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Cinemagraphs

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These pictures go beyond just animated gifs, they are photographs with a bit of movement. The movement should be about atmosphere, not action. Inspired by the iwdrm and From Me to You blogs.

The distinction between Cinemagraphs and gifs

Here are a few how to's on how to make your own Cinemagraphs. If you have any others, message the mods and let us know! The more accessible this medium, the better.

Some apps for making Cinemagraphs:

Flixel

Echograph

Cinemagram

Some guide lines:

1) No regular .gifs. That defeats the entire purpose of this subreddit. They will be removed. Could someone conceivably frame a still image of the cinemagraph and hang it on the wall, because it would also make a great photograph? If the answer is no, the mods will delete the post, because it's a .gif not a cinemagraph.

2) They don't have to be flawless, but do your best too. The point of this subreddit is high-quality Cinemagraphs.

3) Make sure to put [NSFW] tags. That should go without saying.

4) If you found it on stumbleupon or on a major site, chances are it's already been posted. Take the 5-10 seconds to search and see if it's been clearly posted.

FAQ (Will be updated as more arise)

1) How do I make a cinemagraph my desktop background?

2) "Do I need to give credit/cite my posts?" YES. If the cinemgraph is not your original, you must post the source and give credit. It is unfair to the creator not to.

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all 28 comments

[–]juktd14[S] 53 points54 points ago

Shit. No 's' just the single .gif, sorry folks

[–]easyfuckingpeasy 23 points24 points ago

SOURCE, if anyone is interested.

[–]Spitfire75 6 points7 points ago

Is it possible to use these as a live wallpaper on my android phone?

[–]Crankrune 2 points3 points ago

Try this.

[–]jbird123 0 points1 point ago

Great source, thanks!

[–]woxy_lutz 1 point2 points ago

Wasn't this one part of a whole series of amazing New York cinemagraphs? Can't for the life of me remember the creator/curator's website, though.

[–]juktd14[S] 1 point2 points ago

Yes it was, I found it months and months ago and saved it in my .gifs folder, sorry I can't provide original source.

edit: I did some searching and as best as I can tell this is the site is was originally from. I highly recommend you check out this guy's other work too, s/he is incredible. (Yes, I believe guy ought to be a gender neutral word)

[–]Petrak 1 point2 points ago

This is the source, I believe.

[–]woxy_lutz 0 points1 point ago

Awesome, thank you. Now those are cinemagraphs.

[–]Over_Thinking_It 9 points10 points ago

I like how there is no shadow or leg movement. I think he also purposely hides his head right behind the newspaper so its much tougher to see where the loop ends. Very cool.

[–]elperroborrachotoo 13 points14 points ago

Definitely repostworthy.

[–]Stop_Sign 5 points6 points ago

It shows how he perceives the city as static and unchanging as he reads the news - a non-static object.

[–]Zovistograt 2 points3 points ago

As he reads the news quite quickly. He doesn't spent more than a few seconds on any of the infinite pages!

[–]Papersaurus 4 points5 points ago

I think this is one of the first cinemagraphs I ever saw. I remember them being so striking and almost haunting. You wouldn't believe my excitement when I finally found this subreddit and realized there was a name to this style. :)

Now to just got to try and make one of my own... :O

[–]soggylittleshrimp 9 points10 points ago

This is a good example of illustrating the "why" in Cinemagraphs.

Why make anything move? Certainly not simply for the effect. This scene shows an almost impossibly crowded Madison Square Park with the subject matter perfectly framed between people. It's a split second in time, but also a moment in time (the man flipping pages) - so the emphasis is on him and how his focus on the paper tunes out the rest of the world which is tough in New York.

If it were different - for instance the same scene but with a guy walking by as the movement, what would that say? I think it would just be an effect and not have the same impact.

So the best Cinemagraphs use this still vs. motion juxtaposition for a reason, not just for the effect. It's just like any art form... more meaning, more impact. When people create these, that's what they should be considering first and foremost.

[–]WUB_WUB_WUB_WUB 32 points33 points ago

Necessary repost to remind people of what a cinemagraph should look like. Too many bad gifs being posted.

[–]ignitionnight 13 points14 points ago

You haven't created one have you? It's not easy and a lot of these "bad gifs" are people's honest attempts at creating something. Don't be so elitist.

[–]Shiftkgb 10 points11 points ago

Yeah I agree with what you're saying though I see where he's coming from. I haven't made any either, though I also have never made any movies or video games and it's ok to say whether or not they're any good.

But I will say I prefer the cinemagraphs where there is only one thing moving and the back drop is things that normally move. The ones of say one thing moving but the back drop is a wall, even though still well done, doesn't suck me in because the wall shouldn't move to begin with.

[–]mindbleach 8 points9 points ago

This is not 'what a cinemagraph should look like.' It's what a cinemagraph can look like, and even if it's how you prefer them, you can't fence in an art form based solely on your personal preferences.

Please go take another look at the fashion animations that started the trend and stop pretending that motion in a cinemagraph has to be artificially confined to a small movement in a small area.

[–]NinjaPimp 0 points1 point ago

Necessary reminder that the definition of a cinemagraph is not exactly set in stone. I hear people complaining all of the time that the movement should be minimal, not expected, and relatively infrequent.

This one has almost constant movement, but is still a great cinemagraph. It just shows that this is a medium that allows a lot of artistic expression. Regardless of if you personally enjoy that artist's use of the medium, they are still cinemagraphs.

[–]random_potatoes 1 point2 points ago

Wow, that really is a tremendous one. I really love the contrast; it makes it into a real work of art. Great job!

[–]knitALLtheclothes 1 point2 points ago

I wish this would move slower. It drives me nuts how he reads that newspaper so fast!

[–]rubygeek 2 points3 points ago

Do you never notice how people will often flick through the newspaper like this? Briefly scanning headlines until you find a page that catches your interest? Even if I intend to read large parts of a paper in detail, I would often flick through it like that first.

[–]knitALLtheclothes 1 point2 points ago

I suppose. I guess I've always been a "read-everything-cover-to-cover" kind of person.

[–]kittydorkdork 1 point2 points ago

This is the first one I ever saw and made me fall in love with cinemagraphs. This and the Doctor Who in the rain one are my favs.

[–]11_11_11_11_11 0 points1 point ago

This is so much more on-point than 90% of what gets posted here lately (regular looped .gifs), and as a native NYer I find it really compelling, but it really bothers me that the animation of the man is obviously looped backwards. You can tell by the strange way the paper seems to "adjust" itself.

I'm a picky asshole, though. I'm glad you posted this, it's lovely.

[–]electrolemon 1 point2 points ago

It's "on-point" because it's one of the original ones, from the blog on the sidebar.

[–]Jabullz -1 points0 points ago

Oldie but goodie. This ones my fav.

Hell even this one.