Feature Highlight: GIF Camera

Creating Moving Pictures

The excitement & energy around these digital files is scorching hot. GIFs usage in online communication is sharply on the rise. The adoption on mobile has been largely led by messaging platforms, although many social platforms have followed suit.Kanvas adopted the file format early on when building our own apps. GIFs had a unique ability to make our user’s posts highly expressive & they fit into the bite-size consumption requirement of this mobile era. However, instead of the more popular GIF creation methods of clipping of snippets from top tv shows, movies & viral videos, we created a camera to foster GIF creation of the world around us.

The Kanvas GIF Creation

With one tap of the shutter our camera takes a burst of successive frames blending the frames into one cohesive shot. The number of total frames the camera records is based on the formula 2X-2. X is the number of photos the camera takes. If X = 6, then 6 images are captured. When rendering the GIF we stitch the frames in the following sequence: 1,2,3,4,5,6,5,4,3,2. The added 4 frames give the GIF a smooth looping effect.

Developers can control the number of frames in the GIF by adjusting the value “numOfFrames” on iOS & “setBurstFrames” on Android.

When pushed into our editor we give the user control over the GIF’s playback speed. Using a slider, the fps can be adjusted to the user’s liking.

The Making of a Good GIF

Creating a GIF in our camera is super easy. However there are a number of ways you can make a GIF worth admiration. By leveraging the power of the entire creative suite, there are a various ways users can add novelty to their creations.

We however believe the key element to enhancing a GIF is by capturing the right motion. Subtlety is everything. The GIF mode can be toggled off for developers who prefer not to offer this camera mode but as you can probably guess, we’d advise against it. Happy creating :)