Action library · Both kinds
Halloween
A seasonal shelf that leans towards styles rather than motion, and the one where a costume can work against you.
Spooky season, ready before it arrives. Most of this shelf restyles the photograph into a scene: pumpkin light from below, a gothic hall, ground fog in moonlit woods, vampire glam. A few of them move instead, and those are the ones with a beat in them, a candle guttering or a porch light snapping on. The shelf is deeper than it needs to be for a season, which is deliberate.
People making something before the last week of October, when everyone is making the same thing. Also the readers who want the aesthetic without the season, which the fog and gothic styles carry perfectly well in any month.
This shelf holds two different things
Motion actions
These move
A photograph goes in and a clip of about 5 seconds comes out. The movement is generated from the one frame you supply, so nothing here is filmed and nothing is recovered.
Photo styles
These restyle
A photograph goes in and a new still picture comes out. The frame is rebuilt in the style rather than having an effect laid over it, and nothing on this side of the shelf moves.
Everything on the Halloween shelf
The ones that move
01MovesHalloween PoseSpooky Halloween costume posingModerate invention
02MovesCandlelit Haunta guttering candle and something behind youMotion action
03MovesCostume Revealporch lights snap on and there you areMotion action
04MovesPumpkin Patch Dusk WalkA slow walk through the patch as the sun goes downMotion action
05MovesPumpkin Carve GlowCarving a pumpkin by warm candlelight, the finished face lighting up.Motion action
The ones that restyle
01RestylesPumpkin Glowlit from below by carved pumpkinsLight comes up off the ground here, which is the opposite of how most photographs are lit.Photo style
02RestylesGothic Manorposed in velvet and candlelight in a gothic hallPhoto style
03RestylesHaunted Fogswallowed by ground fog in moonlit woodsPhoto style
04RestylesVampire Glamporcelain skin, candlelight and moonlight, spooky season glamPhoto style
05RestylesDreamcore MusePorcelain-pale gothic portrait with a soft pastel hazePhoto style
06RestylesCandlelit ApothecaryGlass bottles, dried herbs, warm candlelight from belowPhoto style
07RestylesGhost Apparition PortraitA pale wisp watching from the shadow behind youPhoto style
08RestylesSugar Skull Glam PortraitOrnate sugar-skull face paint in vivid floral colors, glamorous and bold.Photo style
What is invented on this shelf
Light, mostly, and light from strange directions. Underlighting from a carved pumpkin is exactly the kind of illumination that makes a face hard to read, and the model has to construct a whole face under it from a photograph that was almost certainly lit from the front. Fog and candlelight are similar problems: they change the shape of a face rather than sitting over it.
The photograph this shelf wants
Costume first, darkness second. Full length shows an outfit properly, and the face under it is what everything else is built around, so masks and heavy paint remove the features. Low light is part of the mood, but the photograph still needs a lit subject: dark clothing in a dark room against a dark background leaves nothing to work from.
The four things that decide any result are the same here as everywhere else in the library, and they are set out in what makes a photo work. The limits that apply to every action on this site are in what none of these can do.
Where Halloween results vary most
Costume and makeup in the source photograph confuse this shelf more than they help it. The model is trying to work out what your face is before it restyles it, and a mask, heavy paint or a hood makes that ambiguous, so the result often ends up further from you than a plain photograph would have. Bring an ordinary picture and let the style do the season.
Where to go next
- Sunglasses, hats, and a face half covered: does it still animate?A dark lens takes more out of a face than people expect, and a hat is a different problem entirely. Which occlusions matter, and which actions barely notice them.
- Holiday cards that move: seasonal photo animationsChristmas, Halloween and the end of year card, made from a photograph you already took. Which seasonal presets need what, how to send a clip without it arriving as a broken attachment, and the several occasions when a still card is plainly better.
This is one shelf of many. The whole catalogue, grouped the way the app groups it, is in the action library.
Common questions
- What is the Halloween shelf for?
- Spooky season, ready before it arrives. Most of this shelf restyles the photograph into a scene: pumpkin light from below, a gothic hall, ground fog in moonlit woods, vampire glam. A few of them move instead, and those are the ones with a beat in them, a candle guttering or a porch light snapping on. The shelf is deeper than it needs to be for a season, which is deliberate.
- Does everything on the Halloween shelf move?
- No, and that is the first thing to check before picking one. This shelf holds both kinds: some of these are motion actions that hand back a short clip, and the rest are photo styles that hand back a new still picture. Both halves are named and linked separately on this page, and every card is labelled.
- What kind of photo works best for Halloween?
- Costume first, darkness second. Full length shows an outfit properly, and the face under it is what everything else is built around, so masks and heavy paint remove the features. Low light is part of the mood, but the photograph still needs a lit subject: dark clothing in a dark room against a dark background leaves nothing to work from.
- Do I need a subscription for the Halloween actions?
- Nothing on this shelf is marked as a subscription only action in the app's catalogue. Free to download on iPhone and iPad. Credits and subscriptions are bought inside the app.
The right action for the photograph beats the popular one
Every action on the Halloween shelf is written up the same way, so you can check whether the picture in your camera roll actually suits it before you spend a credit on finding out.
