The Daily Dot is proud to present a new way to spread holiday cheer: GIF cards. Each business day leading up to Christmas, we’ll be presenting two or more fun and easy-to-share GIFs to get you and your loved ones in the spirit of the season. To see our entire catalog, visit us on Tumblr.
From being named America’s Word of the Year by the Oxford English Dictionary to being featured in an impressive art gallery, the GIF was literally everywhere in 2012. The question many people keep asking is, why did the GIF revival take place this year and not the last?
According to GIF artist Mathew Lucas, this is only the beginning.
“With the advent of high-speed Internet, gone are the days of two frame low-quality ‘under
construction’ banners,” he told the Daily Dot. “Now replaced with more quality and more freedom for artists, motion designers and everyday GIFers.
“It’s been a great resurgence for this year alone, but I think it’s only the start of the GIF’s big bang.”
Lucas, a 25-year-old digital designer for a mobile game production company, created more than 300 GIFs in 2012. His Tumblr side project 89-a offers an eclectic mix of 3-D art and puzzle-like illustrations that are often byproducts of work he’s done on programs Blender (3-D graphics software), Cinema 4D, and After Effects. His work has been featured at the Saatchi gallery for Worshipful Clockmaker’s competition and Emerge London.
“I think the file format and restrictions placed on the GIF file, such as file size, colour, etc. make it a perfect format for a really concise animation,” he said. “Having to communicate in such a small amount of time is an attractive challenge.”
To help get into the Christmas spirit, Lucas created the following exclusive GIF cards.
