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Vice Blog

THE GOD OF GIFs

Way, way back in the 1990s the best way to jazz up your web-page was to add an animated image called a GIF. Remember those spinning globes or a flaming torches? They look pretty ghetto, huh? Well, now that most animation is done through Flash or video, the humble GIF has gained cult status. A guy called Cyriak has gained a rep for making funny, lo-fi animations. He's recently made a film featuring his greatest GIFs and it's probably the best thing we've seen online this week…

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VICE: How long did it take you to piece all that together?
Cyriak: That video is a compilation of individual GIFs I made over the space of about 2 years. I'd pretty much stopped making them since moving on to more ambitious video projects but figured I may as well get a bit more mileage out of them by editing them into their own video. I wasn't expecting anyone to take any notice of it to be honest, but it's still the most popular video I ever made - the original upload to YouTube has had over 1.6 million views.

What is it about animated GIFs that grabs you so much?
I started off making gifs simply because it was the ideal web animation medium at the time: quick to make, accessible to all, and short enough for the typical internet browser's microsecond attention span. Since video is now just as easy to watch online, I don't make many GIFs so it might be a while before I knock together a sequel to my animation mix.

As well as the 8-bit-per-pixel animations, you also make a lot of 8-bit music to accompany them. Are you maybe the biggest geek ever?
Dunno if I'd call myself geeky. Everyone is in their own way- whether you obsess about football, celebrities or computer coding, it's all just as bad. But i do tend to live a life of isolation while I beaver away at my animations, so maybe I am a geek.

DOM TUNON