On the Language of Internet Memes

This is an Animated GIF

It is a sequence of still images that played in rapid succession, will give the illusion of movement. This particular Animated GIF consists of 21 still images, which we can appreciate better at a slower frame rate.

In fact, if you right-click on either one of the Animated GIFs above, you’ll be able to save them to your computer and see them one still image at a time.

There are many ways to make your own Animated GIFs but they all begin with finding and choosing the images you will use. For this you can either draw your own or search for them online using Google Image Search; however you must always be very careful about what type of search you do and which images you use, as some of them might be copy-right restricted. A good way of avoiding this potential problem is by using the Creative Commons Search tool, which will show you only images that you can use and modify completely free of charge.

Another thing to keep in mind when selecting your images is that Animated GIFs require still images that have some sort of continuity or sequence to them. In the cases above, the rolling clouds are the element in the images that make it flow in sequence with a certain continuity.

Once you have selected and downloaded the images you will use; you might want to add some text to them in order to give your Animated GIF a more personal feel. You can use Meme Maker’s Create Tool in order to do this. Simply hit “choose file” select the images you want to use and then follow the steps to add a caption and save the new images to your computer hard drive.

Now that you have a sequence of images with your text of choice on them saved to your computer; you can use an online tool like Picasion to animate them. This is only one of many possible choices, a simple search for online GIF maker will give you plenty of alternatives.

Once your Animated GIF is done, make sure to download it to your computer hard drive so you can post it or share it whomever you might want to.