Where did my inspiration come from?

By the time I was introduced to the assignment, it is fair to say that I was intrigued. Cinemagraph was something I saw on Instagram or other social media platforms. But I always thought that it was challenging. However, I was very excited to embark on this challenge. To come up with my project, I browsed through many cinemagraph videos on the internet, and most of the ones I found were not as creative, and I found rare ones are spooky themed.

Ideation

Through my brainstorming session, I wanted something spooky and horror-like. In this genre, things or elements are moving, indicated a presence of spirit or ghosts. So, I wanted to create a cinemagraph that reelected on that. With that idea in mind, I decided to create a cinemagraph of a woman looking at a mirror, and in her reflection, there will be a ghost or a witch moving.  

The Process

The process of implementing the idea was the hardest part. My first task was to find the asset online. I was able to get the main character, a woman looking into the mirror. The next step was to the background. I envisioned the woman in a room, so I was looking for a spooky or creepy room. I tried searching that on Pexels, but I could not find anything I wanted as they were usually medium shots. I wanted a picture that encompassed the whole room so I could have space to alter it. I also ran into another challenge; after selecting the woman from the original layer, I dragged it to the background, the room, workspace. After doing that, I realized that the reflection of the mirror had to match the room. I tried color blending it, but it didn’t look natural at all. After multiple trials and errors, I decided to step back and get back to the ideation stage. 

Back to Ideation 

Even though my first idea did not go as planned, I still wanted to say on- theme. So after much-needed brainstorming, I got the idea to make my project Halloween-themed. This was a significant milestone as it was spooky, and that I wanted to create a moving element using the craved pumpkins. I wanted the characters to either have craved pumpkin in their hands or have it on their body. Then I started hunting for assets. Luckily, I found a witch hold a light pumpkin, a ghost holding a pumpkin, and the main character, a skull liked pumpkin-craved head that had red smoke coming out of his mouth. Also, I added on ghost character, holding a phone, and the phone’s light reflected on him. Moving forward, I wanted the pumpkin lights to flicker, thus becoming one of the moving (looping) elements in this cinemagraph. The most crucial asset was the background which was the hunted house. This asset had a dark sky, but I wanted to cut that out and add a moving element that will positively contribute to the theme. This made it the second moving element for my project, and I felt like that was enough. 

The Second Process

This time around, the implementation of this idea was far better than my first idea. This is because I had a better vision, and I knew exactly what I needed to do to achieve it. I started isolating the characters (the characters) from the background. After finish that, I layered then using the haunted house as a background. I also feathered them and made sure that they blended well with the background. Then I quick-selected the sky to cut it out, so there was room for the thunderstorm video. After that, I made the craved pumpkins light and the phone reflection to flicker in a looping manner along with the thunderstorm video. After finishing that, I still felt like something was missing. 

Last-Minute Touches 

One thing that stood out to me was the main character. There is something I needed to add to make him stand out more. So that is when I decided to make the smoke coming out of his mouth move. So, after few hours of frustration caused by trying to make the smoke move, I was finally able to make it move. After that, I believed that my project was ready. 

The whole process was very revealing. The ups and downs were a bit tiring, but I am proud of my project. As a person with no experience in cinemagraph, I am proud and happy with what I created. What do you guys think? Any feedback?