Why in the second part of the 90’s animated GIFs were rarely (outside of porno sites) used to show film and video sequences? Because even half a second of heavily compressed and and downscaled, barely recognizable footage would be still too heavy and slow network of that time.

In 1998, Shocking Blue fan Greg converted one second of a TV performance of the group’s hit song “Venus” into a GIF. It is 160×120 pixles, contains 15 frames and weights 93KB. Greg didn’t dare to confront the visitors of the page with such a huge file.1 He uses a static image and suggests to start loading the animation with a click, but to be ready that “it may take 20 sec”.

Starting image

Animated GIF

The moment in the original video

Original URL: http://www.geocities.com/ofmang/greg/shockblu.html


  1. Just for comparison, the third picture in the Alternative Animated GIF Timeline, a video loop as common in GIFs today, is 461×322 pixels, 2MB, 42 frames.
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