- ClientAlmashhad TV
- Year2024
- RoleMotion designer · Compositor
- ToolsAfter Effects · Photoshop · Premiere Pro
- DisciplinePromo · Mixed media
- DeliveryOn-air · Social
Making live action sit in paper
The central technical problem in a piece like this is that filmed footage has continuous tone, motion blur and real depth of field, and paper has none of those things. Dropping a rotoscoped person onto a textured background without addressing that produces the familiar effect of a photo floating on a scrapbook.
The treatment is to push the footage toward the paper rather than the other way round: posterise the tonal range, add grain that matches the paper's own noise, and cut the edges with a slight irregularity so they read as scissors rather than a mask.
Texture is the whole design
Crumpled-paper texture does a disproportionate amount of work here. It supplies shadow, imperfection and a sense of physical layering that would otherwise need to be animated. Halftone shapes sit on top as a second, printed layer — a different era of reproduction, which is what gives the piece its retro register.
Decisions worth naming
- Everything on a plane. Elements move in flat layers with parallax rather than in 3D space, because paper does not have perspective.
- Shadows drawn, not rendered. Hand-placed drop shadows with hard edges, consistent direction, no falloff.
- Props chosen for silhouette. In a cut-out language a prop is only as good as its outline.
Related: 2D animation and explainers.
Next: Smart Watch — a cinematic 3D product animation →
Let’s make something move.
Open to full-time roles and select freelance projects — Dubai, the Gulf and remote. Showreel, breakdowns and CV available on request.
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