Create a beautiful cinemagraph in 5-minutes or less

Have you ever noticed video-quality animation in an email and wondered how they did it? Here is an excellent example I posted to Email Love this week → emaillove.com/...
That type of animation is called a cinemagraph, and I want to share a shortcut I use to create these fun, engaging animations without the need for Photoshop.
If you google "how to create a Cinemagraph," you'll find loads of UA-cam videos showing you a multi-step process of how to do this in Photoshop. I personally try to avoid PS at all costs and found an awesome little tool from Zapier called Zappy that I think is a good alternative → zapier.com/zappy
Zappy is a screen recording tool that allows you to capture anything happening on your screen and turns it into an animated gif or video file.
Here’s how I do it:
1. Find a video with subtle movement that I want to record.
2. Open Zappy, select GIF mode, and capture the section of the screen you want to turn into a cinemagraph.
3. Record for a few seconds to keep the file size manageable.
4. Zappy processes it and saves it to your computer.
5. Drop it into your email template as an image - Voilà, you have just created an cinemagraph for your next email campaign.
Cinemagraphs are a great way to make your content stand out, adding a bit of motion without overwhelming the design. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out some of our favorite examples on Email Love → emaillove.com/...