Shutterstock and Flixel partner to bring cinemagraphs to stock footage, making it easier for brands, agencies and storytellers of all kinds to find the cinemagraphs they need.
Cinemagraphs are nothing more than the old animated GIF from the early days of the Internet revamped with modern technology and options, to become more than a momentary fad. Since the word was coined, in 2011, by photographer Jamie Beck and digital artist Kevin Burg, cinemagraphs became a valuable asset in the toolbox of creative professionals in multiple areas.
While early GIFs were mainly clipart animations, modern day animated GIFs use photography in a unique way. In fact, they start as video, a segment of video from which the creator of the cinemagraph chooses a sequence to create a loop. To explain it in brief words, an area of the video is used as animation, while most of the image becomes a still which covers the layer with the animation. There are multiple tools available to create cinemagraphs, and Mac users have one others envy, apparently: Cinemagraph Pro.
Cinemagraph Pro for Mac, winner of a 2014 Apple Design Award, makes the creation of cinemagraphs easy and fast. Simply import a video, select a still frame and paint motion directly on the screen. Your cinemagraph instantly comes to life. Export in broadcast quality or upload to flixel.com and easily share with the world. Cinemagraph Pro for iOS transform your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch into an amazing mobile cinemagraph studio. Capture a scene or import a video, and paint motion to reveal your cinemagraph. Add text, filters, effects and then instantly share on social networks or the web in gorgeous HD.
The company behind both products is Flixel. Founded in 2011, Flixel Photos is a Toronto-based startup company that loves visual storytelling. Besides creating Cinemagraph Pro, the world’s most popular software platform for creating and sharing the magic of cinemagraphs, they also make Persecond for Mac, the fastest and easiest way to create a timelapse video. In 2014, Flixel was honoured with an Apple Design Award and Best of 2014 in the App Store.
Flixel Studios, their in-house production arm, works with leading brands on cinemagraph and micro-video campaigns that have been enjoyed by millions around the world. In 2014, Flixel was chosen as Digital Company of the Year at Canada’s Digi Awards.
Now Flixel has a partnership with Shutterstock. As part of this partnership, more than 1,000 beautiful cinemagraphs will be made exclusively available for licensing as video clips on Shutterstock. The Flixel files, created by artist Alexandre Miguel, will join a selection of cinemagraphs already created by early adopters in the Shutterstock contributor community.
The integration at Shutterstock as stock footage makes complete sense. Over the past few years, cinemagraphs have gained a foothold as a valuable creative and marketing tool. Brands, agencies, and storytellers of all kinds have used cinemagraphs in inventive and unexpected ways. We’ve now reached a point where cinemagraphs can even garner more engagement — particularly in social media, via banner ads, and on digital displays — than still images.
To celebrate this new type of content, Shutterstock put together “An Epic Cinemagraph Adventure,” a video highlighting (see above) some of their favorite files to date. Watch it!