As an artist who uses Photoshop and Illustrator, I’m no stranger to creating artwork with a lot of layers. I thought that I’d easily be able to transfer that knowledge into motion graphics.

The most recent mandala video I created showed me that I was wrong.

I had one goal for the video: make it more complex. As I was putting all of the layers together, I only had a loose idea of what I wanted the final video to look like, which is generally how I’ve always worked. It’s basically the digital equivalent of putting paint on a canvas then taking a step back every so often to see what it needs. Maybe a little glow would add interest? Maybe some movement in the background? I mostly just play around until it feels done.