LONDON - THE GOD OF GIFS

We're not sure what it is that makes the British so much better than us at turning people into hideous monstro-beasts. The class system, maybe? Anyways, following in the proud misanthropic tradition of Terry Gilliam and Ralph Steadman is Cyriak (not to be confused with his Indian counterpart, Cyriac). He makes some pretty solid comics and parodies of British TV shows, but his best work is in the medium of GIF. As in those tiny thumbnail animations that used to litter everybody's geocities page back at the beginning of the internet. Cyriak has made literally hundreds of the little buggers, running the gamut from really cute to really grim to seems-really-cute-for-the-first-couple-seconds-but-then- something-horrible-happens-like-the-baby- barfs-out-all-its-organs. You can sort through the whole lot of them on his website one at a time, or you can treat yourself to a little five-minute break and watch this compilation of the best set to a score of his own creation. It's hands-down our favorite thing on the internet for at least the next half-hour. Our UK office recently tracked him down to find out how someone with such a terrible name could turn out such excellent crap.

VICE: How long did it take you to piece all that together?
Cyriak: That video is a compilation of individual GIFs I made over the space of about 2 years. I'd pretty much stopped making them since moving on to more ambitious video projects but figured I may as well get a bit more mileage out of them by editing them into their own video.

I wasn't expecting anyone to take any notice of it to be honest, but it's
still the most popular video I ever made - the original upload to YouTube has had over 1.6 million views.

What is it about animated GIFs that grabs you so much?
I started off making gifs simply because it was the ideal web animation medium at the time: quick to make, accessible to all, and short enough for the typical internet browser's microsecond attention span. Since video is now just as easy to watch online, I don't make many GIFs so it might be a while before I knock together a sequel to my animation mix.

As well as the 8-bit-per-pixel animations, you also make a lot of 8-bit music to accompany them. Are you maybe the biggest geek ever?
Dunno if I'd call myself geeky. Everyone is in their own way- whether you obsess about football, celebrities or computer coding, it's all just as bad. But i do tend to live a life of isolation while I beaver away at my animations, so maybe I am a geek.

DOM TUNON

Comments

[Dan Hill]

Yo, Terry Gilliam is not British.

[Brettro]

Um, i don't know what a URL is, that's how i roll, but i do know that that GIF clip was awesome! Loved it, a bit monty python like yes.