Enter the photo

Watch this still photo brought to life. Read the PicDrift breakdown below to see how it was made.

PHOTO CREDIT: Timothy Alsbrooks

Instagram: @trulabs @ta_visuals

PicDrift artist breakdown:

This photo has a lot of depth, with plenty of elements in the foreground, mid and the background. To cut out these elements into separate layers was very time consuming, especially the trees and the metal roof. These layers arranged in Z-axes, allowed me to create depth and a more noticeable parallax effect.

The original photo is much wider than the final 1:1 aspect ratio of the animation. This gave me a lot more space to create a large camera movement, which is the main feature of this animation. What makes this animation special is how far the camera “enters” into the world of the scene. It’s like we moved within the actual space!

The only thing I regret not doing is to try to erase all the lines on the floor, which would hide the obvious separation between the foreground and mid-ground. But, even if I did that, the separation would still be visible, because the reflections in the water wouldn't match.

Finally, I added the lens flare and some light air particles in 3D space to accent the camera movement even more.

The end result was a camera movement that takes you deeper into the photo. And that is what PicDrift is all about!