This animated sequence was a result of hand-crafted elements brought to life on the screen. Based off the Cornish fairy tale "Jack the Giant Killer", it features key scenes from the story. My original process involved doing the entire project digitally, but I was encouraged to explore a more physical creation route. Going the paper route allowed me much more control over the characters' poses and the surrounding scenery. I made several figured and background imagery out of paper and photographed them against a textured paper background.
Storyboard for the sequence.
Paper puppets against the textured background. I splattered red watercolor paint onto the edges of the textured paper to add blood imagery, following the themes of the story.
Earliest video utilizing pictures of the scenes.
Once I had all of the scenes, they came to life on the screen via Photoshop. I separated the parts I wanted to move into different layers. Once the photoshop files were in After Effects, I was able to individually animate the different layers to create motion within each scene. An extra layer of motion was added by slowly zooming in on each scene as it played out.
Sequence with moving figures.
The final edits involved toning down the text to focus on the imagery, as well as adjusting the backgrounds to add some variety between each scene and changing the music to better fit the theme.
Final styleframes.