DeepGlitch: creating glitchy iOS images with depth

It’s been around for years, but I’ve recently found myself spending a lot of time with the Seene app again. Seene is an iOS & Android app that allows you to create photos that are auto-magically converted into 3D renders. I used it for these Alcatraz photos from a few months back. (note: since publishing this tutorial, Seene has been acquired by Snapchat and has gutted it’s social functions. The app still works, but is no longer available)

Seene’s effect is best viewed through their app, which uses the accelerometer to adjust your perspective, but if you want to get creative, you can create really unique glitch art with your Seene. Here’s my tutorial for creating “Deep Glitch” photos with Seene and Glitch Wizard.

Open Seene (iOS link) and capture your desired image. If this is your first time using Seene, here are some tips. Look for images with lots of textures or high contrast points on them, this makes it easier for the app to create it’s model. For best results, you want your subject to be as still as possible. Start with images of objects or still life, before you try your hand at shooting life on the street. Moving images can tend to distort the way Seene creates it’s mapping, but since we are creating glitch art, that could be kind of cool for later experimentation.

Once you’ve finished your Seene, find it in your timeline. Tap the share button (the square with the arrow at the bottom of the screen), then tap “Share Video”, then “Save Video” which saves your Seene as a slowly pivoting video. This video often times has a bit of 3D distortion on it already, which will just add to our final effect.

Open Glitch Wizard (for iOS) and tap the camera button at the bottom of the screen, go to your photo album by tapping the square on the lower left hand corner and find your Seene video in the “Videos” folder. On the video preview screen tap “Choose”.

Now your video is imported into Glitch Wizard and you can select individual frames to tweak/break/distort. It’s up to you if you want to glitch out the entire video, but I usually tend to leave several frames unaffected, then go crazy with a few frames near the middle and end. Another effect I like to try is to use one of the variable effects (like Darkness or Delete) and have them get increasingly more drastic in each frame.

When you are finished click “export” and select entire animation. From here you can select how you’d like to share your final animation. I love gifs, but since Twitter’s GIF feature is so broken and Instagram only works with video animations, I usually go straight for “Save Video To Camera Roll” and use that for all my sharing. Be sure to “Save To My Glitches” too, which stores your glitches in the Glitch Wizard app.

For a final step, I like to add a bit of circuit bent sounds or synth drones on top of my glitch app by opening the video in Diptic Video and adding the soundtrack via my iTunes library. I call this style of experimental 3D photography “Deep Glitch” and tend to tag it #DeepGlitch on Instagram and Twitter. For more experiments, you can follow me as all things (Seene, IG, Ello, Twitter) as @DocPop.

Props to Allan from Glitch Wizard for creating such a fun app and helping me name this style.