Animating Album Artwork

I explored animated album artwork as a hands-on way to learn motion graphics. I selected five albums or songs to experiment with and had a blast bringing static artwork to life through different animation styles.

Tove Lo — "Dirt Femme"

With Tove’s Dirt Femme album, I saw opportunities to enhance the visuals by animating the Scorpio tail, illuminating the bold Tove wordmark, and highlighting her thigh logo. I also extended the sand and sky background to seamlessly fill the entire frame.

Tyler, the Creator — "Chromakopia"

The immediate elements I noticed could be played with would be a simple tile of the head and hand accompanied by a growing glow. The simple animation helped enhance the old Hollywood sci-fi look of the album cover.

Phoenix — "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix"

This was one of the easier album cover artworks to manipulate since all the components were simple graphic shapes that were easy to isolate in Photoshop. The jagged and chaotic animation is directly inspired by the missile artwork they've incorporated.

Earth, Wind, & Fire — "I Am"

This was one of the more challenging covers to animate, as the artwork was originally painted with imperfect circular rings. I carefully isolated and cloned elements to create a seamless looping rotation. The animation enhances the artwork’s mysticism and ethereal quality, aligning with the essence of the band name.

Fall Out Boy — "From Under the Cork Tree"

This was the first piece I animated in the series, and I went all out with effects, making it a strong starting point. I always envisioned this cover as a great candidate for animation—especially the audience members bobbing their heads, which I animated first. I then added a glow inside the van and finished with a preset snow animation for the final touch.

Overall, this personal project was a great way to kickstart my journey into motion design. I’d highly recommend this exercise to anyone curious about After Effects—it became easier with each piece, and the learning curve felt less daunting over time. I’m excited to keep exploring and creating more motion pieces! ✌🏽