Introduction to Motion Design: Animated GIFs

Animated gifs are kind of like the flipbooks of the digital age. Quick and easy to produce and distribute, but with almost endless creative possibilities, the creation of animated gifs is a great way to begin to explore both digital and traditional time based media. The popularity of animated gifs in social media and advertising, the rise of short form video sharing sites like Vine and Instagram, and the ability to easily create short animations and videos with mobile devices make this kind of "micro cinema" an important part of our contemporary media landscape.

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Project Overview

1. Photoshop Introduction

2. Storyboarding

3. Shoot your GIFs

4. Build your GIFs

5. FINAL SUBMISSION - Animated GIF Project

In this session, we'll continue to prepare for the final animated GIFs with the next step: the Storyboarding project. Your three GIF subjects will be:

1 - Human Gif

Must express a human gesture or movement
Gesture must be preformed by part or all of an actual human person
Can include other inanimate objects or props

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2 - Mechanical Gif

Must express a mechanical movement (machines, factories, devices, tools, etc)
Movement should be performed by inanimate man made objects
No humans, animals, or natural or natural-appearing objects may appear!

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3 - Natural Gif

Must express a natural movement (wind, water, sun & moon, animal movement, etc.)
Movement should be performed by natural, or natural-appearing, inanimate objects
No humans, actual animals, or man-made objects may appear!

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Assignment

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Part 1 - Create three storyboards for each of your Animated GIFs (nine storyboards altogether). Three storyboards for Mechanical. Three storyboards for Natural. Three storyboards for Human.

• Do some thumbnail sketches in your sketchbook before you begin your storyboards.

• Use one 11x17 storyboard sheet for each storyboard (download attached template in the resources), use 2-6 panels per storyboard. Keep drawings very simple, the clarity of the idea and movement is more important than details.

Part 2 - Begin to assemble or create props and elements for Animated GIFs (you do not have to submit anything for this).

Part 3 - Camera practice: Photograph a 6-8 shot documentary "Photo Essay" of a friend or relative completing a task or errand.

• Task or errand should be clearly shown and contain a beginning, middle, and end

• Between 6-8 photographs, no more, no less

• Shots must be taken with a DSLR camera using Auto settings

• Photographs should be taken at a standard medium or large format size (see camera's manual for details)

• Always consider composition, framing and cropping

• No illegal or explicit activities or images allowed

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Resources

Storyboard template