- What's up everybody?
Peter McKinnon here and today we are talking
about how to do a cinemagraph.
Cinematography, photography,
photograph, cinema, cinemagraph.
You see where it, you see where,
someone was really thinking about that real hard.
(blues music)
Pete, what's a cinemagraph?
I will tell you.
A cinemagraph is essentially an image
where a small part of that image is moving.
The reason I think cinemagraphs are
so badass is because of this.
For the longest time, it's kind of been photos or video.
Now they're two very different things
under the same umbrella in the same universe,
but you know you've got your guys that just do photos,
you've got your guys that just do video.
Some people do them both, but it's always
kind of been one or the other.
You're gonna go shoot footage that day.
You're gonna go you know polish your cinematography skills
or you're gonna go shoot portraits this day
with your still shots and that kind of thing.
So now we can actually mash those two things together
into a cinemagraph, so you get the best of photos
and the best of videos into a whole new thing
that starts making you think different
when you look at a subject.
Example, let's say I'm pouring coffee.
That might be a cool shot.
Might be a cool video, but now we've got another option.
Might be a cool cinemagraph where I'm perfectly still
in the photo, but the coffee is pouring out of the Chemex.
Super, super interesting way to look at something.
You throw that up on your website,
not many people see those things.
I mean we're visual artists right?
We work with cameras, we work with video
on a daily basis, we're plugged into this kind of thing
but for people that aren't in the know
or in the industry or in the biz, as they say,
they look at a cinemagraph
and they're like ah, what is this?
What is this magic that I'm seeing?
He's, is that a?
It's just a really cool thing that not many people
have been exposed to yet, because they're
kind of taking off, if you will.
All the cool kids are doing it, so.
I'm gonna teach you guys how to do it right now
using coffee as a perfect example because
I need my afternoon pick-me-up,
and let's be honest, I'm addicted.
Okay so a couple things you're gonna need
if you're gonna do this is a tripod.
What you're shooting needs to be perfectly still.
You can balance your camera on a counter
or on a chair using books and a bunch of stuff like that,
but to get the best result, you're gonna
want to have a tripod.
If it's the really lightweight tripod
you're gonna want to hang some kind of sand bag
or a weight or a backpack filled with books,
something in it so that that tripod is not going anywhere,
it's not gonna sway, it's not gonna
move if someone walks by it.
It's just a very sturdy, stable surface for your camera.
Second thing you're gonna need obviously is a camera
that does video, so you can use your smartphone for that.
You can use your DSLR or any type of video camera
that you have, and we're going to use that
to film the scene to make the cinemagraph.
So for me I'm using a DSLR, and it doesn't really matter.
Don't worry about the video quality
or what frame rate we're shooting at yet.
We just need a camera that can record video
that sits on a tripod, so we're gonna start there.
Now we are going to create the cinemagraph,
and what we need to, I feel like
I've said cinemagraph 1,000 times.
I need to stop saying cinema, I need to stop saying cinema,
okay so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna pour this coffee
into this mug, and the photograph is the frame
that you're seeing and the cinematography
aspect is what I'm going to isolate
when we bring this into post.
So the actual coffee that's pouring out of the Chemex
right now into the cup is gonna be the only thing
that's moving when I actually bring this into post.
So whatever you end up shooting,
you need to look for that link of motion
be it that it's coming from a tap,
or be it that it's palm trees or some kind of
motion with the wind or the weather.
But the link you want to make is in this instance
the coffee flowing out of the Chemex into the mug.
So let's take that into post and see what it looks like.
Okay, so step one is complete.
We shot what we needed to shoot in order to get the footage
for the cinemagraph, now we're gonna bring those files
into Photoshop and finish the rest off.
I know what you're thinking, Photoshop?
That's for photos, it also does video,
and yes my mind was also blown
the first time I realized that.
So, first things first let's take a look at the clip
that we are going to use today.
Downstairs we were making some coffee
and we're just gonna do a little slow motion
kind of looped coffee pour, not slow motion sorry
but looped coffee pour.
Remember, cinemagraph is gonna be a photograph
where most of everything is still
except for one or two moving components
of that image which make up that kind of mash
that we talked about before.
So for this, we're going to use this stream of coffee.
Everything else is going to be completely still.
Now it's important to say I've already color graded
this clip, so whatever you're going to use,
because we're bringing it into Photoshop,
I know you can adjust levels, stuff like that
with your video clips within Photoshop,
but I like to do my color grading in Premiere
so I opened up a project that I'm going
to be using this cinemagraph in.
I found the clip that I wanted, I color graded it
and I exported a 1080p version of it which is what
you're looking at now.
So I recommend doing that before you start
so that when you bring this clip into Photoshop
it's exactly how you want it to look
before you get going with everything
that we're going to do now, okay?
So, that being said, grab that clip,
drag it straight into Photoshop and boom, here we go.
It's going to automatically open up this timeline,
so now is the finicky part.
We need to find an in and an out point of this clip
that's going to work just right
for making this loop infinite, okay?
So, what I'm looking at is this area right here,
'cause this stream of coffee is gonna be
the only moving aspect of this entire image
so I need to find an end point where,
in and out point where that stream of coffee
is the most steady, so if we look at the beginning here
it's not gonna work because I'm tilting that Chemex.
It's moving up as my wrist goes up
and then at the end I'm finishing off that pour,
there's too much movement, so I need something in the middle
where that stream isn't moving.
So if you scrub along with this play head,
this looks pretty good right in here,
so if I start there, I'm gonna go
to the beginning of this clip, grab those black left
and right arrows, click hold it down and drag
all the way to that red play head
and then boom, it makes that the first frame, magic.
Now what you're going to do is you're going
to find your ending frame, so this looks pretty good.
There's not much movement here.
That spout starts to dip right about there,
so I'm going to go back a couple frames,
grab this end and now I'm going
to bring that, shoo, to the end.
Click on this little gear over here on the left
and make sure loop playback is selected.
That way when we preview this clip
and we just hit spacebar, it looks pretty good
but you see how that wrist and the Chemex
kind of jerks back to the beginning?
It's because the end frame is different
than the beginning frame.
Our first frame starts here, our last frame
ends here, but these two frames are different
so we need this frame to be the same here,
so that when it comes back around,
it's a seamless infinite loop okay?
So how do we do that?
This is how.
So what we need to do is duplicate this video layer.
So come over here to your layers panel,
click on video group one, drag that down
to the new layer icon which is right beside the trash can.
That's going to make a second copy of the same thing.
So right now we've got two copies of the same thing.
Now, top layer, first frame
and the last frame are different.
We need the first frame and the last frame
to be exactly the same.
That's why we've duplicated this bottom layer.
So these two frames start at the exact same place
at the top and at the bottom here.
Top and bottom.
Both these frames are the same thing,
that's why it looks exactly the same.
So drag that bottom layer all the way over to the end,
where it meets with the last frame of the top layer okay?
So essentially this frame right here
that's starting on the bottom layer
is the exact same frame as this
because we just copied the clip, right?
So now if we were to extend this footage
back a little bit, that play head
still remains in the same area
where that first frame is on the top layer, okay?
I know that's really, really confusing
but play it back, it does make sense.
We're going to grab this bottom layer
and drag it to meet so that they are the same length, okay?
So now we need to blend these two layers together
and this is how we're going to do that.
You're going to hit this little arrow here on the left side
and you're going to drag the play head
to where that bottom layer starts
and you're gonna hit opacity.
That's gonna make a key frame if you
hit that little stopwatch there.
Drag over a little bit further,
then you're gonna hit another key frame
which is this little diamond in between
the left and the right arrows.
You're going to hit that.
Before you click anything else,
come over here to opacity in your layers panel,
drag it all the way to zero,
and then click on that yellow diamond
and drag it all the way to the end.
So essentially this is what we've done.
We've started a key frame here that says
this layer, the top layer, is 100% visible right now
but by the end of this clip when the play head reaches
that next yellow diamond that we've set to zero opacity,
that clip will be completely gone, completely invisible.
So as that video plays, it's going from 100%, 90, 80,
70, 60, 50, all the way down to zero
where our first frame starts
so that we're creating that infinite loop.
Mind blown, right?
I feel like we're in the wormhole in Inception right now.
I know, I know.
But if you follow these steps, this is what's happening.
So now if we play that back.
It looks pretty good.
There's a little bit of movement still
in the Chemex and my hand,
and that's what we need to eliminate.
So to do that, we're going to make a new layer.
We're going to stamp visible layer by hitting
command option shift E.
And that puts a solid, no movement visible layer
on top of both of our movie clips.
So imagine these two fingers are movies,
this is a jpeg image.
So we're going to punch a hole through
this image so that we can see
what's happening underneath, okay?
Check this out.
So right now if I play that, nothing's happening.
First things first, let's bring this clip down
to make it a little bit smaller.
Done.
Drag that back out, nothing's happening.
I see nothing, I see a loop.
I can hear my audio, but I don't see
any video happening, nothing's happening at all.
So how do we fix that?
Well we're going to make that top layer
into a layer mask, so come over here
to the layer panel, click on it, hit the layer mask button
down here at the bottom right beside effects.
Boom, add layer mask.
Make sure your foreground is set to black.
You can reset those by clicking X and D.
X, D, D's gonna make it white, X is gonna make it black.
Hit B for brush, make that brush size a little bit bigger
and then we're going to zoom in here
like I showed you earlier to our stream of coffee
and we're going to mask that away.
See how it's moving?
Now if you want to see what you're masking
underneath your delete key, just hit that slash button
and then you can actually see what you're painting.
Helps a little bit when you're trying to be accurate
and you know a little more precise.
You're gonna get right into this spout here.
You want to make that brush size a little bit smaller
when you're masking things out just to be precise.
Okay once you're happy with that mask,
hit that slash button again.
That's going to hide everything.
You can command minus to zoom back out,
then hit spacebar and let's see what that looks like.
That looks pretty awesome.
Let's zoom in again just a little bit.
Couple more refinements.
Make sure you clicked on that top layer.
Hit that slash again so that we can see.
Make sure you selected B for brush
if you're going to keep making adjustments.
Now over here the stream went a little this way.
I'd like to mask just a little bit there,
and zoom back out, hit slash.
Spacebar.
Yes, looking good.
So now all we gotta do is save for web.
You're gonna hit command option shift S.
That is gonna bring up the save for web dialog.
Now make sure under the preset down here
where it says gif, it might be automatically
set to png or png24.
Just move that up to gif.
That's going to give you all of these options.
You can see the file size over here is less than a meg
so that's great, especially given the fact
that it's 1920 by 1080.
Make sure you come down here to looping options.
It's by default selected at once,
so make sure you click that and select forever.
That way it actually continues to loop
and then all you do is hit save.
Select where you want to save it.
Let's go desktop, let's call it coffee pour.
Hit save right there, boom.
Done.
Command H to hide Photoshop, hide this, select
and there you have a finished cinemagraph
that doesn't take very long.
But what's interesting about it is it
gives you a different dynamic to look at
when you're thinking about photos and videos.
It's kind of like this bridge that you can use,
'cause I'll guarantee most people
when they go out to shoot photos, when they
go out to shoot video, they're not
thinking about cinemagraphs in mind right?
But when you go out keeping those things in mind
you're gonna say oh I love that plane is flying
through the sky right now, through those buildings.
I'm gonna film this really steady,
and then I'm gonna make a cinemagraph of
just that plane moving through the photo.
It's gonna be incredible.
So when you keep those things in the forefront of your mind
when you're shooting either video or photo,
when you get home, you've just got more stuff to make.
And as artists, it's always fun trying out new techniques,
trying out new tips and tricks, using these
different applications that we all have at our fingertips
through free trials or subscriptions.
So really, find something at home,
find something out in the world
and actually give this a shot.
You'll probably be really pumped at the results
and it's going to inspire you to go back out
and find new things to make cinemagraphs from,
and the next thing you know your friends
are gonna be saying how, how did you do that?
Is that an animation, like what is,
what am I even looking at here?
These are really cool, and I really hope
that you guys got something out of this
and understood the nonsense that's involved in making it.
And it might seem like there's a lot of work involved
in the steps required to do a cinemagraph,
but honestly when you get it down
from start to finish, you can bang this out
in five minutes tops.
It's pretty easy to do.
Just be careful, slow, and meticulous
with your layer masking.
The cleaner and nicer you do your layer mask,
the better it's going to look overall, okay?
Boom!
So thanks again for watching, hope you guys
enjoyed this video.
Don't forget to hit that like button,
subscribe if you aren't already,
and and!
I'll see you in the next video.
(low key music)
Stop it, I need to stop slapping my face too.
It's starting to burn.
(low key music)