A Simple Cinemagraph Tutorial

Cinemagraphs are more than a photo, but not quite video.

The cinemagraph is simply an animated .gif file with a more artistic feel that the standard one. You first need a great picture that looks amazing as a still photo.  When you have your composition perfect and everything is ready, ask your model or models to stay as still as possible for you to take a video in the highest resolution that your camera will output. Remember using a tripod minimizes camera shake.  I use 1080p at 25 fps this will help you to have a better picture quality when you work with the frames.

Now that you have your video, open Photoshop CS5 go to file>open and search for the video

In the animation palette select only the frames that you want for the movement, one or two seconds are enough in most cases, but feel free to make your own decisions.  When you are happy with the selection go to file>export>Render Video… Then rename the file and hit Render.

Now go to File>import>video frame to layers…  Now the animation palette imports the frames and in the layers palette have all the frames in layers that you can mask and edit.  Select the fist frame and in the layer palette; only the fist layer would be visible.  This is going to be the still photograph.  Select the second frame and in the layer palette select both the fist layer and the second layer. Mask the second layer to show the part you want to move.

Continue to do the same with all the frames just remember that the layers that are visible are the ones that are going to appear in that specific frame.

You can preview the animation at anytime by pressing the space bar.

To make an smooth transition in the animation, the first frame must be the same as the last frame. Select all frames copy and paste them after the original frames.  Now in the animation palette menu select Reverse frame and you are done.

Select the time for each frame to show, play with the value until you like the result. You can add adjustment layers to your liking as well.  Since its going to be a .gif file we are limited with 256 colors thats why its a good idea to give a Duo Tone or cross-processing to limit the color and get the most out of the final composition.

To save the animation go to File>save for web and device, select gif, make sure the animation loop is set to forever and your done!

- fernandojbaez.com