Comics with integrated GIF animations - Rising Trend?

[jono_thompson]

I've been noticing some webcomics that have little GIF animations in some of the frames of their comics. For me it's quite interesting, as you get to see actual movement and it adds a bit of depth to the comic I find.
It's kind of blurring the lines between static comics and animation in terms of mediums colliding.

Do you think it is a good technique to utilize in the creation of your comics?
Or do you think it is a cheap gimmick trying to get the reader's attention?

[agentfink]

I read two comics that do this, and I love it when it appears! Not all the pages have it, so it is a nice way on expanding on the storytelling.

Brian Coldrick's Behind You
@cryoclaire 's Drugs & Wires

[Michelle]

Eh, I'm not crazy about them. When I see a single animated panel in an otherwise static comic, it's distracting and pulls my attention to that panel prematurely, and then it becomes an annoying peripheral distraction when I'm trying to read past said GIF panel. If there's multiple animations going on in a single page it's way too busy for me.

I've seen it where each page was an entire animated GIF on its own, so kind of like an animation that played out in chunks. That works out a little better imo, but it also means you have to do a heavy amount of clicking through to advance the story which can be a little annoying.

[Kayke]

I use gifs occasionally in my comics and have been doing that since like 2012, so I don't know if I'd consider it trendy. For me I was kind of experimenting with things that I'd only be able to do in webcomics.

[Kura]

I don't really see it as a cheep gimmick, and these have also been around forever so I can't really say it's a 'rising trend', you got more options when making a comic for the web. So why not use those options when you can or if it would help the story? You don't have to religiously stick to a printing format.

[indagold]

I'm an animator... but I like to keep my animations out of my comics. I feel it's cool and all but weighs down the file and it's hard sometimes to pin point where it ends or begins if done poorly. And you need to have perfect animation to make it fit.

[gateofselidor]

I enjoy seeing it when it's done carefully, i.e.: the animation highlights something important. It's not something I specifically look for, though, and I wouldn't bother with my own comic. My pages take me long enough already.

[kkralo]

It's something I wanna try in one of my next comics-- I think both technically and artistically it's going to be a challenge to make it work, but we'll see.

[glennsong]

@jono_thompson I use GIF animation for the climax of my comic. There are several pages that are heavily animated. I tried to do things like stagger the animation so it would play one after the other to let your eye follow the action from panel to panel. Maybe for my comic it's a bit gimmicky since I don't use it all throughout and just in one chapter, but I wanted to really give that chapter something else to make it stand out since it's the climax of the story.

I don't think I would utilize it through my entire comic since the process to animate my frames took a long time. I decided to do something pretty crazy where I would keyframe and animate the inbetweens, so the animation isn't simple, but actual character movement or particles. It took me 2-3 weeks for one page alone and it's a lot of work. I love the result but it's time consuming enough to do a comic page, and to have to animate on top of that, it's pretty cost prohibitive (time-wise).

[Aspie_Gamer]

Its a nice bonus and a great way to take advantage of a reading experience that only the internet can provide you with.

[theeternitycode]

Using gifs has been especially important to my comic! But they take ages to make. I find making them really relaxing, and I think it's cool to take advantage of the internet format. The premise has to have an important component where gifs make sense, because the effort needs to equal the impact.

Perditum Odyssey

[Mikayi]

I seen a few comics with those it's nice and all but I do find it distracting. Also depending how it's done it can make me very dizzy for some reason. I can't play certian games or movies that do that.

Something about the movement, I think it's motion sickness, with first person movements for games and movies, comics it's the sudden movement

[acealmansoori]

how do you even GIF ;-;

[samuelrowley]

You can make them on this site if you just want to try it out. Giffy .com]1

Just click on create and slideshow. Then drag drawing images to make one. There are better ways to make them yourself with photoshop but you could try it out here.

[WakaXO]

I don't see it as a cheep gimmick at all, if it's done well it adds to the mood of a page/panel. Or it could cut down on the amount of panels needed to show a simple task/action, which granted might not really be a positive aspect for readers, its definitely a perk for the creators.
I like it best when it's a simple gif, not a lot of movement, for example how a friend uses it in her comic ( https://tapastic.com/series/Us-Honourless-Few ).
As for if it's a trend, it's hard to say? As technology becomes a more popular medium for comics, it stands to reason that gifs in comics would become more common place. I can see a future with '4-panel life' type comics were each panel is a gif.

[acealmansoori]

thank you <3 ;w; I shall trry

[indagold]

Okay I finally tried reading some on here, i've only read some on other sites. Jesus some work some keep crashing my goddam browser. There's this one comic i'm not naming names I cannot read because the gifs are so dense it freezes my browser. Now that is a good complaint I have against them.

[bakasama25]

Which brower are you using?

[avalonmao]

Honestly it seems like a really cool idea if you can do it well, but I wouldn't do it for my own comic because then I'll end up doing the very Most and I'l never finish any page...
I already spend so much time working on each page and also picking songs and also,, also maybe even translating it into Mandarin so like....that's too much work. LOL

[punkarsenic]

I love this trend! I think it's new and dynamic, makes great use of page space, and sets webcomics apart from print comics.

but i dont use it, and probably never will, for two reasons. firstly, i dont have the software or knowhow or patience to make gifs. secondly, i'm still aiming to have my comic in print at some point, esp to sell at comicon. i worry that having smth like a gif that wont transition to certain formats could cause a lot of problems down the line.