Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Google Motion Stills turns your Live Photos into GIFs: Free iOS app now makes it easier to create looping animations

  • The app works offline, and users do not need to sign in to any service
  • Technology might soon be added to other apps like Google Photo
  • The app will also try to smooth out your shaky shots using new algorithm
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    Despite their popularity, creating GIFS can still be a tricky process.

    But a new app from Google, called 'Motion Stills', will allow you to easily create the moving images in just a few clicks.

    The app takes Live Photos, several frames automatically captured before and after you hit the camera app's shutter button, and turns them into GIFs or short video clips.

    'We use our video stabilization technology to freeze the background into a still photo or create sweeping cinematic pans,' Ken Conley and Matthias Grundmann from the Google Research Machine Perception team said in a blog post.

    'The resulting looping GIFs and movies come alive, and can easily be shared via messaging or on social media.'

    The technology is available now in the new Motion Stills app.

    But it might soon be added to apps like Google Photo.

    It can also be used to create video loops, 

    'Short videos are perfect for creating loops, so we added loop optimization to bring out the best in your captures,' the blog says.

    'Our approach identifies optimal start and end points, and also discards blurry frames.'

    'As an added benefit, this fixes "pocket shots" (footage of the phone being put back into the pocket).' 

    The app works offline, and users do not need to sign in to any service in order to use it.  The only requirement is to give the app permission to access the photos on the device.

    'We pioneered this technology by stabilizing hundreds of millions of videos and creating GIF animations from photo bursts,' the blog says.  

    Although GIFs are becoming increasingly popular across social media sites, creating the tiny video soundless clips can still be a tricky process. But a new app from Google, called 'Motion Stills', will allow you to easily create the moving images in just a few clicks

    THE MOTION STILLS APP 

    A new app from Google, called 'Motion Stills', will allow you to easily create moving images in just a few clicks.

    The app takes Live Photos, several frames automatically captured before and after you hit the camera app's shutter button, and turns them into GIFs or short video clips.

    Gives a still background or creates cinematic pans to remove shakiness, shown before and after in the module below.

    The app works offline, and users do not need to sign in to any service in order to use it. The only requirement is to give the app permission to access the photos on the device. 

    The algorithm uses linear programming to compute a virtual camera path that recasts videos and bursts as if they were filmed using stabilization equipment.

    This gives a still background or creates cinematic pans to remove shakiness.

    'Our approach identifies optimal start and end points, and also discards blurry frames,' the blog says. 

    The app has a direct button for uploading to YouTube, and soon users with the WhatsApp messaging app might be able to share them using that.

    The next  WhatsApp update will 'support autoplay of GIFs', direct replies and direct embedding of the animated images to individuals and groups, according to Twitter account @WABetaInfo, which tracks WhatsApp updates.

    GIFS ARE COMING TO WHATSAPP 

    According to Twitter account @WABetaInfo, which tracks WhatsApp updates, the next iOS release will let users send and receive GIFs. 

    The long-awaited support for gifs comes over a year after Facebook introduced support on its Messenger app, with Twitter following suit this February.

    The WhatsApp update will 'support autoplay of GIFs', direct replies and direct embedding of the animated images.


    Source: Google Motion Stills turns your Live Photos into GIFs: Free iOS app now makes it easier to create looping animations

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