myheritage, tiktok old pictures, animate, animation

TikTokers are bringing old pictures to life with this cool photo animation app

It’s free on the app store now


Have you ever wondered what it would be like to meet your grandparents when they were younger? Or who you’d visit if you could go back in time? Well, whilst technology hasn’t come that far just yet, there is an app that has given people at least a little taste of meeting people from the past, and it’s called MyHeritage. Essentially, it allows people to animate old photos, moving the eyes and the mouth about so that it genuinely looks like a video – and it’s pretty convincing.

However, as much as you’ve likely seen these videos on TikTok, it’s less clear how this effect is actually achieved. So, how do you animate your own old photos? Do you need to pay to use the MyHeritage app? Here’s a complete step by step guide in how to animate your old photos.

@thomasflanigan_The app is called MyHeritage #greenscreenvideo #myheritage #McDonaldsCCSing #ancestors♬ record before u listen – penny lane

How do I animate my old photos?

Okay, so you’ve found a cool photo that you want to animate, whether it’s a black and white one of your great grandparents in their twenties or a picture of one of your mates that you want to mess with. Now it’s pretty simple what you do next:

• Download MyHeritage for free from the app store and log in to the app.

• Make sure you have the photo that you want to use at the ready – there’s an option in the app to scan it directly from your phone, but just make sure it’s as high quality as possible.

• Tap the three lines in the top left corner and tap photos.

• Upload a photo using the orange plus in the bottom right corner and once the photo is open, click the animate button at the top. It should look like a ball being thrown and is the leftmost function in the top bar.

@marianne.castVolverte a ver ❤️❤️❤️ ##deepnostalgia ##myheritage ##family ##photo ##myheritagechallenge♬ Iris – Natalie Taylor

And that’s it! It should take a few moments to load the effect but you’ll be rewarded with a little animation that is as fascinating as it is completely creepy. There’s also a range of other photo editing options, such as colouring old photos and sharpening them, so have a play about to see what works best.

Enjoy!

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