Action library · Both kinds
Viral Right Now
The formats currently circulating, which is a shelf defined by timing rather than by craft.
Short form reveals and reaction beats: doors opening, flashes going off, a slow turn to camera, a curtain parting, a fast push in that lands on a face. What these share is a shape rather than a subject. Each one is a setup and a payoff inside a few seconds, which is the grammar of a feed rather than the grammar of a photograph.
People posting to a feed this week. That is the honest description, and it carries a consequence worth stating: this is the shelf with the shortest useful life in the library, because the formats on it are current rather than permanent.
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 Viral Right Now shelf
The ones that move
01MovesElevator Revealthe doors open and the moment landsDoors opening make a frame inside your frame, so leave margin around yourself for the metal to arrive.Motion action
02MovesPaparazzi Wallstepping out into a storm of paparazzi flashesMotion action
03MovesSlow-Mo Turna slow turn over the shoulder to cameraMotion action
04MovesMemory Foam Squishpressed like memory foam, then bounces right backMotion action
05MovesCrash Zooma fast punch-in that lands right on the reactionMotion action
06MovesCurtain RevealA stage curtain parts to reveal a glowed-up look.Motion action
07MovesSunbeam Window TurnTurn into the morning light like the day just started for youMotion action
08MovesConfetti FreezeThe joyful freeze as confetti fallsMotion action
09MovesDiary Room CameoAn intimate reality-show confession booth moment, leaning in to speak straight to camera.Motion action
The ones that restyle
01RestylesGilded MirrorA cinematic reflection in a gilded mirrorA reflection has to be built out of one face, so give it a clear one.Photo style
02RestylesLight Trail EchoA glowing motion trail follows you through a long-exposure portrait.Trails follow the edges of a body, so those edges have to be clean in the original.Photo style
03RestylesFlashbulb Step OutA single camera flash catches a confident glanceOne flash, one glance, and both depend on the face being clearly readable.Photo style
04RestylesGolden Hour Flash PopDirect flash meets warm backlight for a candid glowTwo light sources are combined here, warm from behind and hard from the front, so the original should not commit to either.Photo style
What is invented on this shelf
A camera move, and often a whole environment for it to move through. An elevator, a press wall, a stage. The photograph supplies a person and the action supplies the place, the light and the timing, which is a larger request than it appears from a preview that lasts a few seconds.
The photograph this shelf wants
These are reveals and turns toward the lens, so the face has to survive the movement: front on or close to it, evenly lit, nothing across the features. Waist up carries most of them, though full length gives the turn somewhere to happen. Leave some background either side rather than filling every corner, because the scene around you gets rebuilt.
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 Viral Right Now results vary most
Reveal formats depend on the payoff being the face, so a face that is small, shadowed or turned away removes the point of the action rather than merely degrading it. The fast camera moves are also the ones where a background has to be rebuilt quickest, and detailed rooms smear noticeably during a push or a swing.
Where to go next
- Animating a photo for Instagram ReelsGetting an animated photo onto Reels without it looking wrong. The crop decision that has to happen before you generate, not after, what five seconds is good for on a loop, and where the AI disclosure toggle actually lives.
- Why your animated photo looks wrong, and which part to blameA clip comes back and something is off, but it is hard to say what. Four causes, in order of how often they are the real one, each with a symptom you can recognise in your own result.
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 Viral Right Now shelf for?
- Short form reveals and reaction beats: doors opening, flashes going off, a slow turn to camera, a curtain parting, a fast push in that lands on a face. What these share is a shape rather than a subject. Each one is a setup and a payoff inside a few seconds, which is the grammar of a feed rather than the grammar of a photograph.
- Does everything on the Viral Right Now 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 Viral Right Now?
- These are reveals and turns toward the lens, so the face has to survive the movement: front on or close to it, evenly lit, nothing across the features. Waist up carries most of them, though full length gives the turn somewhere to happen. Leave some background either side rather than filling every corner, because the scene around you gets rebuilt.
- Do I need a subscription for the Viral Right Now 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 Viral Right Now 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.
