KPU Student and “GIF Artist” Creates Art in Motion

Philip Intile has gained thousands of followers on Tumblr for his daily animations

A Kwantlen Polytechnic University student has gained a significant following online for his work with animated art. 18 year-old Philip Intile is in his first year of studying information technology and has been creating GIFs for his Tumblr page, PI Slices, since April 2014. Recently, Intile’s page surpassed 50,000 followers.

“I’m pretty happy,” says Intile. “I definitely never thought I’d make it this far.”

Intile has been creating and posting a GIF every day and is learning more about the process with every animation. Each GIF can take from 10 minutes to an hour to create, largely depending on how long it takes him to come up with an idea. He uses Cinema 4D—a program that he says carries such an immense amount of options and possibilities for creation that he’s still learning what can be done—for his work.

“There’s so much to do in that program. I’ve been using it every day for the last two and a half years and there’s still things that I don’t know how to do,” says Intile. “For the most part it’s just sort of pressing buttons until you make something that looks interesting.”

He was inspired to start creating GIFs by the work of other Tumblr users on his feed. He was able to reach out to a few of these artists, and some were helpful enough to provide him with access to their own project files and useful advice on how to get started.

“I’d see people’s GIFs pop up on my feed once in a while and thought it was pretty interesting and wanted to see how it’s made,” says Intile.

He’s also inspired often by the things he sees in his day-to-day life.

“There could be ideas just from seeing things outside. If the motion is inspiring, I might want to do something similar,” he says.

Recently, Intel’s work was featured on the CBC documentary program Exhibitionists which profiles the work of Canadian artists both established and budding. His episode aired on Oct. 9 and featured examples of Intile’s work, exploring his inspiration, process, and drive to create.

In addition to creating GIFs for the love of the craft, Intile has also taken to doing paid promotions. He has been approached by companies like Nissan and Vine to create promotional animations, and has also created visuals for live music performances for bands like Giraffage and Le Youth. Intile hopes that he’ll be able to continue making GIFs as a career well into the future.