It can mean that you’re experiencing a brief inconvenience or it can be a sign that you’re in for a major problem—either way, no one wants to see the loading icon. Unless, of course, that loader is made in a beautiful stop motion celebration of waiting for your dang computer to do its job.
Raphael Vangelis says it took him about a year-and-a-half to make this two-minute compilation of loaders in his spare time. He bought a 3D printer to make each object and taught himself how to use it. There’s also a separate making-of video that gives you a glimpse of the painstaking process.
The conceptual reasoning behind making a tribute to loading icons through the notoriously slow stop-motion process is pretty obvious. He calls the final result “an homage to all the lost time we collectively spend in digital limbo in the hopes of sudden development on our screen.” While the overall tone of Vangelis approach leans towards the twee, some parts remind me of David Daniels’ horrifying MTV bumpers from the ‘90s. Maybe I’m just projecting my deep-seated loathing for these icons.
So, go ahead, voluntarily stare at those infuriating loaders in the full short below.