Cinemagraph: Fashionable animated .gif

We can call it the rebirth of animated .gif because it’s never been so fashionable. Yes, kids. These are not your mother’s animated .gifs. These are animated .gifs with stiletto heels that make your head turn.

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When I first ran into a cinemagraph and realized it is basically a very refined animated .gif, I was thoroughly impressed. Jamie Beck, a NY-based photographer, and her fiance, Kevin Burg, have been making sweet images using this “cinemagraph” technique on her blog, From Me To You, and getting people to notice them.

By combining still photography and video to finely animate the image, the results are stunning; the still photography seems to unfreeze in front of your eyes. Sometimes the effect is a nice little peek-a-boo that makes you do a double-take and notice.

The Coco Rocha shot reminds me of the head-turning (literally!) Burberry Eyewear, with that little jolt of surprise. The date night shot below reminds me of the DKNY Uncoverthecity.com we created in in 2007, where the New York cityscape became the focus instead of the backdrop and the city came alive with the infusion of ambient animation.

It’s that special little something that makes you really notice. And here’s that word again: Notice. We—designers, photographers, artists—continuously look for ways to make something that people will notice. We use bold splashes of colors, big typography, quiet minimalism, fluid motion, 3-dimensional spatial movements…All to make the audience take notice and stop (to admire, to reflect, to feel what you want them to feel), and maybe stay and come back for more.

What I love about Jamie’s cinemagraph is its simplicity. Jamie describes it as “a traditional still photograph with a moment living within it.”¹

Of course it doesn’t hurt that Jamie’s photography is just stunning. (Yes, Jamie,  you make me wish I have your Hasselblad!) Love that she still uses film; it’s so old-school good, you can visually feel the film grains.

More importantly, the duo realize that not everything can be made into cinemagraphs—just because you find a way to “cinemagraph” it. This is their rule of thumb:

“A cinemagraph always starts with a photograph. As a rule of thumb, we only create a cinemagraph from subject matter that would also make a good still photo.”

Plus, it can take several hours of manual editing² to create each image with a level of sophistication that they have. Just because you can paint a Picasso, doesn’t mean you can paint like Picasso…or something like that. Yes?

The recent resurgence of the animated .gif has made some people notice (see my post “Fun Retro Web” in March 2010 on I’m Not An Artist animated .gif galore) and I’m glad some very talented people have taken it further and in a style better than I’ve ever put much thought into. Hats off to you, animated-gif-agitators!

Who knew you’d ever look at an animated .gif and see the potential, and yet here we are.

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¹Turnstyle News: So Long Animated GIFs, Hello Cinemagraph

²The Atlantic: How Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg Create Their Animated GIFs. There are a few tutorials by others attempting to decode and recreate (see Matt Braga‘s how-to) but none produces the results like hers—Jamie just did a superfine job and at, what I would guess, a really high framerate to give her cinemagraphs that ethereal quality.

Photo credit: Jamie Beck