Overview

For my final project I wanted to explore the theme of nostalgia. I decided to create a scrapbook style animation that encapsulates the beauty of childhood.

Previous Iterations

I began by drawing the title frames and bringing that into After Effects. I initially tried to animate a digital cloud but opted for a different scene.

I searched on Flickr for authentic videos and found some that worked and really embraced the collage theme by adding paper unwrap transitions.

At this point I was really happy with my animation however, I wanted to reflect the tone shift in the lyrics. She says “the lawn is dead.” I initially put depressing stock imagery at the end to reflect this loss of childhood but it did not work well with my established visual aesthetic.

Final Project

Finally, after struggling with it, I found a video on Flickr which I paired alongside the text and flowers getting crushed to reflect the shift in the lyrics. I am so happy with my final result. I used glowing bodies to respect the privacy of the children in the videos and to ensure that everybody could see themselves in this animation and embrace the nostalgia.

Annotated Bibliography

“JUSTIN KAMINUMA,” n.d. https://justinkaminuma.com/.

• I was really inspired by Justin Kaminuma. I love how he overlays shots to achieve a dynamic double exposure effect. 

“Alice Isaac,” n.d. https://www.aliceisaac.com/portfolio.

•  I was particularly drawn to their collage work (found under portfolio->motion). It reminds me of flipping through a magazine and makes use of After Effects 3d capabilities. This inspired me to be more dynamic in moving my actual canvas around.

Adrianne Lenker. “Adrianne Lenker – Half Return (Official Audio),” October 23, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoBWkvFY_Ec.

• This song is genuinely so fitting for my final animation. The lyrics and expert guitar really bring it all together.

Flickr. “Flickr,” n.d. https://www.flickr.com/.

• I wanted to use my own childhood videos and photos but unfortunately for me that was not possible. I turned to the internet and was glad and horrified to find just how many videos were out there. The majority of my time was spent on Flickr.

Big Vic Media. “Make Your Entire BODY GLOW | After Effects Tutorial,” November 29, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLH48y-QAL8.

• This is the tutorial I followed to achieve the full body glow effect.