gif

by doc on 3D, gif

Fixing DC’s Batman wigglegram gifs

DC made an animated gif to promote an upcoming issue of Batman, which also teases a Watchmen appearance. It’s a nice gif that uses parallax scrolling to create the illusion of depth, but it does two things that bug the crap out of me:

  • The animation only pans from left to right
  • The animation alternates from Batman to Flash

So I decided to make my own edits to create a more traditional “wigglegram” effect. I think these look a lot smoother.

batman wigglegram gif 3d

I did the same edit with a Reverse Flash gif, just to show the effect can still work when the image is supposed to convey time. In the original gif, the camera pans left-right as the Flash gets turned into a skeleton. It’s a cool effect, but looks better when you “yo-yo” the animation back and forth.

The Flash Wigglegram gif

Here is the original GIF that DC shared. I think the wigglegram versions feel much smoother.

 
by doc on gif, trixels

My process for 2D animations and game art with Hexels Pro.

The folks at 80 Level have recently published an interview with me about my process for creating 2D animations and game art with Hexels Pro. I’ve blogged a lot of my Hexels Pro “trixel art” here before, but this article is the most in depth I’ve ever gotten about the techniques behind that art.

making trixel art with Hexels Pro

If you live in SF, please feel free to hit me up if you have any Hexels Pro questions. OMG, here’s a snippet:

I usually start with a very small and simple sketch, then jump into Hexels Pro and get started in their trixels mode. There’s a template I use to start most new projects that is simply called “Trixels” and has a 48×48 grid. I then shrink the grid down to a much smaller size, like 10×10 and start working out my image there using just a few distinctly different colors that I’ll end up switching later. I know I’m going to go into higher detail later, but I really like to start in a very “low-resolution” kind of mindsight. If I can make a dope image there, then I know it’s going to look good later.

 
by doc on gif, yo-yoing

Yo-Yo Gifs from the good old days of GeoCities sites

Remember GeoCities? I don’t.

I mean, I’ve heard of GeoCities, but I didn’t really get online until 2000, and even then I was primarily just visiting the same 3 yo-yo bulletin boards. The only thing I knew about GeoCities was that it was that place with all the terrible gifs.

The Internet Archive recently launched GifCities, an online search engine to find archived gifs from old GeoCities sites. Feeling nostalgic, I thought it’d be interesting browse those yo-yo gifs and share some favorites here.

thaiyoboy2-compressoroffstring_an-compressoryo-yoljackyoyo-compressoryoyo-1-compressorcatyoyo
banner-compressor
… →

 
by doc on gif, star wars

My 10 most popular GIFs on Giphy

The folks at Giphy have been killing it this year and I’ve really enjoyed having my own artist page where I can share all my original animated GIFs. Recently, Giphy has started displaying the total views for each GIF, so I thought it would be fun to go through and pick out my 10 most popular GIFs on Giphy.

Mr-T


1,026,124 views
Created with Trixel art, then glitched using pixel sorting techniques.

Bob Moog


1,080,732 views
In honor of Bob Moog’s birthday.

Pizza-meter


1,089,119 views
An original concept design for our Sweet Ride video game. We later replaced the pizza with a donut. … →