This video isn’t really a video – at least not in the traditional sense. It wasn’t filmed with a video camera. None of the subjects are actually moving. In fact, each shot is made of a single still image, taken from the World Wildlife Fund photo archives.

How’d the creators do it? By isolating all the elements of the photo onto their own layers in Photoshop and then using After Effects to animate each layer separately, a parallax effect was created. The parallax effect – yes, the same parallax effect that makes objects in iOS 7 appear to be flying at you – creates the illusion that a still image is actually a video. I’m sure there’s more wizardry at work, but sometimes it’s better to just let the magic be magic.

Incredible!

(via Gizmodo)