An animated guide to breathing displays the awesome power of GIF animation

If you've ever been to tumblr, then you know what a GIF is. The acronym stands for "graphics interchange format" and was first introduced to the world by CompuServe in 1987. All you really need to know about GIF's are the words "animated image." I presently have two friends that design their own GIF's in Blender (an open-source free software downloadable on the internet). Both have had exhibits at UMOCA here in Salt Lake City (UMOCA stands for "Utah Museum of Contemporary Art"). They have thousands of fans on Tumblr and have even been contacted by the likes of Miley Cyrus for custom-designed GIF's to play in the background of their stage shows.

However, what designer Eleanor Lutz does with GIF's is pretty darn amazing. Rather than splashes of color, Ms. Lutz uses GIF's to teach people science. Her latest work is what io9 calls "a mesmerizing look a the weird and wonderful ways that animals breathe." Cool right? I kind of sort of knew how humans breathed. But grasshoppers? No idea. Below is her illustration of three species she picked.
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