It’s time for another Motion Collabs animation project!
Presenting…
Collab 23: Shining Star
You're a shining star
No matter who you are
— Earth, Wind & Fire
Let's travel back in time. It's 1975 and the lights are flashing in the disco. The dance floor is wide open, waiting for you to make a move.
It's time for Motion Collabs' annual music video! The community came together and voted to create an animated music video set to Earth, Wind & Fire's "Shining Star.”
How it works:
Participants will be randomly sorted into teams.
The song is divided into sections, one per team. Within each team, every member is assigned a short slice of the song (~ 5 seconds) to animate individually.
Your two jobs: make your slice great on its own, and make sure it fits seamlessly with your teammates' slices on either side. Each slice flows directly into the next with no hard cuts. How you handle that handoff is up to your team — you might pass along project files so the next person can pick up exactly where you left off, or you might each animate a transition out. Talk it through early so no one's scrambling at the end.
All teams work in parallel throughout the collab. Once every team's section is complete, all the pieces get stitched together into one continuous, one-take music video.
A templated After Effects file will be provided with each person’s portion of the song.
To Keep In Mind
Team Work Makes the Dream Work:
Your team needs to align on a visual direction before getting started.
This includes a shared color palette as well as a recurring motif, theme, or texture. Maybe the same character appears in all the sections. Maybe a textured element is repeated across. How you define it is up to your team. Make sure everyone on your team is on the same page before anyone gets started.
Teams are encouraged to virtually meet once a week to make sure things are progressing smoothly on everyone’s end.
Individual Responsibilities:
Each person is expected to:
Be active on the Discord server for the duration of the collab and remain reachable
Turn on Discord notifications for the collab channel (just for the collab, you can mute us after ;) )
Moodboard
Timeline:
May 1st: sign ups live!
May 6th: sign ups close. Teams are randomly chosen.
May 7th: Collab begins! Coordinate with your team to discuss ideas
May 14th: Teams finalize their theme and share with Collab Overlords their idea via Discord
May 21st: WIP share. Post what you currently have in Discord — doesn't need to be polished, just proof that it exists
May 28th: Team check-in to ensure things are progressing smoothly
June 4th: Final submissions due
June 8th: Music video screening!
Specs:
Resolution: 1920x1080
Frame rate: 24 FPS
Format: ProRes 4444+alpha (.MOV)
Transitions: No hard cuts between segments. Each segment should seamlessly transition into each other. Dedicate the last 10 frames of your section to transitioning out to the next segment’s content.
Please pre-render any third party plugins or scripts before passing off files to team members
Style: Anything goes! 2d, 3d, mixed media, experimental, collage, you name it.
One submission per team
We understand that life can sometimes get in the way of completing a video. If you need to step away for any reason, it will be your responsibility to find a replacement to take over your section.
Ready to create? Join here!
FAQ
Want to join the collab but unsure how it works? Watch the below video!
Read the brief
Join our Discord server where all sign ups and communications occur
Sign up in #sign-ups. Please only sign up if you’re confident you can turn in something by the deadline.
Once you’re successfully signed up, you will be assigned the Current Collab role on Discord. To check, click on your username and it will show up in your roles section. This may take a few minutes to show up. Contact a Collab Overlord about any issues.
You will then gain permission to the #current-collab chat where you can talk with the other collab participants and share your videos for feedback and critique. We heavily encourage everyone to be active on Discord while the collabs are happening to make sure you don’t miss any important announcements. It’s also fun to join the collab chat!
Please keep all questions within Discord and avoid direct messaging the Collab Overlords. Chances are, someone else has the same question and can benefit from seeing the answer publicly.
Remember — you don’t need be a pro to join a collab - they’re open to anyone regardless of experience.