The Killer in Me Animation
The Killer in Me Animation
In the Spring of 2022, as a collaboration with an English course at my university, I was tasked with choosing a poem written by a poet taking that English course and designing a word animation to accompany their poem.
Expectations: The video needed to be thirty seconds long, utilize type transformations, and the style of the video need to fit the themes and ideas of the poem.
The Killer in Me by Kyle Mcdaniel:
There is a killer in you right now as there is a killer in me. Like a Sculptor, we must chip away at ourselves. With every choice I make I kill myself. There is a me that is no more, a me that falls to the side. But what is left after? There is the one, the final, the real killer. Me.
Process:
The poem I selected, titled The Killer in Me, focuses on the idea that we are all killers, this perspective is derived from the idea that with every choice we make in our lives we kill another version of us that could’ve been. Due to the dark subject matter, I took inspiration from various horror films and horror tropes. To begin the process I created a mood board of images that encapsulated the feel I got from the poem. From the first time, I heard the poem, a clear picture of a killer slowly walking through a deserted street as the words appear on screen acting as inner thoughts, came to my mind.
Results:
My final result was a serious first attempt at working in After Effects, but as I look back I see many areas that could be improved. Things that I did well: were sticking to the poet’s original vision, type transformations, and sound design. Things that could have been improved were my work with the background imagery and interaction with the poet. After my evaluation of my product, I went back in and executed the changes that I noted.