Behind the Scenes - The Invention of the Résumé
This was a fun project to work through, It was an opportunity to experiment with different animation and design approaches. I’m a big fan of Leonardo da Vinci, his sketches and artwork are all over the walls of my home office. I was already familiar with the story of his résumé, having read his biography, so when it came up in my list of potential project topics, I was immediately drawn to it. The fact that I’m currently job hunting, and that my own résumé and portfolio have been top of mind also made this feel like the perfect fit.
Scrip & Inspiration
I had a clear idea of the style of video I wanted to create. I narrowed down my options until I landed on “The Invention of the Résumé.” Once the concept was locked in, I drafted the script as fully as possible while still leaving room for new ideas during pre-vis.
Even when I have a strong style in mind, I always pull together a reference mood board. It helps keep things visually consistent, and digging into other great work always sparks new design ideas!
Planning & Design
My visual planning usually starts with printing the script and doing rough sketches or jotting down visual notes. For this project, I spent more time laying rough ideas out in Photoshop and building reference frames instead of detailed sketches. The style lent itself to working loosely with photo elements, so I focused on pulling and manipulating images to fit the concept.
Assets
I used a mix of stock images, stock video, and some AI-generated elements, but there were a few assets I wanted more control over. That’s where my 3D skills came in handy. Being able to animate or grab stills from any angle made the visuals more dynamic. Paper can only take you so far, and the 3D touches really helped open up the design ideas.
Setup & Animation
Once the assets, music, voiceover, and sound effects were in place, I moved into compositing and animation. Each scene was built with care, always thinking about how it would flow with the rest of the piece and support the overall story.
![](data:image/svg+xml,<svg display="block" role="presentation" viewBox="0 0 40 40" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path d="M 6.843 1.204 C 7.006 1.236 7.124 1.381 7.122 1.549 L 6.933 20.901 L 19.67 8.831 C 19.767 8.739 19.906 8.711 20.03 8.759 L 25.457 10.86 C 25.701 10.954 25.755 11.278 25.555 11.449 L 9.128 25.459 C 8.38 26.097 8.283 26.523 9.074 27.109 L 23.472 37.783 C 23.7 37.952 23.64 38.311 23.368 38.395 L 18.216 39.984 C 18.095 40.023 17.962 39.989 17.872 39.898 C 16.985 39.003 12.16 34.257 6.803 31.457 C 5.015 30.523 2.906 31.972 2.04 32.679 C 1.808 32.87 1.469 32.843 1.269 32.619 L 0.144 31.363 C -0.01 31.191 -0.044 30.941 0.059 30.734 C 0.371 30.106 0.792 28.588 1 26.344 C 2.061 14.926 0.682 3.578 0.24 0.364 C 0.209 0.141 0.43 -0.036 0.649 0.006 L 6.844 1.205 Z M 36.964 18.334 C 36.841 21.586 37.062 24.532 37.239 26.704 C 37.27 27.077 36.775 27.228 36.595 26.901 L 32.264 19.054 C 31.848 18.3 31.629 17.451 31.629 16.588 L 31.28 10.527 C 31.27 10.368 31.371 10.222 31.522 10.175 L 37.65 8.276 C 37.896 8.201 38.134 8.411 38.091 8.666 C 37.827 10.239 37.095 14.829 36.964 18.335 Z M 14.322 29.131 L 11.424 26.927 C 10.913 26.538 10.888 25.773 11.372 25.351 L 26.08 12.538 C 26.32 12.329 26.688 12.385 26.856 12.655 L 38.919 32.001 C 39.163 32.392 38.819 32.885 38.371 32.786 L 36.112 32.283 C 35.078 32.054 34.169 31.437 33.57 30.558 L 25.842 19.236 C 25.612 18.899 25.155 18.811 24.818 19.039 C 23.527 19.914 20.512 22.022 18.974 23.613 C 18.823 23.769 18.715 23.917 18.641 24.057 C 18.383 24.536 18.753 25.114 19.294 25.077 L 25.581 24.652 C 26.098 24.617 26.599 24.84 26.922 25.248 L 27.697 26.228 C 27.972 26.574 27.717 27.087 27.277 27.072 C 25.269 27.004 20.894 27.168 16.261 29.34 C 15.628 29.637 14.881 29.553 14.324 29.129 Z" fill="rgb(0, 0, 0)" height="40px" id="CczJesFms" transform="translate(1 0)" width="39px"/></svg>)
![](data:image/svg+xml,<svg display="block" role="presentation" viewBox="0 0 40 40" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path d="M 6.843 1.204 C 7.006 1.236 7.124 1.381 7.122 1.549 L 6.933 20.901 L 19.67 8.831 C 19.767 8.739 19.906 8.711 20.03 8.759 L 25.457 10.86 C 25.701 10.954 25.755 11.278 25.555 11.449 L 9.128 25.459 C 8.38 26.097 8.283 26.523 9.074 27.109 L 23.472 37.783 C 23.7 37.952 23.64 38.311 23.368 38.395 L 18.216 39.984 C 18.095 40.023 17.962 39.989 17.872 39.898 C 16.985 39.003 12.16 34.257 6.803 31.457 C 5.015 30.523 2.906 31.972 2.04 32.679 C 1.808 32.87 1.469 32.843 1.269 32.619 L 0.144 31.363 C -0.01 31.191 -0.044 30.941 0.059 30.734 C 0.371 30.106 0.792 28.588 1 26.344 C 2.061 14.926 0.682 3.578 0.24 0.364 C 0.209 0.141 0.43 -0.036 0.649 0.006 L 6.844 1.205 Z M 36.964 18.334 C 36.841 21.586 37.062 24.532 37.239 26.704 C 37.27 27.077 36.775 27.228 36.595 26.901 L 32.264 19.054 C 31.848 18.3 31.629 17.451 31.629 16.588 L 31.28 10.527 C 31.27 10.368 31.371 10.222 31.522 10.175 L 37.65 8.276 C 37.896 8.201 38.134 8.411 38.091 8.666 C 37.827 10.239 37.095 14.829 36.964 18.335 Z M 14.322 29.131 L 11.424 26.927 C 10.913 26.538 10.888 25.773 11.372 25.351 L 26.08 12.538 C 26.32 12.329 26.688 12.385 26.856 12.655 L 38.919 32.001 C 39.163 32.392 38.819 32.885 38.371 32.786 L 36.112 32.283 C 35.078 32.054 34.169 31.437 33.57 30.558 L 25.842 19.236 C 25.612 18.899 25.155 18.811 24.818 19.039 C 23.527 19.914 20.512 22.022 18.974 23.613 C 18.823 23.769 18.715 23.917 18.641 24.057 C 18.383 24.536 18.753 25.114 19.294 25.077 L 25.581 24.652 C 26.098 24.617 26.599 24.84 26.922 25.248 L 27.697 26.228 C 27.972 26.574 27.717 27.087 27.277 27.072 C 25.269 27.004 20.894 27.168 16.261 29.34 C 15.628 29.637 14.881 29.553 14.324 29.129 Z" fill="rgb(127, 127, 127)" height="40px" id="yDBW0oNJ3" transform="translate(1 0)" width="39px"/></svg>)