Spider-Punk Cosplay MV - On the Run



Brief  



 I brought stills from an Across the Spider-Verse cosplay photoshoot to life through punk-inspired collage animation. The sequences were animated at varying frame rates (24fps down to 3fps) to match the stylised offset timing used in Hobie Brown’s animation style.

Problem
  The aim was to weave photos from the shoot into a more controlled narrative. 
While the shoot was strong, it wasn’t reaching the right audience online.  

Solution
I created a 15-second collage lyric video using cutout animation, newspaper typography, and layered motion design, tying the visuals directly to the tone and themes of the original film.

Outcome
The video significantly improved audience response, delivering an 85% increase in engagement (from 75 to 142 likes) and helping the photoshoot reach a wider audience on social platforms.

client  

Lei Li Photography ×  Tia Campbell


I collaborated with photographer Lei Li and cosplay artist Tia Campbell to extend the photoshoot into an animated mixed-media piece, matching the raw punk aesthetic of Spider-Punk via After Effects and Photoshop.

Costume designed and worn by Tia Campbell


Pictures from the photoshoot taken and retouched by Lei Li. Full album can be seen on Lei Li’s website.








Using After Effect’s Roto Brush Tool I was able to separate the photos from the background, which allowed me to have a much greater depth of control.

In some cases I would also use Photoshop’s content aware fill to remove the subject from the background, which allowed for some fun parallax shots.





In Across the Spider-Verse, Hobie brown is animated on multiple framerate offsets (e.g. his guitar on 4s, his body on 3s, and outline on 2s/1s. 

To honor that style I took a similar approach using multiple variations of After Effects expressions such as posteriseTime(), and relative property links to maintain consistent shapes between layers while allowing wiggle room for outline offsets.

To lean further into the punk style I created a color halftone setup with adjustment layers, overlayed various newspaper snippets, and opted to use individual newspaper cutouts for the text.


The 3D London scene was made in After Effects using snippets of various photos that we took around London. 
Spider-Punk is from Camden so it made sense to match the theme!