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©2024 Mike Leyne


SPOTIFY CANVAS
Album Art Reimagined


The following is a collection of motion graphics I have developed for animated, 8-second, looping album, and song art on Spotify. These include both adaptations of preexisting album art and original pieces.


GRAPETOOTH: 5TH ANNIVERSARY



For the 5th anniversary of one of my favorite albums, I wanted to create a set of Canvases that encompassed both the raw synth-pop joy of the music and the striking visual style defined by the album’s photographer and designer: Alex Hupp.

For this first Canvas, I sought to animate and bring to life the original album art.

I separated out different aspects of the album into their own layers within Photoshop such as the background and the performers I then animated different aspects like their arms, torso, and head. I did a complete sky replacement by grading stock imagery and using blend tools on Photoshop to create a infinately looping sky rectangle. I then made sure to add a fisheye effect to the sky’s loop and adjust the effect as we zoom past the artists into the background.


© 2018 Polyvinyl Record Co.
℗ 2018 Polyvinyl Record Co.

For the second canvas, I wanted to show something new while respecting the original art direction.
After researching the group’s established brand design outside of the album itself, I locked down a color palate and focused on threshold-driven images. I especially took inspiration from the art of a T-shirt they released featuring a devil-like figure sipping from a chalice.

Model: Renee Haley

To create this gritty rotoscoped animation, I deliberately shot the model's actions at a high shutter speed. That way when reducing our 24-frame recording to 8 fps, each frame would seem to be its own image and contain minimal motion blur. I then went into Photoshop and manually recolored and adjusted the threshold on each frame to mimic and bring to life this dancing devil.








PAPER LADY: ABSENTEE



For Paper Lady’s debut single Absentee, I wanted to bring alive the original album art of scribbled doodles on lined paper into an imaginative, breathing loop.

I started by expanding the background using the clone brush and clever layering in Photoshop, making sure to create a clean plate free of the drawn elements. I then animated the wave and grain of the doodle with turbulent noise and sine wave displacement. The Ink bleed effect additionally helped to make this infinitely looping zoom-out feel active despite its repetitive nature. The perspective change of the zoom was created using an in-program viewpoint and various lens distortions and blurs. The font for Paper Lady was chosen based on the design of the band’s previously released merchandise.

Written by Alli Raina and Pearce Gronek
mixed and mastered by Jacob Beck
© 2019 Paper Lady
℗ 2019 Paper Lady