Toyota RAV4 Cinemagraph
Motion Design · Digital Advertising · Compositing
Creating motion from a photograph that was never designed to move.
This digital advertising project began with a finished Toyota RAV4 photograph rather than layered production assets. Motion blur was already baked into the image, and the photograph ended at boundaries that would become visible once movement was introduced. The challenge was therefore larger than simply animating the vehicle: the source image first had to be reconstructed into something capable of supporting motion.
Building beyond the source material
The supplied photography was designed as a finished still image, not an animation asset. Creating a convincing cinemagraph required removing unwanted motion blur, rebuilding portions of the environment beyond the original frame, and creating enough visual information to support movement without exposing the limitations of the source photograph. The finished concept then had to translate across four substantially different ad dimensions: 970 × 250, 300 × 600, 160 × 300, and 300 × 250.
My contribution
I handled the visual reconstruction, compositing, motion design, and adaptation of the concept across the required campaign formats: image reconstruction and cleanup, correction of unwanted motion blur, background extension, motion design, compositing, campaign adaptation, and multi-format production.
Designing around constraints
The project demonstrates the value of working beyond the limitations of supplied assets—reconstructing what was missing, preserving photographic credibility, and developing a motion solution flexible enough to work across very different formats.
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