Introduction.

As outlined in a previous post, I decided to sequence the stills from this project to make a stop motion animation. I used Adobe After Effects and simple fade-through transitions to achieve this. I used a recording of the air escaping the balloon as a soundtrack.

The video consists of my four final images, repeated, while each section enlarges incrementally. So, the first image animation enlarges slightly, when you the see it again after three other animated sequences it continues enlarging from the place it was previously—and so on for all sequences.

I've added screengrabs below of the After Effects project to illustrate the process and show the animation timeline. Each block represents an animation sequence, so you can see how each is repeated in steps.

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Conclusion

Taking the decision to shoot multiple images as the balloon inflated increased the complexity of achieving the project in various ways: shoot time, processing, editing file management and subsequent video sequencing all increased or were added.

But I think the video makes a compelling contribution to this project. It speaks to me of the sense of claustrophobia that comes with lockdown. The oppressive incursion into domestic space. The inescapable aspect of an incongruous foreign object in the room.