My partner is a huge Harry Potter fan. So, naturally, I’ve been thinking of ways to bring a little bit of that Hogwarts magic into our home. My latest crazy idea? To build one of the iconic moving paintings from the movies.

The Vision: A Little Bit of Magic on Our Wall 🖼️

The goal is to have a painting that looks pretty normal at first glance, but then you notice the person in the portrait subtly moving, maybe even looking around the room. No simple video loop on a screen—I want this to feel genuinely magical and immersive.

The Reality

Good news, I completed Sprint# 1 and 2;however, Sprint# 3 changed a littele bit because the moving painting turned into a useful digital picture slideshow that my partner really appreciates. I will post some pictures in the comming blogs. ✨

Change of Plans

This turned out to be a flexible mini project. I am working on making themed sideshows for for Christmas, Halloweeen etc. I will continue to work on Sprint# 3 and perhaps add a little bit of magic.✨

Here’s the pile of tech and craft supplies I used to make this happen:

  • The Brains: A Raspberry Pi 5 will run the show.
  • The Canvas: An old monitor I have lying around.
  • The Magic: AI-generated video from a tool like Sora or Veo to create the looping portrait. (Origina Plan).
  • The Disguise: A picture frame

My Game Plan: Tackling This Like a Tech Project

Big projects can get out of hand fast, so I’m borrowing a concept from my day job: an Agile approach. Basically, instead of trying to build the whole perfect thing at once, I’m breaking it down into small, manageable chunks, or “sprints.” This way, I can get a working version up and running at each stage and make sure I’m on the right track.

Sprint 1: The Foundation (Getting a Picture to Move)

Before I start building frames, I need to make sure the core tech actually works.

  • Go down the AI rabbit hole: I’ll be playing with AI video generators to see if I can create a short, looping video that looks like a classical portrait.
  • Get the Pi working: I’ll set up the Raspberry Pi 5 to automatically play a video file on a loop when it boots up.
  • First look: The goal for this sprint is simple: have a video playing on the bare monitor. It won’t be pretty, but it’ll be alive!

Sprint 2: The Assembly (Making It Look Like a Painting)

This is where it starts to look less like a pile of electronics and more like something you’d actually hang on a wall.

  • Frame build: I’ll get the old monitor mounted securely inside the picture frame. This will probably involve some creative DIY engineering.
  • Aesthetics: I’ll paint the frame to give it that authentic, slightly-worn Hogwarts vibe.
  • Put it all together: The Raspberry Pi gets tucked away behind the monitor, and the plexiglass goes on top to complete the look. By the end of this sprint, I should have a fully assembled, wall-mountable moving painting!

Sprint 3: The Polish (Adding More Magic)

With the basic version done, it’s time to add some bells and whistles.

  • More characters: I’ll create a few different moving portraits so we can swap them out. Maybe a grumpy wizard, a mischievous house-elf… who knows!
  • Create a playlist: I’ll configure the Pi to cycle through different videos.
  • Add some sound (maybe?): I’m toying with the idea of adding some subtle ambient sounds, like a crackling fire or rustling pages. We’ll see!