Animate Your Photos with Plotagraph

Podcast: Download (Duration: 42:55 — 79.0MB)

Could this be a new art form, entirely?

The technique of adding motion to still photographs has been around for quite some time now. Many of us will recognize the art form in “Cinemagraphs”, or even some animated GIFs.

However, one of the inherent limitations has been that the original image typically must be shot as video, then frozen, and then using software a select area (or areas) are “released” to animate. The popularity of 4K video and the ubiquity of cameras that can record it (including some phones) has made the “stills from video” workflow much more tenable, considering each still frame in a 4K video is roughly 8 megapixels — big enough to print. However, the original video must be created with post-production animation in mind, or if it’s a random clip — serendipity. Meaning you have to find a clip that “works”. And that means a clip that was shot on a tripod, and has an area that “makes sense” to animate.

But what if you could grab almost any of the photos you’ve shot over the years, and add selective animation to areas within the the photos? For example; what if you could make the waves move under that awesome Golden Gate bridge” photo you snapped back in 2011? Or what if you could make the clouds move over Half Dome in Yosemite – from a shot you snapped on your iPhone last year? Or what if you could make the sidewalk move and appear to scroll?

All of these things are now possible with the advent of a piece of software called Plotagraph.

Invented by co-founders Sascha Phoenix and Troy Christopher Plota, this remarkable tool allows you to animate almost anything — quickly, easily and in a seamless loop. The results are both convincing and natural.

In this interview I speak with Sascha and Troy about the origins of their software, and where it might be going. Troy also gives us a short tutorial on how easy it is to add animation to your still photos.

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