Selfies turn into video clips thanks to AI: the winter holidays trend?

No longer just filters or simple visual effects. What seems poised to dominate digital content across the clearnet in the run-up to the holiday season—possibly even displacing more mainstream short-form videos—are AI Selfie transitions, the latest evolution of social media language, in which a digital selfie is transformed into a micro visual narrative guided by artificial intelligence.

What makes them immediately recognisable is the transition itself, and often the presence of celebrities or famous actors. Unlike traditional filters, AI selfie transitions function as true animated sequences. The initial image moves and recomposes itself in a matter of seconds, passing through different aesthetic styles, eras, and settings, or taking on a more cinematic quality through a fluid, almost hypnotic AI-generated transition. The result is content that feels like a story told in just a few seconds, often paired with music and editing designed to capture attention within the endless scroll of social feeds.

From a technological perspective, this process is made possible by generative AI models—such as Kling 2.6, Higgsfield, and Media.io—that allow users to create short video clips from two or more static images using a simple text prompt. Various AI-based tools and platforms, including Nano Banana Pro, make it possible to “place” one's selfie within different scenarios, creating images that, with the help of these generators, can be animated and linked-from a start frame to an end frame -into fluid sequences characterised by realistic motion. This can then be further refined with traditional video editing tools such as CapCut.

Selfie AI transitions work very well within the logic of contemporary attention and seem reminiscent of the cameos function of Sora 2, thus fitting into a moment of particular enthusiasm for a kind of augmented self-representation that combines speed and intagrammism. However, compared to some trends certifying a disamoration of generation z toward a language perfected and hyper-technological visual, these animated selfies move in an opposite direction, reinforcing a packaged and well-structured visual landscape that is distinctly artificial.

It remains unclear whether this trend—one that turns the selfie into a series of micro staged scenes—will lead to the long-anticipated aesthetic optimization, or whether it will have a lasting impact on the visual grammar of social media. What it certainly confirms is a growing desire to rethink the paradigm of digital identity through the extensive use of AI: not only to display the self, but to design it, within an increasingly algorithmic representation of identity.

Opening image: video from TikTok