Paper Towns Title Sequence

This was another experimental project. I created a title sequence inspired by the book, Paper Towns, by John Green, which is rumored to be on its way to the big screen. The book is about a impromptu road trip, so I wanted to capture whimsy, adventure, and youth.

The hunt for the perfect soundtrack was a time-consuming part of this project. I ended up choosing the song, I Really Want It, by A Great Big World. Both the melody and lyrics epitomize the mood I wanted to convey. The next step involved cutting and combining portions of the song to give it a suitable length and flow for the title sequence.

Creating my visual elements was a rewarding experiment. I first shot reference footage (as seen in screen caps below). Afterwards, I converted each 200+ frame to look like a line drawing with a custom filter I created in Photoshop.  After printing out each and every frame on Xerox paper, I hand-rendered portions of each scene with highlighters, colored-pencils, artist markers, and even coffee! Finally, I scanned each and every frame back in, put them in sequence, and added more texture and color corrections in After Effects.

(Process images below)

COMPARISON OF SELECT FRAMES - BEFORE AND AFTER EDITING

Paper Towns, BW Frame 1&2

Paper Towns, BW Frame 3&4

Paper Towns, Reference Frame 1

Paper Towns, Reference Frame 2

Paper Towns, Reference Frame 3

Paper Towns, Reference Frame 4

TEST ANIMATION

Paper Towns, Test Animation

Paper Towns, Process Drawing