements to classic static images which can change our perception of the original artwork, in my opinion embracing these old-come-new methods of image sharing is absolutely