GIF Workshop at iLEAD

GIF Workshop at iLEAD

When Steve Wilhite developed the Graphic Interchange Format (GIF), little did he know that it will capture the imagination of designers and activists alike. GIF - the tiny, lightweight video files criss-crossing the WhatsApp network with messages of peace, unity, cautions, prayers have become the latest buzz in the world of media and mediums. Bichitra Pathshala joined hands with iLEAD to organize a one day GIF making workshop on 1st July. This engaging activity was facilitated by Sourav Mukherjee, an award winning animation artist, designer and iLEAD faculty. The Audio Visual Library was packed with students and young professionals for the workshop. The session started with explanations of what is GIF and different genres of GIF. He showed the popular interfaces like Tumblr and Giphy for creating the GIF files and how to create GIF from scratch using Photoshop and After Effects. Students created simple GIF files like bouncing balls and short videos. The students then moved to another room for brainstorming on GIF files where a live subject was chosen to pose in front of the camera at 30 different positions, which, when played as a GIF would show her sliding towards a closed laptop, magically opening it, waving 'bye' and vanishing.

After lunch, a student's idea was taken up for shooting. Her idea was to depict a dustbin sliding into the frame, toppling over and crumpled pages pouring out of it. One of the pages climbs up the leg of a bench on its own, straightens out and the message "Do Not Waste Paper" written on the paper becomes visible. The story was shot in reverse order, with all the participants contributing enthusiastically to the process. After these two rounds of shooting it was once again time to return to the AV library. Mr Mukherjee edited the images taken by students using Photoshop and created a GIF file. The file was then further compressed and uploaded on Tumblr.

At the end of the day Mr Mukherjee was presented with tokens of appreciations. Students now look forward to more such workshops in the future.