Moving pictures: McMaster alumnus Mark Pavlidis is the co-founder of Flixel Photos Inc., a Toronto-based company that fuses photography and video into one revolutionary medium. His team earned a coveted Apple Design Award earlier this year.

You’re staring at a photo of a sun-kissed beach in California, and something isn’t quite right.

Are those palm trees swaying in the breeze? Did that cloud just move? Is that ice cream cone melting?

Chances are, you’re actually looking at a flixel.

“It’s not a photo, and it’s not a video. It’s somewhere in between,” explained Mark Pavlidis, co-founder of Flixel Photos Inc., and a two-time graduate from the Faculty of Engineering. “We created this software to allow photographers and videographers to add a whole new element to their work.”

While programs such as Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and After Effects allow users to create flixels, that process can involve nearly two-dozen steps in some cases. It can also be well beyond the average user’s capabilities, explained Pavlidis.

Flixel’s line of products — including two variations for iOS smartphones and two for Apple computers — allow users to create flixels in a fraction of the time using a streamlined design process.

Budding artists only need a few seconds of footage to create their own moving masterpiece. The Flixel software sandwiches each frame of the film into one static image, and allows the user to mask and unmask specific portions to reanimate. In other words, users can pick and chose which section of the image will spring back to life — whether it’s a flag on a windy day, a swirling basketball or a model’s billowing hair.

Pavlidis’ team created a McMaster-themed flixel for the Daily News:

Since launching in March of 2012, the company’s family of apps has earned more than 500,000 downloads. Earlier this year, the team received a prestigious Apple Design Award for Cinemagraph Pro, described as “the only professional tool specifically designed for the creation of flixels.” The latter has been downloaded more than 20,000 times, and became the number-one app in 80 countries.

For Pavlidis, the success of his Toronto-based company comes from a combination of clean design, accessibility and jaw-dropping results.

“It looks very technical, but this product was designed with the average user in mind,” said Pavlidis, who earned a degree in Software Engineering and Management in 2004, and added a Master of Applied Science in 2006. “We wanted to develop a simple process, so users could make a great image even more dynamic.”

In September, Pavlidis will return to McMaster to lecture at a number of Computer Science classes alongside Christopher Anand, an associate professor in the Faculty of Engineering. Pavlidis was a student of Anand’s during the mid-2000s, and the two have remained in touch ever since.

“Mark was part of a group of students who were all very competent,” said Anand. “I knew I wanted him to come back and lecture at McMaster, even before his company won the Apple Design Award. This kind of thing means a lot to our faculty.”

Born and raised in Markham, Ont., Pavlidis built a number of iOS applications after finishing his studies at McMaster, including the early versions of Shortcovers (now known as e-book juggernaut Kobo) and Guardly, a mobile emergency notification system.

With a string of successful tech ventures under his belt and Flixel on the rise, he wants to help inspire the next wave of students to break new ground with their own startup companies.

“This is one way for me to give something back to McMaster,” said Pavlidis. “The student entrepreneurship community seems to be reaching a critical mass, and I want to offer whatever guidance and support I can to the next up-and-coming generation.”