The project:
This was quite a labor-intensive personal project, but since I'm a big fan of cut-out animations and rotoscoping from early animations, I decided to dive into the idea and shake things up! (pun intended). The goal was to study cut-out animations, better understand generative AI, and learn some post-production techniques I hadn't explored before.
Here is a detailed making-of, covering the various stages of this project. I loved the result and had a lot of fun animating this video!
First, I selected a short dance video from the web to use as a reference for the movements.
Then, I performed rotoscoping by drawing frame by frame over the video in Photoshop. I drew each part of the body separately so that they could also be used as masks for the textures. (Yes, it took a long time lol)
For the skull head, I followed these steps:
-I searched for images of various skulls on the web in the necessary positions, removing the background and making adjustments when needed. (The idea was for them not to look like the same skull, to maintain the cut-out animation look).
-Using Photoshop's generative AI tool, I added headphones and a bionic eye to each skull to create visual unity among the images.
-I created the head rotation rig using Joystick n Sliders in After Effects. Each image was used for a different head position.
Then, I added the textures and some really cool pink hair to the character :)
Finally, I completed the composition and post-production with a newspaper background to maintain the retro cut-out animation feel, adding a touch of vaporwave vibe!
Thanks for watching!