When you look at a GIF, you think of a funny image, maybe it’s a dog driving a car or someone making a funny face. But you never really think about what goes on to make that GIF visible. You would usually think it’s just an image with color. You would be wrong. There is a whole lot more that goes into making these images. There’s a fascinating world behind the scenes that brings these seemingly effortless images to life.
This dates back all the way to ancient times when the Egyptians created this numerical system called Egyptian multiplication, which was used to discover binary code. This system is still used today, and it is used to manipulate and create images. This mathematical system can be used to create a variety of effects, such as animations and 3D models. Digital images come in two different sectors: Bitmaps and vectors. Let me talk to you quickly about what a bitmap is. It is made up of pixels with the projected colors being either red, green, or blue. A JPEG image has about 24 bits per pixel, while a GIF has a limit of 1-8 bits. Circling back to binary, each bit is represented by a 0 or 1. Where 0 = 1 bit, 1-1 = 2 bits, 1-1-1 = 3 bits all the way to 8. This is a way of adding a variable line in coding.
By altering the number of bits in a GIF, you are able to change the amount of color that is shown in that image. This allows for more vibrant and flexible images, as different numbers of bits can be used to represent different levels of color. Additionally, the use of binary coding allows for more efficient storage and transmission of images, allowing for smaller file sizes.
In essence, behind every creative GIF lies a series of binary code, arranging pixels and colors. It’s a testament to the timeless power of numbers intertwined with the artistry of digital creation.
Chat GPT3.5 was used to spell check and proof read this.