One of the dots is telling a story to the other dots about their history or origin.
These circles all exist within a clean digital landscape. I thought it would be unexpected and delightful if these little characters actually found their origin in a much different world, an alien environment of organic plant life. It’s just weird enough for me to get super pumped on the idea.
Getting the circles from point A to point B was the exciting task ahead of me.
For me the creative process flows in and out of everyday life. I don’t force it. I think about it, draw inspiration from my kids, life experiences, and interests. Eventually the ideas bubble up to the surface. In this case it was 2am one morning.
I jumped out of bed and scrambled for a pen and paper. My wife Kristina wondering what I was up to at first but she knows sometimes I just have to get those ideas out. Half-awake, I was able to jot down some words and sketches. “I’ll see if it makes any sense in the morning”, I thought to myself.
To my delight the next morning my idea still felt good so I went with it.
Some assets were created in Adobe Illustrator. Most often I'll create the majority of the artwork in Ai and then convert it to shape layers once in After Effects.
Above is a looping texture created in Adobe Photoshop. Essentially a bunch of 3-4 frame layers staggered across the timeline. This is a great way to add some subtle energy to an otherwise static element.
Folder structure & file organization are incredibly important to me with any project.