“Solo Dates” Animation Process

Last spring, the lovely FIG gave me permission to create a mixed-media animated lyric video for “Solo Dates,” one of my favorite songs of hers. Since this was my first time doing a mixed-media animation, the process was particularly tedious, since it took a while to figure out a workflow that was efficient for me.

I prepared by figuring out a color scheme, watching a lot of mixed-media videos, and thumbnailing ideas for each line of the song. I chose a 3:4 aspect ratio since the texture reminded me of the grain of old TVs.

My process was this: animate in After Effects, export all frames as images, compile 6 images per page into a PDF, print, work traditionally on each frame, scan the pages back into After Effects, crop them back into place where they need to be in the timeline, and add some last-minute frame-by-frame animation digitally in Procerate Dreams.

The videos and photos used were all my own, but I did source some PNGs from Adobe Stock—specifically the dragonfruit, plane, trees, and world map that I placed onto a 3D sphere. I hand-drew the title text and the recurring line “for anybody.”

I worked in 2 big batches of printing/scanning—thankfully, the second batch went much faster than the first. I had fun getting to work with my hands; I used paint pens, markers, pencils, sequins, glue, ink, and turned my hand into a stamp by drawing and redrawing stars on my fingertips. It was so fun! The final lyric video for “Solo Dates” is a bit messy but it reminds me of my sketchbook and I’m so happy with how it turned out. :)

You can see some of my scans below!