As always, we begin with MHDR, which defines the overall size of the image area. I've also included a gamma chunk so that the (nighttime) animation won't look too dark or too bright on other computer systems. The animation timing is set by the FRAM chunk, and then we begin loading sprite data for the six poses. The DEFI chunk (``define image'') is one I haven't discussed so far; it is included here to set the potential visibility of the first pose explicitly--in this case, we want the first pose to be visible. After the IHDR, PLTE, IDAT, and IEND chunks defining the first pose is a clone chunk, indicating that the second object (the second pose in the six-pose sequence) is to be created by copying the first object. The CLON chunk also indicates that the second object is not potentially visible yet. It is followed by the delta-PNG chunks that define the second image; we can imagine either that the IDAT represents a complete replacement for the pixels in the first image, with the delta part referring to the inheritance of the first image's palette chunk, or perhaps the second image is truly a pixel-level delta from the first image. Either way, the third through sixth images are defined similarly.

The heart of the animation is the loop at the end. In this case, I've included a MOVE chunk, which moves the animation objects to the left by a few pixels every iteration, and a SHOW chunk to advance the poses in sequence. If there are 600 iterations in the loop, the animation will progress through 100 six-pose cycles.

The complete eight-reindeer version would be very similar, but instead of defining full clones of the sprite frames, each remaining reindeer would be represented by partial clones of the six original poses. In effect, a partial clone is an empty object: it has its own object ID, visibility, and location, but it points at another object for its image data--in this case, at one of the six existing poses. So the seven remaining reindeer would be represented by 42 CLON chunks, of which seven would have the potential-visibility flag turned on. The loop would now include a total of eight SHOW chunks, each advancing one of the reindeer sprite's poses; a single MOVE chunk would still suffice to move all eight forward. Of course, this is still not quite the original design; this version has all eight reindeer galloping synchronously. To have them gallop at different rates would require separate FRAM chunks for each one.[98]

[98] Note that Rudolph could be encoded as a set of six tiny delta-PNGs relative to the six original poses. Of course, to get that realistic Rudolph glow would require a semitransparent reddish region around his olfactory appendage, which necessarily involves either an alpha channel or a full tRNS chunk. But now we're talking True Art, and no sacrifice is too great.