Animated GIFs are incredibly popular on social media and communities like Reddit. By nature, however, they aren't nearly as common as your ordinary photo simply because people are much more likely to snap a photo than a video.
That may soon change thanks to a powerful new photography tool called Plotagraph Pro.
Created by artist and photographer Troy Plota, this web tool allows users to create an animated, looping GIF or video file using just a single image. The resulting file can be exported as a GIF, MP4 or MOV file using a patent-pending combination of specialized imaging algorithms, PetaPixel writes.
Plota told Digital Trends that several major companies including Airbnb, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola and Pepsi have already utilized the software, transforming a static image into a flowing GIF in anywhere between five to 30 minutes. That may sound like a long time to work on a single image but it's a fraction of the time spent to create a traditional cinemagraph. It's a lot cheaper, too.
If you're interested in giving it a go, Plotagraph Pro is available as a pre-release beta priced at $299 ($50 off the final price). Along with your purchase, you'll get 10GB of online storage for a full year. Digital Trends says the company is also considering a stock option for users within an existing rights-managed platform.