permoveo facies!

July 29, 2007 12:16 PM

Does there exist a widget/web based application that realizes the concept of the Harry Potter fantasy universe's photographs/paintings whose subjects move and talk? Shouldn't there?

This aspect of Harry Potter always struck a chord with me. After viewing the films, it seems to me like the "moving pictures" (Rowling deconstructs hollywood!) are just video loops contained within their picture frames, something I would think I could duplicate somehow on my macbook.

IANA web designer, hollywood visual effects editor, or wizard, and I want my Facebook photo to stick its tongue out.

posted by jackslashkerns to computers & internet (8 comments total)

You can do that quite easily with Flash.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:18 PM on July 29, 2007

It also doesn't have to be just a loop. With some work you could make the eyes of the person in the picture follow the mouse. Or you could make it so that it sticks out its tongue on a mouse-over.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:19 PM on July 29, 2007

Does Facebook allow animated gifs?
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 12:44 PM on July 29, 2007

No, Facebook doesn't let you use animation in your profile picture (and probably not in album pictures either).

MySpace, however, will let you animate to your heart's content.
posted by niles at 12:45 PM on July 29, 2007

Some of the newer photo frames will play video. If you only put one video on there, I think it would just rotate through that constantly.
posted by smackfu at 12:54 PM on July 29, 2007

Maybe Blabberize is what you need? Take any picture, select the boundaries of the mouth, record some speech, and you can make the picture talk.
posted by lubujackson at 11:10 AM on July 30, 2007

Just to sound a note of caution, back in the late 90s I recall seeing a web page, I think on Microsoft's site, that popped up Clippy the paperclip on top of your browser. (You had to be running IE and have and Office installed, and be willing to run some heinous ActiveX control, IIRC.) I can't find it now, but in any event, be careful what you wish for.
posted by whir at 5:52 PM on July 31, 2007

whir: That would probably be with Microsoft Agent.
posted by niles at 9:43 PM on July 31, 2007