Animation posts

At first thought, animated GIFs might conjure up images of dancing “under construction” signs and cheesy banner ads circa the year 2000. Luckily, the creative minds of present-day animators, designers, illustrators, and digital artists are revisiting the technology and utilizing it in impressive new ways.

Whether it’s a website with strategically placed, imagery-rich cinemagraphs (photographs with a minor and repeated movement action) or an exploration into mind-bending art, there’s little question that animated GIFs remain a viable technology in design.

With this in mind, we’ve put together a collection of stellar GIF art from three wildly creative forces from across the globe.

Sure,...

Everyone loves motion. Adding the fourth dimension (time) to a site design is the main way screen-based design stands out from print design. CSS Transitions are a simple method for animating properties of an element enabling you to enrich certain events in your web design, without the need of Flash or JavaScript.

The W3C aptly describes transitions on their website as “CSS Transitions allows property changes in CSS values to occur smoothly over a specified duration”.

One of the most exciting perks of using Adobe’s Edge Animate is the seamless integration with new, exciting CSS features that I didn’t even know existed until exploring Edge Animate further. This tutorial shows you how to make a 3D particle effect, using just a few ellipses, no additional plugins and a special “blur” filter made accessible in Edge Animate and CSS3.

This tutorial explains how to utilise a number of features in Edge Animate, from creating shapes and manipulating them using filters, to grouping them as Symbols to move multiple elements quickly and efficiently, rather than tweening individual particles.

Once...

Big-budget music videos involve countless people, crazy costumes, and elaborate sets. But Japanese singer-songwriter Shugo Tokumaru’s song Katachi was brought to the screen in a completely different  manner (although it could be argued the process was no less intricate).

The talented Polish animation team of Katarzyna Kijek and Przemyslaw Adamski utilized approximately 2,000 silhouettes extracted from PVCC plates using a computer-controlled cutter. From there, the beautifully detailed, colorful cutouts were filmed frame by frame...

In order to be a great designer, you need to be on top of the trend before it becomes a trend. Being able to have this sense of what’s going to take off is key in creating a wonderful product. You’re recognized for being one of the ‘firsts’ and you’re also given props for your innovation and new approach to common problems.

All this is great and desired. It can, however, be tough to keep up with trends because they come so frequently and you never know what’s...

Forty years ago this coming Sunday (January 13th 1973), the American Broadcast Company added to its lineup of Saturday morning cartoons a cool, musical, three-minute mini-episode that brainwashed American youth into learning… and enjoying it!

In the usual Saturday TV worship ceremony followed by more kids than those who attended church on Sunday, kids eagerly rolled out of bed to sit in their pajamas, eat multiple bowls of sugary cereal and sit transfixed to the glowing cathode ray...

Going viral is the holy grail of advertising these days. Mom and Pop run businesses can become global names overnight with the right hashtag, video or promo.

When Metro Trains — the metropolitan rail network for Melbourne, Australia — wanted to raise awareness of the inherent dangers...