Adobe animates photos for slideshows with parallax effect

Adobe has presented MovingStills, a method of animating photos in a way that makes them look like video with a moving camera. An algorithm estimates the depth in photos in order to correctly insert a parallax effect.

MovingStills allows users to animate entire albums in one go, making them suitable for use in slideshows, for example, according to the demonstration that Adobe has put online and first showed at its own Max conference.

The software analyzes the image and tries to extract information about the distance of objects from the camera, after which this is taken into account when animating by moving objects closer to the background. It is also possible to adjust the animation, by choosing the start and end frames to get ‘closer’ or take a shot that moves further away from the object.

Adobe does not explain in detail how the technology works. MovingStills should be available in Creative Cloud at a later date. In what form and when that will happen is still unclear.