Research Into Animating Still Images

While putting some time into my research looking at the animation of still, static images, I came across the following cool innovation.

It's called Cinemagraphy, and is a cool technique used to blend still images with actual moving footage. It was actually introduced by a New York fashion photographer called Jamie Beck in collaboration with a motion graphics designer named Kevin Burg.

Jamie says “We wanted to tell more of a story than a single frame photograph, but didn’t want the high maintenance aspect of a video…cinemagraphs were born out of a need to tell a story in a fast digital age.” 

Since they started the idea, many more have taken it and run with it further, to create some truly awesome cinemagraphs. They're kind of like really sophisticated and well refined animated gifs, and look really cool in motion, even cooler if you don't expect them to be animated!

Anyway here's some of the ones I found which impressed me most. They might take a moment to load properly, so bare with them, and enjoy!

What I like about them is how manageable they are. They take up less space than a video file, have the artistic look and feel of fantastic still photography, and an amazing potential to tell quite a story. I believe there's alot that can be done with the idea, and look forward to both seeing how it grows, and also, playing with it myself.

It's an effective and impressive way to animate still imagery, and one that could suit my own idea to a tee.