Overview

For this assignment, I created a short diorama-style animation that tells a story set at a train station. The sequence begins with a title card, then reveals the station environment with two characters waiting for the train. One character boards successfully, while the other, distracted by their phone, misses it as it departs. The project was created in Adobe After Effects using stock imagery and animated through keyframing and effects.

The storyboard helped me map out the order of events—title card, environment reveal, character actions, and the train leaving the station.

All of the visual assets—characters, environment, and train—were sourced from Adobe Stock. I focused on transforming and animating these elements in After Effects rather than designing them from scratch. Keyframing brought motion to the train and characters, while a subtle “wiggle” effect added life and energy to the static stock illustrations.

The main challenge was making stock illustrations feel dynamic and expressive. Because I wasn’t creating original drawings, I had to rely on motion design techniques to tell the story. Timing the train’s departure and animating character movements in a believable way required experimentation with pacing and keyframes. This project taught me how to creatively repurpose stock assets through animation, and how small details—like a wiggle effect—can transform static images into a convincing story.