Quick look at a project I recently completed - a 30 minute documentary for XXL magazine. The assignment was to create a graphics package. One of the deliverables was to animate and showcase 36 magazine covers, each representing a different chapter in the magazine’s history. The source material was mostly low-resolution screen grabs, but the final project was being delivered in 4K. I decided to give each cover a subtle parallax treatment to bring them to life while still allowing them to sit inside a larger camera move.

To build the shots, I used Runway, GPT Image 2 and Kling to restore and rebuild the covers at higher resolution, then separated each one into two main elements: the background artwork and the foreground typography and graphics. I composited everything back together in After Effects.The biggest challenge was getting clean, usable elements. Model restrictions, violations and inconsistent typography meant a lot of the work came down to testing prompts, isolating elements and developing a workflow that preserved the original cover details.