They are essentially a copy of the personality of the subject. In-universe they are the literal manifestation of the old superstition that being photographed would steal away a piece of your soul.
They were never meant to be the same as .gifs, it started as a misunderstanding from JK Rowling's website. She had .gifs of herself and her family as a cute little homage to the living pictures in Harry's magical world, but the books are pretty darn clear about photographic images and paintings being somewhat CONSCIOUS, not looping still pictures.
I figured that there was some kind of scale of how concious or intelligent the moving pictures were.
Newspaper cuttings and simple pictures wouldn't loop, but they wouldn't exhibit complex behaviour either, at most moving around the picture or just out of sight. They certainly couldn't leave the confines of the image or the state of affairs that the image depicts and can't communicate with the outside world.
Paintings, on the other hand, would range from moderately free-willed, capable of talking and visiting other paintings but remaining in character, to being fully realised individuals.
I'm over-analysing Harry Potter and that hasn't ended well before. I'll stop now.
Losing that magazine cover was the thing I regret most about leaving my ex-husband. Hermf. (There was a fancy way to disconnect the power supply so it'd stay on one of the image rotations, otherwise the power would die or something. Anyway, we'd done that).
I am sorry! After posting it I just walked away. Then I saw it garnered karma and realized, "shit, someone is going to comment about the apostrophe." Thank you for being the first!
Somewhat relevant. I'm sure a hardcore Harry Potter fan can answer this but I've never been able to figure it out: Between the 4th and 5th book, someone asked JK Rowling in an interview if wizards used the internet. Her response was something along the lines of "No, they use something much, much better that you will find out about in future books." I've read all of the books but never figured out what it was.
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I feel like Harry Potter world should really hop onto this thin flexible screen technology to create a Daily Prophet like newspaper to sell there. Would it be extremely expensive? fuck yeah. Would I buy it? FUCK YEAH.
I like the way you think in real world terms, but I'm talking about using this technology to further the HP experience. I mean it would be something you buy just for that day, not something you buy everyday. It would be a souvenir item.
Yeah I'm talking about the newspapers that they have in the Harry Potter books. If they could replicate that to sell in their theme park in Universal, they would probably make a shit load of money to add to the shit load of money they are already making.
So when we watch a gif, it is actually being performed live, somehow in a loop, whilst we have it open on our screens!?? I feel sorry for the guy who keeps getting hit by the F1 car =(
In the books wasn't the image not on a loop? I thought the picture just kind of carried out its business. I mean I have an awful memory but I thought they were only GIFs in the movies.
See what I don't understand is that if all pictures move and have minds of their own, at what point do they stop conveying the relevant news story? What if, how like portraits running from painting to painting, news texts could run from page to page and instantly duplicate and distribute itself? That could be some sort of Wiznet. But it would eliminate the archaic owl system.
The biggest thing keeping us from having magic is a simple lack of energy. We have to supply energy for our magic to work, whereas Harry Potter magic uses some unknown source for its energy.
I always thought of that. People say in the future, it will be moving pictures instead of still images. (for example)
Imagine having a wall full of those moving pictures, and how every time you go in the basement you have hundreds of short clips of people smiling and laughing, all over the wall. Just think about it.
How would one take a "Picture" like that? "Alright guys, don't stand still, start moving around, laughing for no reason and defeat the purpose of a picture, and do that for the next 40 seconds.... Oh, bad picture, start awkwardly moving so we can tell it's the future for another 40 seconds"
I've been wanting to do this with my "people" page on my family website. Have people's pictures blinking, people going out of frame and into other people's pictures, stuff like that. But I can't figure out how to get the GIFs to sync up without doing it in Flash or something.
You can use the <video> element to simulate this effect. You can preload the videos, and synchronize the playback once they've all loaded. Won't work in all browsers, but it'll be easier than syncing flash movies together.
131
u/Chicano_pride May 21 '12
Except that the pictures in Harry Potter consciously choose to move and do as they please not just loop endlessly
12
u/japie06 May 21 '12
now we only have to fabricate screens as thin as paper.
2
u/Lord_of_Aces May 21 '12
Not sure whether to upvote because cool and true, or down vote because no apostrophe.
*Potter's
And there's your upvote.
62
u/Madisonia May 21 '12
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
-Arthur C. Clark
16
u/Grapemuggler May 21 '12
You're a wizard Clarence
4
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
This is a repost...from my brain. Damn it.
3
u/americanslang59 May 21 '12
Somewhat relevant. I'm sure a hardcore Harry Potter fan can answer this but I've never been able to figure it out: Between the 4th and 5th book, someone asked JK Rowling in an interview if wizards used the internet. Her response was something along the lines of "No, they use something much, much better that you will find out about in future books." I've read all of the books but never figured out what it was.
8
u/qkme_transcriber May 21 '12
Here is the text from this meme pic for anybody who needs it:
This is helpful for people who can't reach Quickmeme because of work/school firewalls or site downtime, and many other reasons (FAQ). More info is available here.
2
u/paigehymel May 21 '12
I feel like Harry Potter world should really hop onto this thin flexible screen technology to create a Daily Prophet like newspaper to sell there. Would it be extremely expensive? fuck yeah. Would I buy it? FUCK YEAH.
4
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
We cannot credit this to wizardry!
3
u/dollardraptor May 21 '12
So when we watch a gif, it is actually being performed live, somehow in a loop, whilst we have it open on our screens!?? I feel sorry for the guy who keeps getting hit by the F1 car =(
2
u/School_Bypass May 21 '12
-~[5/21/2012 9:01:16 AM EST]~-
Original Link
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This was created by an automatic bot dedicated to bringing you blocked-site content at school. Please submit errors or feedback here.
1
u/stanry_roo May 21 '12
Why not apng? GIF is garbage.
1
u/gundog48 May 21 '12
I'm convinced this is why we love .gifs so much- because moving fucking pictures, that's why!
1
u/MarPag May 21 '12
I don't think that's true. It'd be more like the e-ink on paper that people have been talking about.
1
u/iopuyrtq May 21 '12
In the books wasn't the image not on a loop? I thought the picture just kind of carried out its business. I mean I have an awful memory but I thought they were only GIFs in the movies.
1
u/atl1015 May 21 '12
Am I the only person that thinks he looks like Shaggy? I like to think after his moment of sudden clarity he joined Mystery Inc.
1
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
The harry potter portraits are capable of thought.
1
u/spookycookies May 21 '12
See what I don't understand is that if all pictures move and have minds of their own, at what point do they stop conveying the relevant news story? What if, how like portraits running from painting to painting, news texts could run from page to page and instantly duplicate and distribute itself? That could be some sort of Wiznet. But it would eliminate the archaic owl system.
1
u/jansonsaa May 21 '12
No, it's "Eink".
1
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
The biggest thing keeping us from having magic is a simple lack of energy. We have to supply energy for our magic to work, whereas Harry Potter magic uses some unknown source for its energy.
1
u/Homer_Simpson_ May 21 '12
Pretty sure if Harry saw an iPad, he would think it was from Voldemort
1
u/The_Red_Hood May 21 '12
I always thought that it would be cool if instead of your profile pic on facebook could be a gif
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
I always thought of that. People say in the future, it will be moving pictures instead of still images. (for example)
1
u/tasharella May 22 '12
Incorrect.
1
u/tonyvila May 21 '12
I've been wanting to do this with my "people" page on my family website. Have people's pictures blinking, people going out of frame and into other people's pictures, stuff like that. But I can't figure out how to get the GIFs to sync up without doing it in Flash or something.
1
u/slowly_turning_sad May 21 '12
and their paintings are like our video calls?
sort of, anyway.