Cinemagraphs are a great tool to add some rich content, without pulling too much attention away from the main focus of a page. They are videos that have no audio and automatically loop, functioning very similarly to .gif files, but at much higher quality.
How to Create Your Own Cinemagraphs
Want to create a unique cinemagraph of your own? It's really easy! Just follow the steps below.
Step 1: Setup your camera on a tripod (make sure there is no camera movement)
Step 2: Take 10-30 seconds worth of video
Step 3: Review footage
Step 4: Upload to your Google Drive or DropBox, or save to your local files
Step 5: Use your new cinemagraph in your next storybook
Pro Tip: You can ask your photographer to grab this footage when they take photographs of the property, or you can take it yourself using a professional video camera or even your iPhone.
There is also the option to use cinemagraphs in a more involved way, using them more like video than images. The stable shot approach is still best, but you may also want to use a video editing tool that creates a looping or boomerang effect on the footage for the smoothest looping transition.
A cinemagraph library is available in the design wizard, for use on all projects!
To add in your cinemagraphs, follow the same process as video, but select "cinemagraph" from the interactive options, and the file can be hosted on Google Drive or DropBox, or uploaded from local files.
We recommend using Cinemagraph pro to loop your videos, even the more subtle ones, to avoid any 'jumping' in the final result.
Other cinemagraph creation options:
Plotaverse: Which is a web service that creates cinemagraphs and short looped video from still images. You can move the space in the image to add the illusion of water & clouds moving, as well as add in simple FX overlays to the images for additional animation.
Pixaloop/Motionleap : which is a mobile app that allows you to create looped videos that can be used as cinemagraphs in our storybooks. You can use their tools to animate images on your own, or you can animate your images with their custom made animated skies, snow, light, animals and other effects as well. Best of all, its free to use, and you can use the images taken on your phone!
Windows 10: For those of you using the windows 10 operating system, you can use the default image viewing application to create quick cinemagraphs!