ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Moving image formats

Okay, let's say you have a picture of your favorite animal, like a cat. You can look at that picture all day long, and it won't change. But what if you wanted to see that cat move around, and maybe hear it meow too? That's where moving image formats come in!

Moving image formats are ways that we can save pictures that have been turned into a video, like a cat walking around. Some popular moving image formats are .GIF, .MP4, and .AVI. They work like a really long string of pictures that change one after the other really quickly, like a flipbook.

Each format has different qualities that make them good for different things. For example, .GIFs are good for short, funny clips because they are small and easy to share on the internet. But .MP4s and .AVIs are better for longer, higher quality videos because they can store a lot more information.

So, when you see a video of a cat on your favorite website or app, it's actually just a lot of pictures moving really fast, saved in one of these moving image formats. Cool, huh?