Analogue GIF Clip

The younger ones probably don't know that any more. But you could call the project an analogue GIF image. You can make it yourself easily and cheaply using materials you already have at home.

Simple mechanic - no battery - no display - hardly any costs

Years ago I made a tin like this for my children. It still sits on the shelf and is used from time to time. It's simply beautiful and there's always an occasion to send a nice greeting.

round metal can with lid, here 10cm diameter

wooden stick 8mm/ -25 cm, depends on can

small piece of wood

piece of wood 11x6 cm

3D printed part or thin cardboard or see Step 4

2 screws

pliers

tin scissors or mini circular saw

glue

drill

A historical video clip: my first Youtube video of my first project.

The human eye is slightly slow. Below a frame rate of ~15/second (fps), individual images are still recognized as such. Above 20 fps we see flowing movements without stuttering. 24 fps is common in cinema today.The principle of our can is familiar from flip-books. One image frame is shown after another. The only difference is that our images are on a reel and can be played in an endless loop - an analogue GIF.

And the film rolls are also interchangeable!

Drill a hole in the lid and the base of the can with the diameter of our axle, in this case 8 mm. My CenterMarker should be helpful to find the exact center.

We cut a rectangular opening of approx. 4x6 cm in the centre of the shell of the can, as shown in the photo. The flaps should not be cut off, we will need the upper one later. It is not bent over completely, it is our thumb for the flip book. Watch out for sharp edges!

Our axle should protrude approx. 2-3 cm at each end of the can. Together with a piece of wood with two holes and another short piece of axle, this makes our crank.

Cutting slots into a cylinder with a saw is far too time-consuming and imprecise. Therefore a small 3D printed aid.

The hole in the center is designed for approx. 8 mm and must be reworked with a drill.

For all who have no 3D printer: a cardboard tube will do the job too. Gluing is then more difficult

Palingenesis had an ingenious idea: sandpaper grinding tools for the drill as picture holders. The paper strips can be easily glued into it. Thank you!

The small picture holder has 48 slots for photos. There are many programs to extract the frames from a video clip. I used this online converter here: ezgif.com

You can set the frame rate to 5, 10 or 20. Assuming we choose 10, we can display a 4.8 second clip. Using a video editing program of your choice, we need to produce such a clip.

Then I copied the individual images onto a WORD document (three columns per page) and printed them out.

Print out & cut.

There are two main options for sticking them on: one cheap and one very cheap:

a) The picture holder is printed out and possibly reworked. It has slots for 48 pictures. One picture is glued into each slot. Pay attention to the correct order.

The scales show a roll weight of 28 grams of PLA filament. That is a cost of around €0.56

b) If you don't have a printer or don't like plastic, you can also use a wooden roll covered with firm paper to which the individual pictures are then glued. Tip: Only stick a few pictures at a time, then allow them to set before continuing. This way, nothing shifts.

c) For a 3rd great idea of Palingenesis see Step 4.

A little adhesive foil, cardboard, wrapping paper, wallpaper, ... can be used to beautify the can.

Put the lid on the axle, then the film roll and everything into the can. Mark the direction of rotation on the lid - done!