One of this year’s Malofiej talks that received the most number of compliments was the one in which Eleanor Lutz explained the use she makes of GIFs to create her wonderful visualizations. We wrote about the keynote back then, and even had the chance to record a short video interview with her at the event – in case you want to check out our special coverage of Malofiej 23, just follow this link.
The use of GIFs in visualization is far from being something new. You have several examples available, for instances, at VisGif’s gallery – an experiment that “investigates the use of animated GIF to better communicate Information Visualization techniques, insights or projects.”. And you don’t really need a lot of research to find other animated GIFs that explain scientific and mathematical concepts.
In this post, you’ll find a first set that we managed to pull together, starting with Eleanor’s amazing visuals, all available on her website, Tabletop Whale – and by the way, don’t miss this tutorial she produced on how to make these animated infographics.
Planet Earth Control Deck | Eleanur Lutz
(Via)
Flight videos deconstructed | Eleanur Lutz
(Via)
How to build a human | Eleanur Lutz
(Via)
One of the references mentioned by Eleanor at Malofiej 23 was the work of Jacob O’Neal, and in particular his showcase of “animagraphs”. Here are some of our favorites:
Tarantula: Giant of the Spider World | Jacob O’Neal for BBC Earth
(Via)
Inside a Jet Engine | Jacob O’Neal
(Via)
How a Car Engine Works | Jacob O’Neal
(Via)
Cheetah: Nature’s Speed Machine | Jacob O’Neal
(Via)
More recently, we opened an edition of Vintage InfoDesign with an animated GIF of a “tour” through the skull and brain, using the wood cuts German physician Georg Bartisch published in 1583. This was not the first time, however, we featured GIF animations of vintage medical illustrations. In 2013, we shared these vintage anatomical charts of the male and female body as animated GIFs, originally seen over at Maria Popova‘s Brain Pickings. In case you missed those, here they are:
Brain and Skull (1583) | George Bartisch
(Via)
Male and female bodies (1942) | Myron D. Jacoby
(Via)
Human head | E. J. Stanley
(Via)
And to close, a bunch of other animated graphics we thought appropriate to include in this article, even if some are just video excerpts transformed into GIFs:
Golf Swing Anatomy | Lumen Interactive
(Via)
How mudslides form after a fire | Los Angeles Times
(Via)
Graphics from “Mission Blue” | Netflix
(Via)
Earth’s ice and vegetation cycle over a year
(Via)
The mighty five | Chris George
(Via)
Everything about Instagram | OnlineMBA
(Via)
Native american land | Sam B. Hillard
(Via)
US Slave Free 1789-1861 | Golbez
(Via)
Internet use
(Via)
Pythagorean Theorem
(Via)
Surely there are many more animations that would fit in such a post. Let us know on Twitter if you have any other interesting GIF to add, and we’ll make sure to include it in a follow-up post.
Written by Tiago Veloso
Tiago Veloso is the founder and editor of Visualoop and Visualoop Brasil . He is Portuguese, currently based in Bonito, Brazil.