Thoughts on Animated Gifs

[Donny]

Oh wow! The Monsters is great!
Here's an episode with a lot of nice animations...

The Monsters :: Long Road Ahead (B SIDES) - 3 | Tapas

[Donny]

Your comic is great! I really like the format too, with the image and dialogue separated. Have you ever made visual novels? I think you're comic is already very similar in format.

[Donny]

I'm really liking these animated webcomics more and more. It makes a lot of sense and really takes advantage of the digital medium while still being true to comics.

For me, I prefer comics to animation in general, because with comics the reader controls the pace and can go as fast or as slow as they want. I think animation is great, but I usually can't sit through an entire movie or show without fast forwarding through parts. I like to just watch the good parts (usually the action scenes).

These short animations in webcomics are really perfect because they add such richness and excitement without changing the pace too much. It's enough to add to the experience and suck you in, but so not much where I feel like I'm waiting for it.

[ajcrwl]

Hey, thanks for subscribing!
Someone else has asked me about visual novels, and I looked into it before. I think there are similarities, but it's not the kind of thing I would like to do. Visual novels are.. too static
The image plays a large part in the comic and I treat it more like a movie frame rather than a background with some characters on it. I don't reuse character animations or backgrounds more than 2-3 times and I draw all animations frame by frame from scratch every time. YEAH, I'M TRYHARDING THIS x) But I feel like if I take a visual novel approach at this point I'm not gonna like reusing assets because they won't feel alive enough.

[Donny]

You may be taking a narrow view of what's possible in visual novels and what you consider the "visual novel approach". Much like how you defy convention in your webcomic, similarly you don't have to don't have to reuse backgrounds or character animations.

Visual novels are a medium and there are medium conventions, but you don't have to necessarily follow them.
For example, just because you do a comic, it doesn't have to have superheroes.

[andrew17]

I use them occasionally, but they've got to add to the gag.

Smith :: Slide, Jones, slide! | Tapas

Cat's Cafe has just used one in a very poignant way...

Cat's Cafe :: Fade Out | Tapas

[krzuniverse]

I see absolutely nothing wrong with incorporating GIFs!

[Donny]

nice ones! That fade out was especially poignant.