Patrick Onellion is one passionate man. Anyone who spends any length of time with him will quickly realize that.

“Welcome to Pat’s crazy world,” he says as visitors enter his house.

Not crazy, Pat. Intense, yes, historic, yes, fascinating, even a tiny bit obsessive, but not crazy. A draftsman by trade, Onellion is a self-proclaimed fan of history: more specifically, New Iberia history, and the lives of his ancestors, who include New Iberia’s founders and prominent first citizens.

He has researched St. Peter’s Cemetery to accurately determine who is buried where, and his latest obsession is colorization and animation of vintage photographs of Iberia and her people. Pat knows his way around computers and software, and enjoys bringing historic images back to life.

“I like to colorize historic photographs, because our eyes can’t relate to black and white. We see a faded picture of Main Street gone by, and it’s not really real to us. When the color is added, it looks more like the real world, and we’re more interested and engaged,” he said. “I have a drive to appreciate and celebrate the past, and New Iberia has so much to offer historically.”

According to Onellion, the colorization process works best with high quality, crisp, clean photos that have been prepped (removing obvious flaws, tears, and spots) before colorization. There will always be touch-up issues when it’s done. He uses and recommends imagecolorizer.com.

After he had colorized hundreds of historic photos, Onellion discovered software by which he is able to animate these same photos.

“It’s not a secret, anybody can find the software to do what I’m doing. All you need is the time, some computer skills and the will to do it,” he said.

He uses MyHeritage Deep Nostalgia video reenactment technology to produce his animations. The images literally move, the subject seems to tilt his or her head, move their eyes side to side, smile more deeply than originally captured and more. To some people, this might be unsettling, but Onellion definitely enjoys seeing his relatives in action.

“This gives me great comfort to be able to see my grandmother as a 16-year-old girl,” he said. “She died before I was born, so all I ever had of her were a few photographs. I can say it has filled a hole in my heart to have this from her.”

He has animated upwards of 100 images so far, either for himself and his family, or for others who have requested them. He has suggestions for the best results for bringing images to life: “For animations, try to submit photos that have both ears as when the animation takes place, one might be missing,” he said. “Also, eyes must be visible and not closed. Another thing is that some of the old pictures end up with someone looking mad because of the way they held their mouths during the photo shoot.”

Onellion recently took a photo of the John and Anna Schwing family, taken for their 25th anniversary in 1935 and animated it for the last surviving Schwing sibling, Mrs. Terry Broussard, for her birthday.

“Her son, Tommy called me and said the first thing she did was grab the phone to get a closer look. She loved it,” he said.

Onellion’s other animations of notable New Iberians include:

• Dr. Alfred Duperier (1828-1904) He was the son of Frederic Henry Duperier. Alfred was instrumental in getting Iberia Parish created through his influence with the Louisiana state legislature in 1868.

• Marie Blanchet (1884-1924), circa 1900. She was the great granddaughter of Frederic Henry Duperier. In 1908, she married Charles Carstens and together, they had six children.

• Anna Noelie Archer (1881-1949), circa 1905. She is a granddaughter of Dr. Alfred Duperier.

• Magdalena Emmer, (1866-1942) circa 1886. She was called “Maggie’ and was the daughter of William F. Emmer and Mary Magdalena Baumann. She married Paul Raoul Duperier, a grandson of Frederic Henry Duperier and had three children, Ralph Earl, William Chapman, and Magdalena.

Onellion compares these animated creations to the Disney Hall of Presidents on steroids. “You don’t have to be Abraham Lincoln, you can be Great-grandpa and be animated.”

 

Pick the clearest photo you can find. Spend some time prepping it, making color even, reducing flaws, etc.

Commit to the touch-up process. There is no photo that will be perfect on the first try.

For animation, it is best to start with a straight-on photograph.

A photograph showing both ears with both eyes open is optimal.

For colorization: imagecolorizer.com

For animation: MyHeritage Deep Nostalgia