A few months ago, the internet was all aflutter about a wonderful illustrated GIF that appeared on a New York Times opinion piece about Amtrak’s Quiet Car– the GIF was a sweet and subtle animation of the train interior with muted scenery flying by in the windows. This GIF magic was drawn by Brooklyn artist Rebecca Mock, who has a particular talent for creating charming illustrations with simple animated effects: in one GIF, the ceiling fan lazily spins above a sleeping couple, and in another, nothing is perceptibly moving besides a sign swinging in the wind and one lone “Don’t Walk” signal blinking alongside. 

“I really like cinemagraphs — GIFs that are made to look like ‘still’ photographs but have a moving element,” Mock says in an interview conducted via instant message (I’ve edited the transcript lightly for style). “I like to think of my GIFs like they’re clips from movies or a window into a scene, that kind of thing.”

  Interview with Rebecca on Poynter