Animation
Animating old photographs
A few seconds of video from an ordinary print. The person blinks and half-smiles. No dancing, no effects, no circus.
Animating one photograph: PLN 14.99
See the full price listThe result is a short video file. You pay once you have watched the finished clip.
What it suits
A wedding anniversary
A photograph taken fifty years ago, the couple looking into the lens. A few seconds of movement is enough to quieten a room.
A present for a parent
A portrait of their own parent, whom they have never seen move, because nobody was filming back then.
Sending it to relatives abroad
A video travels through a messaging app; a picture frame does not. It is the simplest way to show something to someone far away.
A keepsake of someone who has died
Here it is worth waiting. Fresh grief and a moving face can hurt rather than move. After a few years the reaction is often completely different.
How the movement is made
Animation does not graft a stranger’s face onto your photograph. It works with the one already there.
- 01
Finding the face
Eyes, eyelids, the corners of the mouth and the jawline are located. Every bit of movement is built around those points.
- 02
Rebuilding what is not visible
In the photograph the eyelid is open, so its underside does not exist. It has to be reconstructed from the rest of the face, otherwise a blink looks like a glitch.
- 03
Movement, not performance
You choose a smile or a blown kiss. The amplitude is deliberately small: the head does not turn, the background does not ripple, the framing does not change.
- 04
Assembling the clip
The result is a short video file you can send from a phone and play on any device.
What to expect
Animation works on the face, so the face has to be visible and sharp. A group shot with ten people in the middle distance will not give a good result — the larger the face in the frame, the better.
A damaged photograph is worth restoring first. A scratch on a cheek is only a scratch in a still frame; in motion it starts to drift and draws the eye more than the face does.
The movement is restrained on purpose, and that is a decision rather than a limitation. A photograph with a swaying head and a rippling background stops reading as a memory and starts reading as an advert.
The result is a video file, not an image. It cannot be printed or framed — if you want something for the wall, restoration or colorization is the better choice.
Try it on one portrait
Pick a photograph where the face is large and clear. That is the only condition that really matters.