How To Create The 2.5D Effect AKA Animated Photos

We have all seen it before, you may have just not known what it was called. I think the first time I saw this was years ago in a Gatorade commercial and it really stood out to me. Today, 2.5D animations or "animated photos" are starting to pop up all over the place. Check out a cool example of 2.5D in action mixed with moving time-lapse by Ryan Flett below and then head over to Creative Cow to watch a fantastic tutorial that shows you how to create this effect in After Effects. FYI, simpler versions of this can also be created in programs like Premiere and Final Cut.


Backyard Booty Segment: Natural Progressions from Ryan Flett on Vimeo.

Lee Morris's picture

Lee Morris is a professional photographer based in Charleston SC, and is the co-owner of Fstoppers.com

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7 Comments

yeah, always wanted to know that!

Just watched the tutorial. While excellent in its material, the guy narrating the tutorial is super painful to listen to. Luckily it's only 15mins long, and I got what I needed out of it. Thanks for posting!

I used to be way more interested into visual effects and compositing, so I actually knew how to do this before getting into photography. This video was still a really fun watch. It's always interesting seeing how people use the technique to create interesting camera movements through their shots.

I'm actually planning on doing this in the next FS video but with moving video...hope it works out. Great Tutorial if you guys want to learn more about this.

You guys mentioned a way to do this in Premiere and Final Cut- do you know where a tutorial exists for that? Not so skilled with After Effects over here.

Gotta love that Carl Sagan.

i managed to do it with Gimp and Blender (free software :D)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeJiR9H9m40

thanks!