Created by linking together and looping a series of low resolution still images, the animated .gif is something of an anachronism in today’s internet. Streaming HD video is available to anyone with a broadband connection, so what need for these digital flickbooks-cum-zoetropes, whose raison d’être (to provide animation in a time when internet speeds meant video was too expensive to serve) is no longer relevant?

But the ongoing charm and usefulness of the animated .gif lies in this very economy. Like a good one-liner, the animated .gif can tell a joke with the impact of a one-inch punch, trimming away the fat of unnecessary frames to deliver its message with streamlined effectiveness.

The repetition too, whereby the animation cycles forever till you look or browse away, can make a funny image a hilarious one, or a poignant point mesmerising.

More recently, people have been taking antique photograph sequences and looping them together in 2-3 frame cycles, turing a detatched picture into an living scene.

The latest trend is to precision extract a second or two from a film sequence in order to create a tiny looping moment that plays out of context of the whole movie. Here the scene takes on a life of its own, communicating in shorthand the message of the broader canvas, or perhaps saying something altogether different.

Head over to the Tumblr site Three Frames for a steady feed of interesting examples.