Cinemagraphs — a still photo with one moving part — have spread to every corner of the internet over the last couple of years. These tutorials will show you how to make your very own animated GIF cinemagraphs in After Effects and Photoshop.

1. Learn how to use Photoshop, After Effects, and two dedicated tools—Flixel and Cliplets—to explore the possibilities of cinemagraphs: static photos that contain areas of motion.
2. 1 file(s) 14.94 MB. 3 Amazing Custom Logo Animation Tips in After Effects. March 10th, 2021 0 Comments. 4 High Energy Distortion Effects in After.
3. Create a Cinemagraph with After Effects & Particle Illusion February 12, 2021 This is a simple tutorial that gives you an introduction to Boris FX Particle Illusion and Cinemagraphs. It’s fairly beginner level but a basic understanding of After Effects is helpful.

Learn how to use Photoshop, After Effects, and two dedicated tools—Flixel and Cliplets—to explore the possibilities of cinemagraphs: static photos that contain areas of motion. How to make a Cinemagraph with Photoshop and After Effects from Kert Gartner on Vimeo. From Kert: In this tutorial we take a look at how to make a Cinemagraph with Adobe Photoshop and After Effects. Cinemagraphs, a term coined by Jamie Beck & Kevin Burg, are not quite photographs, and not quite video. They straddle a line somewhere in between.

Image via Shutterstock

Have you seen those animated GIF images bouncing around the internet on Facebook and Tumblr? They’re pretty cool, huh? What if I told you that you don’t have to be a world-class video editor to put one together. It’s actually quite simple and can be easily accomplished. Before we jump in, here’s an example of what we’re talking about.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

With the right composition and a careful juxtaposition between the still part of the image and the moving part, cinemagraphs really can be quite beautiful. Let’s explore how you can edit one of your own with either After Effects or Photoshop. But first, in case you are looking to shoot your footage yourself, here are a few helpful points.

Tips for Shooting Cinemagraph Footage

Image via Shutterstock

There’s no reason to overcomplicate this, but you do want to make sure the footage you’re working with is shot correctly and ready to edit. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. Keep Your Shot Static and Stable

Shooting a cinemagraph is similar to shooting a timelapse. You need your camera in a static position where it doesn’t move around in the slightest. A tripod is always the best way to go, but in a pinch you can place it on a solid surface — just don’t leave it in your hands!

2. Shoot Enough Footage

A cinemagraph usually isn’t more than a few seconds, but to put together a good edit, you’ll need to shoot longer than that. Especially if you’re looking for something specific in your image, you’ll want to have a decent single take to pull from. I recommend at least 20-30 seconds for a 2-3 second cinemagraph.

3. Set Your Focus

Cinemagraphs, like their name implies, are cinematic in nature. That is, they employ the same cinemagraphic elements which you see in professional photography. A key component is depth of field and focus. I suggest putting the part of your cinemagraph which you want to be in motion as the focus with a shallow depth of field making everything else more blurry.

Edit Your Cinemagraph in Photoshop

Like I said at the beginning, the basics of creating a cinemagraph are actually quite simple. The entire process is built around creating a loop, duplicating a still layer, and covering up everything but the motion. For those most comfortable with photography, Photoshop is a great option for putting together your cinemagraph. Photoshop Tutorials by PHLEARN is a good resource for Photoshop and has a nice tutorial for cinemagraph editing.

Edit Your Cinemagraph in After Effects

If you’re more of a video editor than photography editor, After Effects will be your better option and will offer you a little more control. It is also a better resource for adding other effects if you’re looking to really create something magical. The concepts remains the same, but here’s a step-by-step tutorial for After Effects (and another take on Photoshop as well) by Vox Lab.

Cinemagraph After Effects Book

Other Resources to Try

Outside of After Effects and Photoshop, you can also work with third-party software and online platforms to create and even host your cinemagraphs. Here are a few to check out.

• Fixel — a subscription Mac-friendly cloud-based app, Fixel allows you to share and stream, watermark your work, destination link, and license and control your work.
• Cliplets — a free Windows-based app that allows you to upload and mix a static image with dynamic elements by pausing the background elements which you wish to freeze.
• Giphy — while not an actual resource for creating your cinemagraph, it is a great place to find others, host your own, or animate GIFs from your longer video clips. A cinemagrapher’s go-to in a pinch.

Have any other cinemagraph tips or tricks? Let us know in the comments.

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My last post in March was the beginning of a cinemagraph conquest, and I thought surely I’d have it all figured out in a few rounds of shooting…. Wrong! These moving photographs are challenging! With aspects of photography – in composition, editing & color correcting – and elements of film – preparing your set to show the subtle motion to reveal your story – it is a dream for the artist like me, who has an equal passion for photography and film.

I’m realizing on each set, the extent of preparation needed, and the extent of techniques that can be utilized to make cinemagraph magic. Some people use After Effects in addition to photoshop. Some people use Flixel (recently promoted by Tyra Banks) and similar apps on their phones to do animations in their images… Personally, I use only Photoshop.

Cinemagraph After Effects

During my last shoot, my model met me at a nearby abandoned distillery. It was a hot summer day but we made it work. He gave me some awesome shots like this:

I laid on the ground to get a unique angle on him with an American flag behind him. The wind was not consistent, so it did take a few shots to get the flag movement that I planned to use during post-edits. When I composed the shot, I made sure to “isolate the movement” – as in, the motion I plan to reveal can’t have any additional moving parts behind it. Multiple elements can move together, but if you choose too many motions, it just looks like a video! Gama was dressed in red, white and blue, so obviously the flag was my focus in this image. I asked him to stand still in his poses, and move slowly from different positions. If one of his poses stood out more, I could later choose any of those layers for my “alpha” to overlay the image. After filming, I imported the video into layers via photoshop. You can select a portion of your video or import the whole thing. I recommend shorter videos. Less frames = more control and your computer won’t lock up!! (Your computer memory plays an important part during editing)

Choose File… , Import, Video frames to layers… and from there you’lll have the option to reduce frames, shorten your video, etc.

Once your layers show up, if your animation bar is not onscreen, go to Window, and click Animation.

Scroll through your frames and choose which one to use as your ALPHA. Duplicate the layer on the right side of your screen, and move it to the very top above all the other layers. Very important! If you want to edit saturation, brightness, etc. you need to do this AFTER creating your ALPHA layer. In one of my last posts, I edited before revealing motion, but I’ve discovered it’s much simpler doing it after…

Select the remaining layers, excluding the ALPHA, and if you’re on a MAC hit Command-G. Otherwise, click Layers, then click “Group Layers”. Since my last post, I’ve found a quicker way to reveal motion. (There are many ways to do this!) I choose the ALPHA layer on the right, click the little box to the left of the layer so the eye is visible… and I play the animation to make sure nothing is moving. If nothing is moving, I’m ready to mask my movement. If it continues to show motion, you may need to deselect layers on the right side so that only your ALPHA is visible with the eye next to it.

When ready to mask, I use the magnetic lasso tool (on the left toolbar) to select a portion or all of the area where I want to show movement. I select the inverse, and from the Layer menu, I choose Layer Mask->Reveal Selection. If you play the animation again, this selected part should continue to move while the rest of the image is still. Select the little white(or black) box on the ALPHA layer on the right hand side… this is the layer mask and you can continue to edit this from here. I choose the little paintbrush on the left toolbar and perfect the mask, adding or taking out any additional parts that need to move in my image.

When I’m happy with the movement in my cinemagraph, I add any color corrections in layers above the ALPHA. From here, it applies to all layers below. Be sure there is no clipping masks attached to the layers, or it will only apply to the layer immediately below. I add any filters (sharp, etc.) to my ALPHA layer. It will not reveal the filter on your moving parts, so at the moment I am choosing each individual layer, making it visible with the little eye to the left, and then hitting Command-F. This applies the same filter you just applied. There may be a quicker way to do this, but I haven’t figured it out just yet.

After saving a .psd file, choose File->Save for Web & Devices… and make sure your options are correct. Unnamed preset, GIF Format, Adaptive, 256 Colors, Diffusion at 100% Dither, Looping Options “Forever”, etc. This increases the GIF quality. If you don’t have enough memory, cancel the save and resize the image as you would a normal picture. (I don’t go below 1000 px if I can help it…) Then go to Save for Web & Devices again, and try again. It should allow you to do it this time. If not, you may have too many layers, that cause your computer to run too slow.

Here’s what Gama gave me for our Red, White & Blue shot: