A place for subtle movement: cinemagraphs

Recently I’ve been taken with the subtlety of cinemagraphs.

Cinemagraphs are short looping animations created from a video in which, usually, only a small portion of the image maintains movement.

It’s as if the director attempted to freeze a whole frame from a movie, but missed a bit that gets stuck in a loop.

The results are curiously beautiful, sometimes unnerving, compelling images.

Here are a few of my favourites found on the web:

So, where to use them?

In places where movement isn’t the key, but rather an enhancement to the visuals on a page. Where you want to be spending a moderate to long period of time. Think the background of a website, or as an image accompanying text in an ebook or presentation.

Google used them for a time (and maybe still do?) as header images for their calendar invites as they appear in Google +. The movement is a nice touch to what can be dry information.

When done properly, definitely #BeautifulDigital

And here are some more because they’re so great!

And the curiously still twister: