On top of all that, you need to have a good eye for deliciously succinct sexiness. You not only need to be proficient with certain editing tools, but also patient enough to search for videos that will translate well into the GIF format. While seemingly simple, making porn GIFs requires its own kind of craft. “Something about a GIF is like pop music or fast food: instantly consumable.” “The perfect GIF is the climax of a certain porn scene or video, e.g., where an actor unclasps their bra to reveal their breasts, or pulls down their briefs to reveal a throbbing penis, or the moment where full penetration occurs,” said Reddit user SparklyRen, a lawyer in his late 20s who identifies as gay and moderates various subreddits like r/GayPorn and r/GayGifs (currently at 92,000 members).
Many of the folks we talked to - from aficionados to NSFW GIF creators themselves - say it is by far their favorite, if not their only, form of porn consumption, and for good reason. But the short-form format isn’t all that’s unique about porn GIFs. Porn GIFs distill any variety of adult video into a looping image that can last from mere seconds to a full minute. When the GIF became the internet’s preferred visual language, it simultaneously became the preferred lust language for many consumers of adult entertainment. Welcome to Porn Week, Mashable's annual close up on the business and pleasure of porn.
