In the age of social media sharing, people always look for newer and better ways to edit their photos. For a time, interactive filters and Boomerang flooded everyone’s feeds. (They still do, but mostly in Instagram Stories.) Now people are creating their own cinemagraphs.
A cinemagraph is described as “still photographs in which a minor and repeated movement occurs, forming a video clip.” Another way to describe it is that it looks like the moving photos in Harry Potter. This technique was also made popular on America’s Next Top Model Cycle 20.
Recently, we spotted posts from blogger Lexi Mendiola and model Gisele Bündchen wherein they made the waves move.
We were curious as to what app they used to create that effect. Luckily, TV host Marie Lozano posted about Plotaverse and shared a mini tutorial on her Instagram Stories Highlights.
Looking at the tutorial, creating a cinemagraph seemed intimidating. What are those arrows? Why are there so many arrows? So I decided to download Plotaverse and test it out. First, I chose a photo from the beach to make the water move. The trick is to place the arrows on the part that you want to animate. It’s also important to mask and anchor the parts that you don’t want to move.
My first attempt at it is wonky. You could clearly see that the rocks were moving even though it shouldn’t. Woops!
I tried it again on two other photos, and they looked slightly better. I need to lessen the masking though because you can see where the waves cut out.
Overall, creating cinemagraphs is fascinating despite all the things you have to do to perfect it. You just need a lot of practice with other subjects like the sky and even a plain wall. If you want to try it out, you can download it for free on the Apple Store and Google Play, but you have to pay P249 after the three-day trial. (You can cancel the trial any time, don’t worry.) So go experiment with it before deciding if you want to pay for the full version.
Are you into the cinemagraph photo trend too? Feel free to share us your creations on social media!
Art by Yayie Motos
Follow Preen on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Viber
Related stories:
This or That: IG Stories Templates Are the New Social Media Trend
Why Instagram Removed GIFs: Racism
Camille Co, Kryz Uy, and Lauren Young on Their Favorite Photo Apps
Travel Photography Tips From Kimi Juan and Martine Cajucom
5 International Getaways to Spruce up Your Instagram Feed
