How to Make Stereoscopic GIFs Using a 3D Camera and Photoshop

Over the course of your comings and goings on the internet, you’ve probably spotted at least a few of those mind-bending GIFs that loop perspectives rather than a snippet of time.

Well, it turns out that making them yourself isn’t that difficult, just as long as you have a 3D camera and some time at your disposal. And in the how-to video above, The Creators Project enlists the help of half the Mr. GIF team, Mark Portillo, to show you just how easy it is.

First things first, you’ll need the proper camera. Mr. GIF suggests using either a Nimslo or Nishika film camera or a digital Fuji Finepix W3. If all else fails and you just want to do this for fun, you can also tape two disposables together and take the pics simultaneously, just make sure the distance between the lenses is about the same as the distance between your eyes.

If you use a film camera like the Nimslo, keep in mind that the film is spaced differently from normal 35mm cameras, so you’ll need to either pony up to have a camera shop scan the roll for you manually, or you’ll have to use your own scanner.

We won’t go into the Photoshop details here, but once you have your two (or in the case of the Nimslo, four) pictures scanned and in your computer, follow the steps in the video to create an awesome stereoscopic GIF of your own. The final product should look something like this:

One final word of advice from Mr. GIF before you jump in: if you want your final products to turn out the absolute best, try and stand about 5 feet away from your subject and have something interesting in the immediate fore and background. According to Portillo, “this trifecta effect will destroy people’s screens.” Hopefully he wasn’t being literal …

(via The Creators Project)