The First GIF Cinemagraphs?: Animations

From 1998-2003 With an Early Casio Camera

by Rick DobleAnimations: © Copyright 1998-2003 Rick Doble, All Rights Reserved

Text: © Copyright 2014 Rick Doble, All Rights Reserved

IMPORTANT!You must download the ppt PowerPoint file to see the moving animations.

This movement is not visible in a PDF preview online.

HOW TO USE THIS eBOOK/POWERPOINT PRESENTATION

This is an interactive PowerPoint eBook. Please advance manually to the next screen with the [space bar] or left click with the mouse. You can go back with the [back space key] or by right clicking. A right click will also allow you to navigate to

any numbered screen. At the bottom of most screens you will see TOC. Click on that to go to the Table of Contents, where you can click to go to another section.

2

INTRODUCTION

TOC

3

THE FIRST GIF CINEMAGRAPHS?In 2011 the word cinemagraph was invented by U.S. fashion photographers Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck for a still picture which exhibited subtle movement in the GIF animated format. It was a cross between a still photograph and a short sequence in a film. Supermodel Coco Rocha observed that "it's more than a photo but not quite a video".

However, in 1999 through 2003 -- starting more than 10 years earlier -- I created a number of such images, although the name for them had not been coined. I believe I was the first person to create such art works. If that is not the case, I welcome evidence that someone else invented this form before I did. I also believe I am the first person do create animated selfies. I was working with an extremely limited Casio camera (see more about this in the Background), but it could make these animations quite nicely -- for the technology of the time.

TOC

4

I did not use Photoshop. These animations were made from raw single shots in my early Casio camera that I then sandwiched together. I did almost nothing to each image, although I may have cropped some a bit so that they would sequence properly when animated. I also did not use a tripod very often, most of these were shot handheld. I am quite used to handholding, yet since the images were shot handheld, the stationary parts of the image move just a bit which was my intention.

I wanted images that pulsed with life. And all of my animations looped endlessly -- because they were an attempt to depict life and living moments which are always in motion, but at often at rest at the same time. As I wrote in the headline of my website at the time: These animations are not mini-movies but "States of Being," repeating animations that contain the stuff of life.

. TOC

5

In 1998, at this point in my artistic development, I wanted to take photographs that captured life in all of its imperfection, its randomness, its constant motion. Yet I also wanted animations that mixed stillness and movement. Plus I liked the somewhat rough feel of these handheld creations, because work with a tripod often feels frozen and more like stone than flesh. Even as we sit still things swirl around us. I wanted to grasp that feeling.

I also wanted to take photos of ordinary everyday things and situations -- and show how life moved. And I wanted to create work that was free flowing, unafraid to try new things, to be expressive and experimental -- see my essay about digital expression that I wrote in 1999 at the end of this eBook. So the animations you see here are from that period of my work.

TOC

6

TABLE OF CONTENTS (TOC)

Title Page Introduction Cinemagraphs Doble's Website Text Cinemagraph-like Animations Doble's Animations at a French Website Since 2000 Doble Featured Artist for Animations in 1998 Review of Doble's Animations in 1999 Background Doble's Essay About Digital Expression in 1999 APPENDIX

7

Cinemagraphs

Closed gas station at night in fog, 1999.Used as a cover for PifMagazine.com.

TOC

8

Changing the marquee at night at a movie theater, 2000. Candid shot.

TOC

9

Rain outside a screened window, 1999. TOC

10View of the water and sky on the Ocracoke Ferry, 2001.

TOC

11

Beaufort NC bridge opening, 1999.TOC

12

View of North River, Carteret County NC, 1999.TOC

13

The rising sun illuminating our emergency kerosene lamp, 1999.

TOC

14The pool at Whitey's Elberta motel, Wilmington NC, 2000. TOC

15Morehead City NC traffic on road and in mirror, 2000.TOC

16Self portrait, 1998.

TOC

17Self portrait, sitting over Bogue Sound, NC, 1999.

TOC

18

Self portrait under fluorescent light, traffic in background, Beaufort NC, 2000.TOC

19

Self portrait under neon light, traffic in background, Beaufort NC, 2000.TOC

20Self portrait under neon light, traffic in background, Beaufort NC, 2000.TOC

21

(Text from my website where I put all my animations in 2003.)

- States of Being - These are not mini-movies but repeating animations

that contain the stuff of life.

My small animations are NOT "mini-movies" but an art form that is quite different. Because they loop and repeat, because the timing is often different from frame to frame, and because pictures may have been taken at different intervals (not regular short intervals like film or video), they are more like music or a pulsing living being.

Animate means " having life " according to the dictionary. Unlike still photography which deals in two dimensions (x and y axis), these photographic animations deal in four dimensions (x, y, z axis plus time). Little animations may achieve what the Cubist and Futurist painters at the beginning of the century were trying to achieve, that is the ability to see the whole object in space and time in one work of art. Four dimensions is not just a concept but a reality of physics. For example Einstein adapted the age-old Pythagorean formula for the hypotenuse of a triangle to accommodate time as another component.

TOC

22

From my 2003 Website: About My Digital Self-Portraits -- Early Selfies?

Painters have been creating self-portraits for years. Some of the most famous paintings ever created were self portraits such as those of Rembrandt and Van Gogh. However, photography (until now) has been unable to accomplish this. The photographer had to be behind the lens to preview the photographic image. In short he or she could not be behind the lens and in front of the lens at the same time. With the Casio QV-100, the lens can be rotated in just about any direction (270 degrees). I can point the lens at my face or body and frame the picture at the same time.

And BTW these self portraits are not an indication that I am an ego-maniac. I have worked with friends and lovers but found that they often did not have the time or did not like the unflattering way I would take a portrait. So after a number of years I decided that I am the most willing model who will do what he is told, will work for nothing and who is always available even at 4 in the morning. And I never have to worry about whether I can find me.

In all cases I am limited by the length of my arms. This determines the furthest distance I can move the camera away from my body and also the furthest that I can accurately frame and judge the picture in the viewfinder.

These pictures were NOT manipulated in graphics program. I used the quirks of the light sensitive material, and also the way that digital imagery is stored, to achieve most of the unusual effects. Any enhancements where achieved in a basic " darkroom " processing program.

TOC

23

When I began with the Casio, I took a series like this one with my wife. This particular series of early selfies was shot next to a restaurant neon light. These led to the creation of animations.

TOC

24

Cinemagraph-like Animations

My wife driving, 2001.TOC

25Self portrait: through my windshield, 1999.

TOC

26

Self portrait: driving on a back road, 1999.TOC

27

Self portrait: driving on a back road, 1999.TOC

28Self portrait: driving through Morehead City NC, 1999.

TOC

29

North River Bridge, Carteret County NC at sunset, 2000.TOC

30

Waiting for the bridge to open at night, Beaufort NC, 2000.TOC

31

Car passing by my van mirror, Greenville NC, 2000.TOC

32

Car passing by my van mirror, Greenville NC, 2000.TOC

33Self portrait with carnival in the background, 1999.

TOC

34Self portrait Atlantic Beach NC boardwalk in the background, 2001.

TOC

35Self portrait shadow, 2001.

TOC

36Self portrait shadow, 2000.

TOC

37Guitarist, Wilmington NC, 2000.TOC

38

Beach night club, NC, 2003.TOC

39

Beach night club, NC, 2003.TOC

40

Beach night club, NC, 2003.TOC

41

The 4 Elements According to the Ancient Greeks:

Earth, Air, Fire & Water were the basic elementsA Computer Animated Poem by Rick Doble

shown at the French website ( www.akenaton-docks.fr ) since 2000& included on a CD-Rom in their book DOC(K)S "un notre web", ISSN DOC(K)S 0396/3004

"Les 4 éléments " poème animé par ordinateurLES QUATRE ELEMENTS: La TERRE, 'AIR, le FEU, l'EAU

Selon les Grecs antiques ceux-ci Ètaient les ÈlÈments de base dans le monde.-----------------

L'Air.gif (346KB)320x202x32 Gif 89aLa Terre.gif (316KB)240x320x32 Gif 89a

L'Eau.gif (259KB)240x320x16 Gif 89aLe Feu.gif (54KB)

320x240x64 Gif 89a-----------------

(toutes les images animÈes ont ÈtÈ faites avec un appareil-photo digital de Casio QV-100.)++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The French text (above) was translated from the following English text:Four Gif Animations

by Rick Doble:THE FOUR ELEMENTS: EARTH, AIR, FIRE, WATER

According to the ancient Greeks these were the basic elements in the world.(All animated images were made with a Casio QV-100 digital camera.)

TOC

42Earth, 1999.

TOC

43

Air, 1999.TOC

44Fire, 1999.

TOC

45Water, 1999.TOC

46

Featured ArtistEnculturation Website, Fall 1998

http://enculturation.net/2_1/toc.html

TOC

47

Animations' Menu Page on Enculturation in 1998http://www.enculturation.net/2_1/doble/

TOC

48

Review of Doble's animations on the Enculturation site in 1998 by the Film-Philosophy Journal of London, England

http://www.film-philosophy.com/vol3-1999/n15martin-jones

TOC

49

BACKGROUND

In 1998 I bought my first digital camera, a Casio QV-100, made by the first camera maker to put a LCD screen on the back. This monitor showed the picture that had just been taken. So for the first time I had immediate feedback, something I had wanted for my previous 30 years with film photography.

But this camera was quite limited to say the least. With a fixed lens, an image size of 320x240 if you wanted to store more than a few pictures, and a maximum size of 640X480 which filled up the storage in a heart beat, an ISO of about 100 and entirely automatic settings, it was not a professional camera or even close.

But it was fun, really fun. I realized that I could take a series of still shots, and then sandwich them into animations. The new tools for making animations from digital were quite easy and flexible. I deliberately did not try to take shots in even increments, but rather at key points in the movement. I had studied animation when I was in graduate school in film, getting my Masters Degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, therefore I was already familiar with the process.

TOC

50

So in this manner I made the most of the camera's limitations. The result was the animations you see in this eBook -- many of which anticipated cinemagraphs. In fact I believe that these are perhaps the very first cinemagraphs. They also anticipated my later work of 'time flow' photographs that drew on the Italian Futurists around 1910 with the idea of motion over time.

In the early days of the Internet around 2000, these animations were state of the art. One animation could take a minute or two to download, for example but then people were dazzled by the moving image. Here is a warning I had to put on my webpage about the amount of time it took to load an animation.

NOTE: Animations are big and take a while to load. Here is a rough rule of thumb:

14.4 modem: 100k takes 60 seconds28.8 modem: 100k takes 30 seconds56.6 modem: 100k takes 15 seconds

TOC

51

IS DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHYTHE NEW EXPRESSIVE

VISUAL ART? (1999)http://rickdoble.net/photoexpress.htm

By Rick Doble

Note: This essay was translated into Italian more than ten years after it was written.

La Fotografia Digitalenuova arte visuale espressiva

http://www.cultorweb.com/foto/Exp.html

TOC

52

53

54

55

56

APPENDIX

Rick Doble's animations on his website:http://rickdoble.net/animate/

Explanation of Deleuze concept of the 'time-image'as mentioned in the FILM-PHILOSOPHY JOURNAL review in 1999:http://networkologies.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/tips-for-reading-deleuzes-cinema-ii-the-time-image-towards-a-direct-imaging-of-time/

Full set of links to Doble's work on the French site/publication DOC(K)S in 2000:http://www.akenaton-docks.fr/DOCKS-datas_f/collect_f/generiqueanim.htmlhttp://www.akenaton-docks.fr/DOCKS-datas_f/collect_f/auteurs_f/D_f/DOBLE_f/doble.htmlAnd the Index page for Doble's computer animated poems on DOC(K)Shttp://www.akenaton-docks.fr/DOCKS-datas_f/collect_f/auteurs_f/D_f/DOBLE_f/anim_f/4elements_f/indexdob.html

Doble's animations were also referenced in 2001 in:eDIGITALPHOTO, March/April 2001, in a full color page review: Reviewing the Wild, Wild Web (page 88)Talking about Doble's animations, the reviewer wrote:"He sees these animations not as 'mini-movies' but as unique four dimensional art forms. They loop and repeat, each time with the timing a little different, so he equates them to being more like music pieces or a pulsing, living being."

TOC