Tackling Hair Waste

A Vox-Inspired Project Explainer Video

motion-design
3d
narrative
sound fx
gen-ai

Project Type

TA Work

Team

Solo Project

Target Audience

General Public / Eco-conscious Consumers

Timeline

Two Weeks

Tools Used

AfterEffect + Figma + Blender3d + Illustrator + Premiere Pro

Overview

As a Teaching Assistant, I was tasked by my thesis mentor to transform an alumni’s academic report into an engaging, Vox-inspired explainer video.

The goal was to distill complex research project on creating bio-leather from hair waste into a compelling story for a broad audience. The final 5-minute video was praised by faculty for its clarity and is slated for use in future funding presentations.

Skip to Final Video

The Objective

To transform a information heavy academic thesis report on creating sustainable materials from human hair waste into an engaging, story-driven explainer video for a general audience.

Report.docx

Final-Video.mp4

To achieve this, my approach was built around three core objectives

1

To Build a Narrative

Create a compelling story that first highlighted the environmental problem before introducing the project's innovative solution.

2

To Create a Visual Language

Design a modern visual style from the ground up, using illustration, 3D, and photography to bring the text-only report to life.

3

To Animate for Clarity

Use purposeful, Vox-style motion and kinetic text to make the complex scientific process feel engaging and easy to follow.

Process & Approach

A Note on My Process

This case study presents my process in a linear, step-by-step manner for clarity. In reality, the work was more iterative, with frequent back-and-forth between storyboarding, asset creation, and animation tests as new ideas emerged.

Narrative Building

Deconstructing the Report

I began by carefully reviewing the academic report to pull out the most essential facts and identify the core story hidden within the data.

Structuring the Story

Based on data from the report and other sources, I structured a narrative in a problem-solution format, starting with the environmental impact of the leather industry and introducing hair waste upcycling as an innovative alternative.

Storyboarding

I created a rough storyboard for core sections of the narrative to establish the sequence & pacing. However many other frames were developed and refined directly in Figma through spontaneous brainstorming and iteration.

Visual Design & Asset Creation

Defining the Visual System

My first step was to design a clear visual system in Figma that could make the complex research accessible. For this, I took inspiration from the clarity-first approach of explanatory journalism, like the style used by Vox.

A Hybrid Approach to Assets

To bring the visual system to life, I used a multi-faceted approach to create the assets, choosing the best tool for each specific task:

3D Modelling & Animation

To clearly explain technical processes, I modeled and animated key equipment in Blender, including the planetary ball mill used to pulverize the hair. Also the Molds for both bioleather wallet and vaccine packaging was modelled in blender.

Vector Illustration

I recreated technical drawings from the student's report in Adobe Illustrator, such as the ideation sketches for the vaccine packaging. This ensured the product blueprints were presented with precision and clarity.

GENERATIVE AI & Image Compositing

For some scenes, I used AI (GPT-image-1) to generate specific images. As the results were often inconsistent, I used Photoshop to composite and retouch multiple outputs, blending the best elements to create a single, cohesive image set.

Final Composition of Styleframes

In addition to the custom assets, I sourced supporting images and textures from online libraries like Freepik and Unsplash to complete the visual toolkit. With all the elements gathered, I then composed each key scene in Figma, creating the final style frames that would serve as a precise blueprint for animation in After Effects.

Animation & Sound Design

Voiceover

I refined the story's structure into a final script with the help of ChatGPT. This script was then used to generate a professional AI voiceover with ElevenLabs, which set the exact pace and timing for the entire animation.

Motion Design

With the narration as my timeline, I used the AEUX plugin to import the Figma compositions into After Effects. Inspired by Vox's style, I used kinetic typography and purposeful motion to guide the viewer, ensuring the animation enhanced the story's clarity.

Sound design

In Premiere Pro, I built a complete audio experience. I chose a background track with marimba music, often used in modern explainers. On top of this, I layered in sound effects like swooshes and clicks to give physical weight and impact to the animations.

The Final Result

The result of this process is a 5-minute motion explainer.

Having trouble with the player above? Watch it on Google Drive. (14.9MB)

Reflection & Key Learnings

This project was a comprehensive exercise that improved my skills across the entire motion design pipeline. My key takeaways were:

Learned to transform a dense academic report into a compelling visual story.

Became more proficient in After Effects animating complex compositions.

Gained experience creating 3D models in Blender and integrating them into a 2D workflow.

Streamlined the workflow incorporating generative AI for images and sounds.

Developed skills in sound design, sourcing and mixing background music with sound effects.

Gained confidence in managing an entire project from the initial script to the final, optimized video.

Source Material & Attribution

This motion explainer was a solo project assigned to me by my mentor, Asst. Prof. Supradip Das. The video is a visual adaptation of a completed Thesis Project, "Tackling Human Hair Waste through Material Driven Design," which was researched by Vishwaprasanna Hariharan and also supervised by Prof. Das.