Motion Designer Needed For Dialogue-Free Animated Short Film (After Effects)

A motion designer is needed for WHOLE, a dialogue-free animated short film about neurodivergence and masking, in the spirit of Pixar's Loop and If Anything Happens I Love You. The work involves applying subtle After Effects animation to 14 provided still image plates and assembling a 70-second cinematic teaser. No character or environment building from scratch. Animation is compositing, light effects, and gentle motion on provided stills. A detailed animation brief will be shared with candidates.

Deliverables After Effects project file and exported .mp4 per shot. Final assembled teaser as H.264 .mp4 and ProRes .mov, delivered via Dropbox.

Design Style Contemplative and restrained. Minimal motion — one moving element per shot. Subtle glow effects, light animation, and compositing on provided stills. The aesthetic is cinematic and painterly, not kinetic or graphic. Think breathing, not performance.

Required Skills Proficiency in Adobe After Effects, experience with compositing and light effects on still images, familiarity with keyframing and easing, ability to deliver .aep project files and exported .mp4, experience with or interest in narrative short film work.

Nice to Have Experience with particle effects and glow animation, familiarity with ProRes export, previous work on dialogue-free or emotionally driven projects.

Compensation Paid collaboration, $250–500 (flat project rate, $250–500 total), with festival credit. Project has festival distribution goals and is in active development. Full animation brief with shot-by-shot direction available upon request.