save the unicorn

save the unicorn

Please donate today to help us save this magical creature

Every startup company wants to become a unicorn — a private company valued at more than $1 billion.  Unicorns are able to raise billions of dollars from investors on the speculation that they will become the next great thing.  Not us, we claim it because of our so called rare nature. We are artists looking for the freedom to create without the hassle of putting a value on said creation or letting the people with the money tell us what to do. We want to give the value of the art to the artists. To be worth everything and at the same time be worth nothing. Not like the Generally, established companies out there who's value is based on their current and future operations and financials. We want to be part of "venture capitalism" — and particularly for our unicorn — there are no existing examples to draw from because companies like us, are developing brand new ideas for which there is no precedent. The valuation is therefore often based on assumptions and opening doors to the future, in our case the power of images.  To all our donators we would like to say, 

"Welcome To The Unicorn Club!"

What is the typical cost for designing an GIF?

It depends on what?  Some clients come to me to actually solve the marketing problem, concept, write and design the motion graphic.

1. Concept work, motion graphic idea (2-3 options will be presented in comp form, client chooses one) 2-3 hours

2. Client chooses one and refine based on feedback. (Revisions shown in comp form) 1-2 hours, repeat as necessary, 1-2 hours per revision cycle, depending on nature of revisions requested.

3. Upon approval, create animation. (typically a 600x450, and the hours can vary depending on complexity of animation) 2-4 hours

4. Revisions to final. approx 1 hour, depending on nature of revisions

5. Resizing and back up gifs/jpgs. I typically estimate .25-.5 hour per resize, unless some of the resizes are so tiny that I literally have to recreate the message and design to get something that communicates the idea.

An estimate like this allows you to give a range, allows for some wiggle room. You can also point out to the client that more than one revision per stage is okay but it will cost them. 

But whatever you do, don't give ANY estimate without first discussing with the client what they want and then sitting down to really work out what it will take in terms of hours to complete the project.

There’s never been a better time to get into GIFs

GIFs offer a great way to quickly illustrate a point, statement, or quote. The medium allows for a lot of creativity. Twitter decided to up their ante on March 3, 2016 with a corporate impromptu #GIFparty to showcase the new GIF friendly ability of its site. 

With GIFs now usable across multiple social media channels and most devises, we are now seeing GIFs used everywhere! In email, blogs, as web site heroes and socially, Gifs are an elegant way to incorporate motion with out the expense of video. 

GIFs are a great way to work your product or company in a fun way or simply grab the viewers attention a little longer. We create GIFs for companies, if interested get in touch. 

Did Someone Say GIF

Today, the dynamics are that consumers have become more interested in visually-rich data because of the instant gratification and impact on the viewer.  They even prefer the use of infographics, that are graphic visual representations of information, data intended to present information quickly and clearly.

With the new capabilities of crawlers, imagery can be understood by search engines and growing in relevance. In 2016 one-third  of the web is imagery and by 2020 is predicted to be half of all web content, imagery plays a very important roll, dramatically helping with click rate.

Here is where you can combine content and visuals to create images that are shared across the web organically. SEOs are forever hunting the backlink and creating a synergy between your web content, social media, Links to authority site and sites in the community.  Helping to validate your roll on the web that adds to search results and website ranking.

Content is King

Research shows that social media is not the best place to focus most of the
up-front investment to increase website visibility.  But should be a component of other objectives.  Social media, if done correctly, gains about 10% of ranking or search page results.  What gains 40+% are links containing real web content.  The content in itself also adds 15% to search results through key words and imagery. Leveraging these factors with an audience is an ideal way to begin gaining web presence.

Gifs today

Innovation in mobile phone applications introduced in 2014 allowed a way to let anyone with a cell phone turn anything and everything they see into an animated Gif with the push of a button and publish in virtual works of communication.

They are so popular because they create connections between a subject and an audience, Gif meme popularity is not forced or created to sell something, they become popular because they connect people and their interests, are insightful, make you laugh, are that moment or countless other reasons. GIFs remain popular because they solidify a point, change an event into a moment, are a quick video like formate, they have speed, "Going Super Saiyan"

The average attention span of internet is around 8 seconds today. To make you laugh, they also measured the attention span of a gold-fish and the result was 9 seconds.  So  “Say it quick, say it well” Everyone and anyone can be heard theses day if their message catches the immediate.

Retail Store Jumping into GIFs

2013 saw major retail stores like Victoria's Secret Juicy Couture, Vogue and countless other retailer jump into the action with animated Gif advertisements. Appearing as banner ads across a range of fashion sites, sending them out via email and postings. bringing the animated GIF back into the main stream.

These images have a unique ability to brings life to an image, in turn making the entire page more inspiring, like the magical newspaper images from the Harry Potter movie.

The variety and styles of these GIFs are endless, only limited by the imagination. GIFs have found their way into the virtual works of communication.

photo-sharing GIFs

Since its spread via popular photo-sharing communities in 2012 with thousands of followers these animations have become a intrical part of the web letting people share their thoughts vision and accomplishments. Like bottom left, Brett Turcotte’s, "First-Person Snowmobile Jump.

The endless stream created at this time shows the complexity of this format through the individuals effort of expression. The diversity of this format has become endless ranging from documents.

While other individuals create an new visual imagery spawned from fantasy like the image below right by Steven Alan & Ben Boutwell.

Pronunciation: Animated GIF; ˈanəәˌmātid /ˈdʒɪf/ or ˈanəәˌmātid /ˈɡɪf/

In 2012, the word "GIF" was officially recognized as a verb as well as a noun, meaning "to create a GIF file". The United States wing of the Oxford University Press voted it their word of the year, saying that GIFs have evolved into "a tool with serious applications including research and journalism".[3][4]

The creators of the format pronounced GIF as "Jif" with a soft "G" /ˈdʒɪf/ as in "gin". Steve Wilhite says that the intended pronunciation deliberately echoes the American peanut butter brand, Jif, and CompuServe employees would often say "Choosy developers choose GIF", spoofing this brand's television commercials.[5]

An alternative pronunciation with a hard "G" /ˈɡɪf/ as in "graphics", reflecting the expanded acronym, is in widespread usage.[6] Both pronunciations are acknowledged by the Oxford English Dictionary,[7] the American Heritage Dictionary,[8] and the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.[9]

Gif Reinvigorated in 2011

The reinvigorated in 2011 of online interest in GIFs can be attributed to the availability of generator applications that require little efforts and skills to create Animated GIF. This compounded by massive increase in volume of online videos in circulation, which in turn serves as the repository for GIF-makers.

.In addtion to this, artist utilizing technique of masking effects with images with videos started to create movement specific animations that seem to capture alive moment in time.Using the technique termed  Cinemagraph.  Like in the subway Gif by Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg.

This new style of GIF, that's popularity has grown and Influences Like LeGypsy post from late 2011 of cat filing claw animation have spread around the web.  

Modern Age of Animated Gif

2009 began the modern age of Animated GIF images with advancement in editable softer. This along side its wide spread accessibility to manipulate images that could combining videos illustration or computer generated art and photography. Despite the advents of high quality video-streaming services and video-sharing communities, GIFs didn’t fade into oblivion.

The seemingly outdated image format became embraced by many users on photo-sharing platforms and social networking sites. Although still playful Animated Gif files gained sophistication through these new techniques, like an image from Happy Toast that uses photo manipulation to create a animation.

 Appearing on social media animated GIF Started use photography editing tools along with video to posted image, featuring a scene from The Shining. With the downgrade of Flash, the Animated GIF made it's way back onto mainstream websites as web banners, commonly appearing in a slideshow format.

New Advances for GIFs

Around 2007 a style of animated GIF known as a “wigglegram” began to appear.  A notable artistic image at this time was from John Fanavan's "twinkling starry night

It was created using photo manipulation software and stereoscopy techniques to make an image appear as if it was 3D.

The stereoscopic imaging was developed by interaction designer Jim Gasperin around 2002. Other artist inspired by the GIF files from 1990s and early

2000's now being parlayed into art with the help of more sophisticated software, an example of this is by David Ope: lower right. With the widening spread of video cameras to the

public most gifs at this time were viral hilarity making their way through social media and email, as this GIF coming out of France in 2007.

Sosial networks & GIFs

Since 2005, Sosial networks have become a breeding ground for GIF artists eager to take the format to new places. early examples were in general clips from video footage or still images.

At the peak of its popularity between 2004 to 2007, the GIF website became considered a major hubsite of Internet memes. However, the growth of GIF-based sites began to wane circa 2008 with the arrival of instant video-streaming sites like YouTube.

Back then the average two-minute YouTube embed would have required about 40 minutes of buffering. This left room for Paper Rad, Arcade animated GIF in 2005 to viewed the medium through prisms of kitsch, irony and nostalgia.

Most notably, celebrity videos were being used to create Animated GIF files of their own idiomatic expressions throughout the internet media.

Beginning in 2001

Big, motionless, glittering or other automatically generated graphics along with Morphing effect in photography began to appear on websites and social networks.

Inthe Pre-YouTube Era while GIF was no longer considered the staple image format by main stream and was shunned as signifiers of amateurishness in web design, the GIF at the dawn of the new century was still unique with it's auto-play and auto-loop features.

This gave rise to another widespread use in the rapidly growing world of Internet culture. In fact, some of the earliest known Internet Memes and viral media took the form of GIF animations like in 2002 Peanut Butter Jelly Time.

 Meanwhile, the indiscriminate usage of animated GIFs eventually led to its negative associations with tacky web design because of it over use. Like the over used spinning globe seen on countless website in all kinds of styles.

Gif Early Days

From its early days, the GIF had an inherent element of fun Some notable artiest in the midd 90's were Chuck Poynter, an Air Force veteran who died in 2001 left behind an eclectic

collection of clip art animations. Olia Lialina a Russian Internet artist pioneer started experimenting with the format in 1997. The first GIF she created was a photo series of an eerie looking monochromatic window .

One of the first viral gif file came out in 1996 called Dancing Baby produced by Character Studio.

1990s GIFs

1990s culture GIFs contain classic animation; the backgrounds are transparent so they can be used in many graphical contexts the most common of these were the american flag, under construction banner and all types of animated fire. Most of the animations at this time were non-photograghic.

Gif History

On June 15, 1987, Trevor and his team, which included inventor Steve Wilhite, released an enhanced version of the GIF called GIF87a. The new format allowed the creation of compressed animations using timed delays.

It wasn’t until 1994 that the GIF89a became an endlessly looping moving-image file via an additional block of code introduced with the browser Netscape 2.0. In 1998 AOL ,who had purchase Netscape that same year, allowed the GIF patents to expire, leaving the format open to the public domain.

The very first GIF depicting an airplane was presented by CompuServe in 1987. In 1989 the gif format allowed for 256 colors and endless looping as seen in one of the earliest animated gif of a macintosh computers, as shown.

Advantage of Gif

The main advantage of GIF animation is that it is incredibly simple to work with and it is automatically recognizable to most web browsers. They are typically still image with repeating movement utilizing a technique of blending effects of images, illustration and videos.

What makes Animated GIF unique is it brings life to an image making the graphic more eyecatching. This technique gives the designer a magical blend of photo and movie-like animation, creating pictures that seem almost alive gives the picture a bit of mystery and personally.

Animated Gif can become absolutely entrancing from the visually simulating glowing, pulsing, repetition of the screen.

Version GIF89a

The Animated GIFs capitalize on the Gif format's ability to contain multiple fames set into a signal file utilizing a Web Browsers or other piece of softer to play these images back in

sequence automatically. Images are introduced by its own Graphics Control Extension (GCE), assigning delay times between the rendering of the different frames. The data is

streamed so the file offset at the start of each GCE depends on the length of preceding data. Within each frame the Lempel–Ziv–Welch (LZW coded) image data is arranged in subblocks.

The size of each sub-block is declared by the byte that comes before it. Support for repeating animations with time delays and endless looping first appeared in Version GIF89a

(July, 1989) from Netscape that implement the Netscape Application Block (NAB) giving the ability to create what we now think of as the Animated GIF. In this manner, images can

appear to be animated or in a state of change. This in turn makes Animated GIF files an excellent way to present a simple concept, or just adding some eye-catching decoration to a

website.

Animated GIF

Animated GIF is coded using the Graphics Interchange Format (always shortened as GIF) is a bitmap image format widely used on the Internet for its flexible web support and

portability. The format, which supports up to 8 bits per pixel and a palette of up to 256 distinct colors for each frame, is well-suited for handling simpler images like graphics and logos

with solid color areas, while it doesn’t fare as well in reproduction of color photographs with continuous colors. GIF was one of the first two image formats commonly used on the web

and the first image format to support color display until the arrival of JPEG in 1992.