# Endless Loops: Detecting and Animating Periodic Patterns in Still Images

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.09374 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.09374/

## Key facts

- Cited by 7 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 11 of its 47 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 19 May 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [SinGAN: Learning a Generative Model from a Single Natural Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.01164/) (2019)
- [Softmax Splatting for Video Frame Interpolation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.05534/) (2020)
- [3D Photography using Context-aware Layered Depth Inpainting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.04727/) (2020)
- [3D Ken Burns Effect from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.05483/) (2019)
- [Learning by Analogy: Reliable Supervision from Transformations for Unsupervised Optical Flow Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.13045/) (2020)
- [Photo Wake-Up: 3D Character Animation from a Single Photo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.02246/) (2018)
- [Animating Pictures with Eulerian Motion Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.15128/) (2020)
- [One Shot 3D Photography](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.12298/) (2020)
- [Two-Stream Convolutional Networks for Dynamic Texture Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.06982/) (2017)
- [Animating Landscape: Self-Supervised Learning of Decoupled Motion and Appearance for Single-Image Video Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.07192/) (2019)
- [Clear Skies Ahead: Towards Real-Time Automatic Sky Replacement in Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.02582/) (2019)

## Built on by (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [Text-Guided Synthesis of Eulerian Cinemagraphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.03190/) (2023)
- [Blowing in the Wind: CycleNet for Human Cinemagraphs from Still Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08639/) (2023)
- [LoopGaussian: Creating 3D Cinemagraph with Multi-view Images via Eulerian Motion Field](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.08966/) (2024)
- [3D Video Loops from Asynchronous Input](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.05312/) (2023)
- [Learning Continuous Implicit Representation for Near-Periodic Patterns](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.12278/) (2022)
- [Mobius: Text to Seamless Looping Video Generation via Latent Shift](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.20307/) (2025)
- [Deep Learning and Synthetic Media](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.05764/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present an algorithm for producing a seamless animated loop from a single image. The algorithm detects periodic structures, such as the windows of a building or the steps of a staircase, and generates a non-trivial displacement vector field that maps each segment of the structure onto a neighboring segment along a user- or auto-selected main direction of motion. This displacement field is used, together with suitable temporal and spatial smoothing, to warp the image and produce the frames of a continuous animation loop. Our cinemagraphs are created in under a second on a mobile device. Over 140,000 users downloaded our app and exported over 350,000 cinemagraphs. Moreover, we conducted two user studies that show that users prefer our method for creating surreal and structured cinemagraphs compared to more manual approaches and compared to previous methods.