Briefing
The briefing emphasized creating a short, fast-paced animation that evokes excitement and mystery, with a focus on bold lettering. Designed as a social video teaser for Ghost Drops, the piece preceded a major announcement about the company’s digital marketplace. The entire video revolves around the phrase "Something big is coming", with each word animated in a distinct style to create a visually overwhelming experience. A final call to action follows, building on the excitement generated throughout the animation.
Breakdown
The first scene revolves around the word "Something," referencing the idea that everything is composed of atoms. It plays on the logical relationship between "something" and the fundamental building blocks of matter. The theme of multiplication symbolizes expansion and excitement, aligning with the company’s strategic growth, which this teaser video was designed to hint at. The ghost shape, representing the brand’s mascot, appears subtly throughout the animation as a recurring motif.
For the word "Big," I drew inspiration from mylar balloons. Their reflective surface and metallic texture enhance the sense of inflation, while the bluish tints create a striking contrast with the brand’s signature pink, used as the background to maintain visual consistency.
I used Houdini’s Vellum Solver to simulate inflation and collisions between the letters. The letters were placed inside a constrained box, intensifying the effect as they expanded and pushed against the boundaries, competing for space.
For the final scene, featuring the word "Coming," the theme was speed, symbolizing the imminent arrival of the significant change teased by the company. This is visually emphasized by the word’s rapid entrance onto the screen, further amplified by the chromatic distortions it generates.
As a backdrop to convey fast-moving, intriguing technology, I drew inspiration from the Stargate sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey. To achieve this effect, I used Ben Marriot's YouTube tutorial as a starting point, adapting it to fit the animation's theme.
