Two years ago, Flixel Photos Inc. was riding the wave of consumer photo apps and social sharing. Like many other startups out there, it wanted to create the next big Instagram – so the first app it created was a fun, basic tool for users to snap some pictures and animate them, like GIFs.
Flixel Cinemagraph Pro for Mac allows users to intuitively and easily create Cinemagraph images, a hybrid media form that combines the timeless quality of a photograph and elements of moving video. On February 25, Flixel released a professional version of the app for Mac, previously available only for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Flixel launches moving picture tool for Mac Candice So @candiceso Published: February 14th, 2014. Two years ago, Flixel Photos Inc. Was riding the wave of consumer photo apps and social sharing. Like many other startups out there, it wanted to create the next big Instagram – so the first app it created was a fun, basic tool for users to snap.
Now, the Toronto-based startup is getting ready to launch the Cinemagraph Pro for Mac app, a new release for the Apple Mac that will allow photographers to take pictures and animate small sections of them – creating the feeling that a still photograph is actually moving.
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While they’re called photos, in reality they are looping videos called cinemagraphs. Photographers edit the video to make them appear seamless, with no obvious beginning or end, so they look more convincingly like photos. Originally coined by graphic artist Kevin Burg and photographer Jamie Beck, essentially the cinemagraph is an intriguing medium between photos and videos.
While Flixel already has an app available for mobile devices running Apple iOS, the new release for Mac will be able to support 4K video, as well as provide a slew of tools for photographers and creative professionals to enhance their work. The app is set to come out next week.
It’s a big change from Flixel’s original focus, but it’s one that made sense, says Mark Pavlidis, Flixel’s vice-president of technology. When Flixel first launched, it was up against startups that were competing for the same user base. The company’s first app came out three weeks behind Cinemagram Inc., a startup that created a very similar product and attracted users first.
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“Three weeks – that was the difference,” Pavlidis says, adding Flixel spent the next six months playing catch-up, switching over from the gif-like images to the smoother, more fluid cinemagraphs. But even with the changeover, they realized their strategy wasn’t helping them gain any traction in a competitive, fast-moving space.
“We said, what’s preventing people from doing [cinemagraphs]? What’s the hard part? We realized this wasn’t like Instagram, where you snap a picture, put a filter on it, and it looks good,” he says, adding most people found it hard to keep their hands steady and to get the composition of the photo exactly right.
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