In this tutorial we are going to make animation from a single image to imitate 3D effect.
For more advanced tutorial on 3D effect see tutorial # 2
With some 3d and videoFX software (Blender, AE) you can create an amazing 3D video from a single picture.
Gimp does not have those capabilities, yet, you can get a pretty 3D effect using this tutorial.

Requirements: GIMP 2.6 - 2.8.
GIMP experience level: intermediate.
Estimated time: 10-15 minutes.
Extra plugins requirement: Mirror-Layers (see attachment)



Let's get started.


The original image is by Grennie6774 on http://www.flickr.com/photos/grennie6774/6348247295/

I modified the background, because I wanted to see more clearly how FG object moves in relation to the BG.


Still photo 3D effect animation



Below is a tutorial with an extra step of adding ping-pong animation effect. So the final animation at the end of this tutorial is somewhat different from the above GIF animation. I also had to scale it down to the GC acceptible file-size.

Step 1. Getting image for animation.
To get a better result you have to use a picture with single FG object. If you like challenges you can try an image with 2-3 objects at different distances from the camera's lens.

Step 2. Creating Depth Map.
Duplicate the original image and name it Depth Map (DM) or just Map.
Now you have to create DM from this layer. For that, use brush and paint your FG object. Use white color for closest parts of the object and for remote parts - grey colors slightly increasing value toward the background, which is supposed to be black.


The final result should look like this (as you can see, it does not have to be perfect)





Step 3. Finalizing DM
For better results DM should not contain any sharp edges. Gaussian blur your DM as shown in this picture. 10 is usually enough for 900x600 px image.


Your map is ready now



Step 4. Creating displacement layers (frames).
Duplicate your original image once more. Name it Displacement+1 or just +1.



Go to Filters>Map>Displace and set X displacement to 1. Uncheck Y displacement (it will become greyed out).
Important: make sure your Depth Map is chosen in the drop down for X displacement. Do not change Mode and Edge Behavior. Hit OK.




Step 5. Dublicate Displacement+1 layer and displace it again with the exact same settings. Repeat this step 3 more times.
You should get 5 displacment layers as shown in this picture (the workflow for this step is easy when you use keyboard shortcuts - Shift+Ctrl+D, Ctrl+F).
Rename you layers to avoid confusion (+1,+2,+3 etc.)


Step 6. Duplicate your original image again. Name it Displacement-1 or just -1. Move it to the bottom. Go to Map>Displace and set X displacement value to -1 (negative 1)



Repeat Step 6 three more times to create 5 displaced layers BELOW the original image.

You should have 12 layers now, from top to bottom: Map,+5,+4,+3, +2, +1, original, -1, -2, -3, -4, -5.



Step 7. Delete your Map layer.

Step 8. Run Animation>Playback. Right and left edges of displaced layers are popping out. Crop your image with the Crop tool to remove those edges.



Step 9. Adding ping-pong effect.
Use mirror-layers Python script or GAP or duplicate manually each layers from +4 to -4 and place them in reverse order.


Your animation is ready. Now you can save it as GIF, MNG or APNG animation (the latter requires APNG plugin)



I prefer saving my animation as XCFs and SWF flash (requires GIMP SWF plugin and SWFtools software installed on your Linux/Windows system == Mac users, sorry, I'm not sure about SWFtools compatibility with MAC OSX).

P.S. For my own collection I colored it a lil' bit to make it look less boring, so to say (here is a snapshot)



P.P.S. If someone's interested I can go on and make a second tutorial on how to make THIS kind of animation from a still image (this is not my own, just posted it here as an example)


Thanks for reading!

Nice one, K1TesseraEna
For sure another tutorial would be welcome!

Really nice tutorial and would love to see another on the boat type effect.

This is so cool!
Yes please - another tutorial

Very cool. nice work...more tutorials are always welcome.

Very nice. Thanks!
I love the picture you chose. You can really see a 3D effect on the final result.
A tutorial to make that last animation would be great too.

Nice tutorial. There's some work here as well. viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4647

Thank you, Erisian!

It's an interesting effect, but totally different approach/technique is used. And no doubt, more time-consuming.
You can also see the borders between fg, bg and mid-point slices.

I don't slice my image and get its parts move in different directions to create a depth effect. If I had to do all that hard work of slicing and moving manually, it would probably be no tutorial from my part at all (I'm too lazy, )

K1te. That is great. Thanks for the tutorial.

Both effects are really good!

Great tutorial and easy to follow, here is my results



Don't know if mine is maybe a bit slow, thats about the only thing missing from the tutorial is a guide to what frame rate should be used.

Nice job, he4rty!

If you saved xcf version of your work with D-map, I would recommend trying one more thing. Instead of displacing in X-coordinate, try Y-displacement with the same workflow and see how it works out. Instead of going east-west the fg object (man in this case) will move south-north, or should I say, the hypothetical observer would move up, over and down. I would love to see the final animation!!!



I set mine to the default 100, then changed to 140 ms, because it was a little bit faster than I'd expected. But in GIMP it's easy to change frame delays using scripts, there's actually quite few of them out there.

Thanks, he4rty!

I did save the depth map (after all the work of creating it I sure wasn't going to just delete it )

Good suggestion on the change of direction, it works well, heres the outcome



I did speed up the animation a bit compared to the other image and K1TesseraEna you don't have to be polite the man in the photo is me.

Great job again, he4rty! And nice to meet you in person!

Its only a great job because your tutorial was easy to follow, also in the past I think I've tried to be to precise with depth maps and hadn't realised they could be so rough and ready.

Loving this tutorial, so decided to browse the fb photos for a possible good one, came across this one. Its my daughter on stilts, she took the previous photo, hence the strange perspective.

That's very good, he4rty!

HA HA she looks a bit wobbly on those stilts. Perfect photo to illustrate this. Great Job!

wow, that stilts one is cool...what a perspective shot that is.

Here's just one more still photo 3D effect animation that I particularly like.
Don't know the author, there is no tutorial. Found it online.



As far as I can tell the waves function and mathmap were used in addition to displacement. Similar to 'boat' animation.
More about it in my next tutorial.