Moving Images

Images can be very moving, which is to say that images can affect us emotionally. This is probably why some have claimed that "one picture is worth a thousand words."

But we can also move images. We can make images do our bidding. One popular kind of moving image is called animation. Animation is based on a sequence of equal-sized frames that create the illusion of movement when we flip through them. Digital technology makes animation a relatively simple process. One of the simplest forms of animation for the web is the animated GIF, which is a layered image that will perform as a moving image without any special player.


For example this animation of a piano was taken off of the web. It is comprised of seven layers that loop endlessly. There are hundreds of thousands, maybe by now millions, of such animated gifs freely available for downloading. Be careful through, too many animations on a page can be distracting and even down-right annoying.

For our purposes, we will make an animated gif from our previous project in morphing original image into other versions through the use of filters. If we stack those images as frames, we can make an animated gif because the images are all the same size. However, since those were jpg images, we have to convert them into gifs. You can see some examples of animated gifs on our class website.

Try making an animated gif page (ani.html), and create an animated gif using Gif Animator for Windows or GifBuilder for Mac. Both applications are free and can be downloaded from the internet. Eventually, you will add music to your animated gif. Have the animation loop for a finite number of times. You can make as many animations as you want, but post at least one that will be coordinated with sound as you learn to edit digital audio.