Today I’m doing a review about a product that is catching my eye for a long time already.
I’m not talking about the actual product, but about the results that you can create with this piece of software. The product is called Graphitii and it lets you create eye popping Cinemagraphs.

Maybe you are asking:”What are cinemagraphs?”.
Well, have you ever seen photo’s where only one part of the picture is moving and the rest stands still? Now those are called cinemagraphs. You see them everywhere nowadays.

Personally, I can’t keep my eyes off them when I look at those images.
Somehow they are always mesmerizing to me.

Let me show you one example of a cinemagraph that I created with Graphitii so you can see what I mean:

Pretty cool huh? Do you see how everything in the picture stands still except for the wine part? Now this is the power of Cinemagraphs! And the nice thing is that it’s very easy to create.

Here are some more examples of cinemagraphs:

The first time I saw a cinemagraphs was I think 5 months ago on Facebook.
It was an advertisement of Flixel that was advertising their software to the public.
As I said, my eyes were mesmerized and I could not get my eyes of those pictures. I thought, wow… technology is going far these days.

The first thing I did was visiting their website looking for the software and the price.
And to be honest, that was a bit of disappointment to me. I had to pay $200 per year to use it. That got me off and I didn’t buy it. Until now I still see their advertisements on my timeline teasing me to buy it.

There is another solution called Graphitii

You couldn’t make me happier. Last week I got notified of a cloud based software called Graphitii. With this software you could do exactly the same thing as Flixel, but at a pricepoint less than 1/3 of the price of Flixel with no recurring yearly fees.
Maybe it’s not as advanced as Flixel (I’m not sure about that because I’ve never tried Flixel) but it’s very easy to setup.
Within no time you have created your first cinemagraph.

Graphitii lets you create cinemagraphs in  4 simple steps.

1st. Select your thumbnail
After you have uploaded your video file to the cloud server you first select your thumbnail. This is the thumbnail that is being showed at your project files overview so you can remember which cinemagraph you have created.

2nd. Crop your video
After you have selected your thumbnail you have to crop your video. In this part you are telling Graphitii which part of the video you want to use for the moving part which will play in repeat mode. This can easily be done by dragging the slider from the left to the right, and making it wider or smaller by grabbing the sides.

3rd. Design your cinemagraph
Now this is the fun part. In this step you are selecting the parts of the video that you want to stay “alive”, which means that the parts that you are selecting will be the moving parts in your cinemagraph. In this case it’s the wine that’s poured out into the glass, the wine in the glass and the upper part in the bottle. While you are working in Graphitii it shows you exactly the parts that you have selected by wiping out the purple overlay. Also the wiped part comes to live so you are getting a live preview how it looks like.

Also in this step you can add some custom text and you can draw some lines. Personally I think the text option is nice but nothing special as you do not get many fonts. The drawing tool is useless i.m.o. because the lines you’re drawing with this tool are not that elegant. I think it’s better to add some text, effects, etc before uploading the videos.

4th. Save and share your file.
The only thing you have to do in step 4 is saving your file. After you have saved your file you have the option to share it on Social media.

Done!

And voila, there is your cinemagraph!

Are there any downsides on Graphitii?

No undo button
Yes, what I really was missing was an undo button. Every time I messed up a bit I had to start over again. It’s not that much work, but in my opinion, it should have been an easy option to build in to add an undo button.

Hard lines  

While working on the Cinemagraphs I noticed that the lines that you draw with the tool are a bit hard edged which means you cannot use every photo. Especially when you are editing blurred fotos it’s hard to get a nice cut. I think this is where software programs like Flixel are giving you more advanced features like a feather brush. This is something that really could be improved.

A bit slow while testing
Also while working on some files I noticed some slowness on the server side. I was told that they were still running updates on the server side, so probably this could be the cause.

What are the pros?

Better conversions in business
Of course, Graphitti is awesome to use for your personal use, but it’s even better to use in business. Research showed that cinemagraphs boost engagement which means more sales. This is why all the big companies like Coca-Cola, Netflix, Pepsi and Microsoft are all using this technique to sell their products.

Easy to use
Graphitti is super easy to use. So easy that even a child could do it.

Works on mobile
This means you can use it wherever you go.

It’s price
Next to that, the price is very cheap. Comparing to Flixel $199 per year, Graphitti is starting at a price point of $67!  This is a no-brainerainer for people who wants to get started with cinemagraphs.

Want to get started with Graphittii?

A quick note about my reviews on this site: I’m an affiliate for most of the paid products that I review. I get access to the products without paying for them so I can test them. However all my reviews are done as honestly as possible and I make no promises to the vendor prior to writing my reviews. If you decide to buy one of the product you have been redirected through my links, means that I will be paid a percentage of the sales price. It’s up to you to decide. Thank you if you did! : )

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