Glitch School by Jon Cates

Glitch Interchange Format (GIF)

a free + open《 glitch◆school 》 educationalResource


~ SUMMER SCHOOL ~

GIF Art Day! Monday, June 15th 2026

Understanding Animated GIF Art ➝


Glitch School by Jon Cates

⌁ GIFs are files, formats, and artforms.


⌁ GIFs are made of frames, a sequence of images.


⌁ GIFs can be animated, alive, living in infinite loops.


⌁ From 2 to 256 colors, limited palettes make GIFs beautiful.


⌁ Flashing, glitching, and flickering GIFs can become Glitch Art.


⌁ Right Click, Save As, and View Source to learn how to make Digital Art!


Assignment: Make an Animated GIF with only 2 frames that captures a moment, a feeling, a fleeting glitch in time that can loop forever... as long as we have electricity :)

⌁ HOWTO make an Animated GIF like this, using only 2 frames?

You can begin with two different images, or one image that you modify. For instances, your images can be two photographs of the same subject from slightly different angles, two drawings that sequentially change states, or made with Generative AI.

Glitch School by Jon Cates
Meet our mascot! ~ our《 glitch◆school 》mascot is wildFire 🔥✨ She loves to eat apples from our Glitch Family Tree. 🍎✨

This image is made through many systems, software, and prompts to arrive as you see her above. Then we can change her image. xAI's Grok currently understands simple command prompts to modify images and makes these changes consistently well. Simply ask the system for the change. In this case "horse nodding" was the prompt to change her image:

Glitch School by Jon Cates

Advanced: Reduce the color palette and resolution using dithering and only 8 colors to create an 8-Bit limitation. Now reduce to only 2 colors, but do not use Black and White.

Recommended technosocial systems include: GIF MAKER-EDITOR PRO for Android (mobile app); Photoshop for detailed control of animation states +/or analysis of Animated GIFs you have downloaded; and Grainrad (free online tool) to experiment with dithering.

⚠ Intense flashing / flickering can affect folks. Use care when making && sharing.

Turn in your work ➝ email to your teach`err
jonCates_AT_gmail◆com

this syllabus is an open educationalResource of
《 glitch◆school 》 by jonCates, COPY-IT-RIGHT ∞
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