Final Animated Resume Video
Project Overview:
Over the course of 3 weeks, I created a video resume highlighting my academic and professional journey as not only a student but as a professional designer. I created this video to add an additional layer to my resume and portfolio, displaying my journey in an untraditional and memorable way. In this video, I was able to highlight my animation capabilities in a short period. The final deliverable is a 2-minute and 30-second .mp4 animation clip.
Tools:
Adobe AfterEffects, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Stock, Procreate
Process:
To begin my process, I began by updating my resume and portfolio. Both of these were already fairly updated, so my time was spent mostly adjusting aesthetics or taking out irrelevant information. I also researched other animated resumes online.
The main website I used for research: https://www.wyzowl.com/animated-resume/.
Next, I determined a color scheme that I wanted my "brand" to portray. In my portfolio, I already had a dark pink/red, but I wanted to include some complementary colors so I added blues, greens, and grays. While creating a color palette, I decided to create a cartoon of myself. This cartoon was the driving force during the video and helped set up the visual style. I also used the font Futura to match my portfolio.
The next step was to begin storyboarding and writing a script. I decided to start with an introduction of myself, how fashion design led me to graphic design, my education and extracurriculars, internships and my current job, my technical and soft skills, and finally my mission statement. Sketches are shown below.
Since I was going for more of an illustrative style, I had to create a lot of illustrations in Adobe Illustrator. The total number of illustrations came to 29. For some, such as the Cornell graphic and the Ohio state graphic, I traced images in Procreate and then brought them into Illustrator. For others, such as the various icons, I downloaded them from Adobe Stock and then edited them to fit the style of my video. I also recorded a voice-over and gathered upbeat background music from freesounds.org.
Tracing of face
Cartoon of face
Final sketch in procreate
Reflection:
Overall, I really enjoyed this project and can easily say it was one of my favorites. I had a lot of creative freedom and it was fun to explore illustrations. I believe I was able to articulate who I am as a person and my style through my video. Most struggles, I faced were due to large file sizes or the timing of keyframes. If I were to redo this, I would try to get access to better audio tools so it is more professional. I think this is a project that will never truly be done. I will continue to edit, even after graduation, as my career evolves, and as I evolve as a person.
