How in the world did we get to where we are now?!

Going into the Animated GIF module I had no idea what to expect. What I think threw me off was using slack. I don’t say that with any ill intent or negative thought association. Also, the snow days didn’t help coming together with other members in the module. Getting into a group and using a means other than getting together to work on the presentation is very different. Fortunately, our Animated GIF group was on the same page with what we wanted to do for the module.

When I took my first scroll down the modules page on dgst101.net, I had no idea what I was going to choose. I was seriously thinking about trying out creative coding, but after expanding and taking a more in depth look I shied away from it. I continued to scroll and my eyes fell upon the Animated GIF module. My initial thoughts were, “oh you’ve made a GIF before, this shouldn’t be hard.” I had taken a section of the Digital Storytelling course (DS1064Life), in which I had to learn how to make GIFs using MPEG Streamclip and GIMP. It was a pretty fun time once I got the hang of it. This time around was a little different.

In the beginning, I wanted to go back to MPEG Streamclip and GIMP and make GIFs that dealt with things I like, sports in particular. When we met in class, which was actually very helpful, I got the assignment to do the origins or early history of the GIF. I didn’t have any problems with it, I just didn’t know where to get the information. I wanted to stray away from some of the sights that people might use just in case another group selected Animated GIFs. In the end I used Daily Dot for the majority of my information. So, even though I wanted to make those sports GIFs I think my contribution to the group was better served by doing a bit of research for the presentation.

That’s how we got to where we are