Create stunning cinemagraphs in minutes

It's not difficult to make cinemagraphs, those delightful high-quality gifs that are only animated in certain areas. We've even featured a useful guide on how to create a cinemagraph. But if you insist on things being as straightforward as possible then you'll probably want to take a look at Echograph for iOS.

Once you've installed it and signed up for a free account, using it to create your own cinemagraphs is a breeze. Simply film a video clip on your iPhone, or failing that just pick some video from your library or use one of the sample clips provided, and then trim it to a more useable chunk of five seconds or less. You then pick a representative still frame, and then comes the clever bit.

Echograph throws a mask over the whole scene, and you erase the bits of the image that you want to appear as video. It's quite ludicrously straightforward; as long as you have a decent clip (you'll naturally want something in which the camera is completely still) you can easily go from video to amazing cinemagraph inside a couple of minutes.

Once you're done you can save your cinemagraph, and either post it to Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr, or just send it via email, and if you need a little inspiration there's a built-in gallery of great animated images, as picked by the Echograph team, to browse through.

Key info

• Works with: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch
• Price: Free
• Developer: Clear-Media
• Version: 1.36
• App size: 47.1 MB
• Age rating: 4+

Words: Jim McCauley

Liked this? Read these!

• Discover what's next for Augmented Reality
• Useful mind mapping tools for designers
• How to make an app: try these great tutorials

Seen a great app? Tell us about it in the comments!