Before Fireflies
Overview
Before Fireflies is an original music video created with Owl City's Fireflies as its soundtrack, telling the story of a child drifting from waking life into dreamland. The piece moves between narrative and abstraction, grounding the viewer in quiet familiar spaces before opening into surreal dream sequences. The animation was choreographed around the music, with scene timing shaped to follow its rhythm and phrasing. Color temperature shifted alongside the narrative, moving from warm indoor light to cool nighttime tones as the story moves from reality into dream.
Process
Fireflies Animation
The fireflies were built from scratch in After Effects, using shape layers with wiggle transform and a glow effect, varied in size to keep the swarm feeling natural. They appear across three scenes in different compositions, moving with the music to guide the viewers.
3D Parallax Composition
Multiple photo layers were placed at different depths in 3D space, with camera moving through the scene. This part was designed without characters, and the music flows through pure spatial movement.
Working with Character Animator
Adobe Character Animator was used to animate both characters in sync with the music. Their lip sync was driven automatically by the imported vocal track, while their body movements were captured through webcam performance tracking.