One of my first projects at IMAGESTORM were two giant animated custom-videos for valentine's day. Users could upload an image of their face together with a couple of text messages that were then included in the final rendering. It was a massive project in terms of hosting, programming and project management. My part - the animation - had less variables so it was extensive, but comparably straightforward.
The team brought me into the project as main After Effects animator, when the sketched animatic was already approved - so the timings were all set. I worked with keyed footage, created 2D and 3D assets (buildings, a boat, cloth simulation, a sturdy lever, flowers, trees, ...), animated most of it in After Effects and some of the 3D parts in Maya.
Everything in front of the face/text had to be rendered as a different layer. It was a quite a challenge to split up all the cel-animated animals and hair, the theater curtain and some other elements from other animators into foreground and background.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/a9ebc63cab0f92a3d6b9cc8afd04cf65/0050c5f5-5834-4891-b810-f6be95b7c14f_rw_1920.png?h=32761f439d5a56581f3e02eec2114a55)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/a9ebc63cab0f92a3d6b9cc8afd04cf65/5e32d24a-6a1b-414b-9744-de8a543cb00b_rw_1200.gif?h=26a0a615de096fc23864db0c5091bb3a)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/a9ebc63cab0f92a3d6b9cc8afd04cf65/834933ca-cd56-42d0-9033-7ac01c7f094e_rw_1920.png?h=3672bbb9e4bed0908ba3354c4920468f)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/a9ebc63cab0f92a3d6b9cc8afd04cf65/78fe1b86-7bf1-48d5-af54-7cf240363058_rw_1200.gif?h=8feb8104d946be036c4a415c17d0acea)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/a9ebc63cab0f92a3d6b9cc8afd04cf65/f3cbcfba-2c45-47ae-b764-702ab1108e72_rw_1920.png?h=2f4c4421601b2fff6e6b48e4d5c2e198)
Going back and forth between two animations that had such a different style was tricky. Having set up the project files in a way that made later edits quite easy, really paid off.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/a9ebc63cab0f92a3d6b9cc8afd04cf65/03262b51-342b-49f3-ae66-1d920ce2a3fb_rw_1920.jpg?h=4e032bbb8a0703051e6921f1531066bc)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/a9ebc63cab0f92a3d6b9cc8afd04cf65/e3347304-23b1-4233-a388-58e9626732f9_rw_1920.jpg?h=cfdaba227c2beee26c31ed34e8f38563)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/a9ebc63cab0f92a3d6b9cc8afd04cf65/ff117ce4-01fe-4167-abe7-2ba86b8a2a99_rw_1920.jpg?h=80d1d889f378df2d3c6297375655558d)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/a9ebc63cab0f92a3d6b9cc8afd04cf65/15aa8a2d-2e08-4522-9c67-a73fca14052e_rw_1200.gif?h=124bc16033c0a2e22e335c686a7b1197)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/a9ebc63cab0f92a3d6b9cc8afd04cf65/a45c47e5-de17-4484-96ae-077d22205930_rw_1920.jpg?h=641a2ae5362447eec45fa872ce1ba951)