How to Create a Cinemagraph: Best Tutorials on the Web

You may have seen a few by now; the GIF has roared back to life with a “new” art form refered to as a cinemagraph. These graphics are simply images with small (and sometimes not-so-small) additions of movement, usually just enough to catch your eye: not a video but not a still shot, either. Common examples of animation added in the image include adding wind movement to hair or fabrics, giving motion to tires on vehicles, or including other subtle changes such as in the following:

This new trend for web graphics is eye-catching and is quickly becoming more popular for banner ads, where capturing attention is of the utmost importance. However, maybe in the future cinemagraphs will become the leading format for images on the web. If you have a need or even just a desire to learn cinemagraphy, you are in luck. Fortunately, making a cinemagraph is fairly easy with the right tools and a little bit of know-how. The following are a list of need-to-know basics using Photoshop and other common design tools so you can start building your own cinemagraphs today:

Importing a Movie into Photoshop

If you already have a movie you want to use, this tutorial walks you through importing the video into Photoshop, presents some compression tips, and finally shows how to export to the GIF format.

Using the Puppet Warp Tool in in Photoshop CS5

Got a still image you want to create a cinemagraph out of? No problem! Russell Brown presents an excellent tutorial on the amazing Puppet Warp Tool built into Photoshop CS5. With Puppet Warp, you can manipulate photos and create amazing cinemagraphs from still photos. Brown’s tutorial is a beginner level tutorial of the Puppet Warp Tool.

Puppet Warp Tool to Animations in Photoshop CS5

Now that you know more about the Puppet Warp Tool from Russel Brown’s tutorial, this tutorial walks you through how to go from still image to fully animated GIF. Less detailed than the previous versions, it covers a high-level walk-through of Puppet Warp Tools and how to export your final product.

Extracting Complex Backgrounds: Quick Walk-Thru

Do you need to get the background out of an image so you can use it for your cinemagraph? This tutorial walks you through how to use Photoshop’s Refine Edge Tool to clean up your image for easy use. It covers the critical “Decontaminate” feature.

Extracting Complex Backgrounds: Detailed Walk-Thru

For a far more detailed discussion, we turn back to Russell Brown of Adobe to give us a complete breakdown of the Extraction Tool in CS5.

The Complete Walk-Through

To see the master tutorial break down of an image from the beginning to end, creating the now notorious waving hair cinemagraph, check out this video. You’ll see all the tricks applied to create a completed cinemagraph.

How to Make Cinemagraphs

This great cinemagraph tutorial begins by giving an overview of what cinemagraphs are and where they came from. It then goes on to present a list of ingredients, gives helpful tips for how to plan your cinemagraph, and lastly includes detailed steps for creating your own cinemagraph.

Cinemagraphs: Useful Skills

The best part about learning to create cinemagraphs is that you will acquire several valuable skills useful for many other projects. Imagine the impression that your portfolio can give to prospective clients when it includes cinemagraphs!