The traditional modes and methods of communication have been completely replaced by social media and networking platforms. These platforms depend upon digital content and animated gifs are a part of it. The popularity of gifs is increasing over time and you must have observed the use of these short two-second clips in adverts, marketing campaigns and even in the comment section of social media sites.
You must have observed the use of short animated clips on website interfaces as well. This fact conveys how many brands out there are always in the struggle of looking for a reliable and credible.gif illustrator for hire If you have a knack for illustration and you believe you can render quality animated gif illustrations then here is what you should always remember:
Make it visually appealing
The use of gifs emerged from social media platforms and now its popularity has even escalated to website design. Gifs are mainly being used for advertising and digital marketing purposes. Therefore, if you want to capture the attention of your audience in a matter of seconds then relying on gifs is the best option. However, in order to make its use effective, you have to give it an eye-catching appeal. Your gif needs to be both enlightening and attractive if it is mainly for branding purposes.
Create infinite loops
Animated gifs tend to work in a continuous loop,however; you have to design in such a manner that to the viewer it seems like an infinite loop without any halt or break. A gif usually lasts for 2 seconds or less,therefore, keeping that in mind design the visual and using any of the popular gif editing tools, add the infinity loop effect to it. These short animations do not hold a story line that is why they have no beginning or a stable end. That is why you have the limit of one loop to convey your message to your audience visually.
Optimized for mobile design
Since gifs are one of the oldest animated media to exist, many professional designers recommend not using more than two gifs at one website page. The reason is certainly concerned with slowing the website’s load time, which in turn also leads to the crashing of the web page. If you want to incorporate gifs on your entire website then you will have to make tweaks to the duration of the gif since that would make a difference. However, different users could be accessing your website from different devices so it is better to optimize these animated visuals into a responsive mobile design.
Reduce the animation file size
When designing a gif for your website or for a social media channel, you first need to analyze the gif duration, measurement and the entire size of your gif that will be occupied on the website. However, one or more gifs would work on websites but adding more would either increase the lag in animation or slow down the response time. That is not the case with social media platforms as each platform has defined a size limitation. If you want an infinite loop, then shortening it will lower the gif size. Define a color palette with selective colors. Adding a lot of colorful elements enlarge the file size as well.
Pay heed to Story Boarding
It is for sure that the creation of a gif is much simpler and uncomplicated as compared to producing a full-fledged animated video. However, you should not dwell upon this misconception and give time to the design phase of gifs. The prime element of this phase is storyboarding. A visual without any meaning or story engraved into it would be meaningless that is why first think of a story you want to convey and then begin designing. Give the animation a unique and interesting appeal along with a flair of direction and purpose.
