Appreciation for the Firefighters Gif

While we were all quarantined trying to stay safe, there were so many brave people out there on the front lines risking their own lives in order for us to have a better one. Everyone was and still are showing the first responders their love and thanks in so many ways, whether it’s by drawings and art, sharing stories online, helping their families along with their own, donations, or even by cheering for them during shift changes.

Recently, it was International Firefighters Day, and it came in the midst of all the chaos and scariness. This day became very important for me especially during this time. I have many family members who were and are firefighters as well as family friends. Due to so many of those close to me are out there during this time I felt like I had to show my appreciation for them in some type of way. As a graphic designer I couldn’t think of a better way than as a gif that shows my thanks on a loop.

To create this gif I used the programs Adobe Illustrator for the artwork while using Adobe Photoshop to create the actual gif part of it. As I went through to create each frame I ran into some obstacles and challenges along the way. Some of these challenges including the ladders not rising like I thought they would and how to get the banner to unroll in a realistic way. All in all I wanted to make sure the gif really showed my appreciation without it being to childlike or tacky and to give and show the respect the firefighters deserve.

Read below to find out more about my process for creating this gif

Creating the Gif

When I think of firefighters, the firetruck comes to mind and I knew it had to be a part of the design. I wanted to try to make the firetruck as realistic as possible with all the different parts of the of the truck. So before I went and made it all, I had to do a simple sketch that will be a starting point and a guide for the rest of the design. I also made some notes so that I will remember what I wanted to do with different parts later on. I went with numbering the truck E-1 or 1 because they are one part of the FIRST responders and they (along with the other first responders) are one of the first ones to respond to an emergency during this time.

Making Changes

At first, it was just going to have a moving ladder with a blinking red and blue light, with the words Thank You appearing uniquely above the truck. However, I really thought of the firefighters and how it’s always a family in the houses and it’s never just one truck or one firehouse. So that’s when I decided to still have my orignal idea but also have another truck reflected next to it so they are facing each other. The truck was also missing the name and instead of putting the town I live in, I wanted to include all firefighters so I put FIRE DEPARTMENT as the name for the truck.

After receiving feedback and going through ideas, I realized “Thank You!” needs to come in differently and in a better way. That’s when an idea came to mind. Why don’t I have a banner that unravels and raises by the ladders of the two trucks? Doing this adds a unique aspect to it and makes the gif more engaging. The words, I decided to put in a script like font to give a personal touch to it like someone hand-wrote it.

Adding Color

In order to give the firefighters the appreciation they deserve I wanted to keep the colors true to what they are in real life. I also made the ladder look 3D by copying the ladder, lowering the opacity, putting it behind the existing ladder and offsetting it a little.

Adding the Little Things

After adding the color and type, the trucks were still missing the details, like the hoses, the reflectors, the handles on the back, gauges, and anything that makes it a firetruck. Also by adding the tiny details with the banner, I was able to take it to the next step.

Making it a Gif

Once all of the color and tiny details were straightened out and done, it was time to make it animated. First, I had to take the layers and make them each a frame. Once I did this I ran into some obstacles. Each frame of the gif is different whether it is the ladder in a different position, the lights are red or blue, and how much of the banner is open. In order to make this happen I had to make certain layers visible while hiding others. I also decided to add confetti to make them feel even more special and important when the banner revealed the words Thank You!. It also adds a little fun and happiness in these dark times.

Another problem I ran into was that as I rotated the ladders to make them go up, the position was off and it needed to be adjusted each time. By doing this I had to make sure it wasn’t up or down too far and it wasn’t too much to one side. Just when I thought all the problems had been fixed, more came to light.

More Obstacles to Get Over

When I went to export it, the size was too big so it needed to be reduced. When I reduced it, everything got messed up and had to be put back into it’s spot and be the correct size. This was time consuming and got really confusing after a while with all the layers. Then I noticed that I accidentally had the wrong resolution, in that it was set to the smallest resolution which is why the text was very blurry. After setting it to 300 ppi, I had to clean it up again, align everything, and then it was all set to be exported. The gif exported smoothly and was a sucess.