The Piano Fox started as one of those “what if I could bring everything I love into one place?” kind of ideas. I’ve always been into animation, cartoons, comedy, live music, and actually sitting down and playing music myself. On top of that, I really enjoy educational content that doesn’t feel like you’re being taught something. So the goal became figuring out how to blend all of that into one creative project while still keeping it realistic as a one person operation.
After some sketching, experimenting, and a bit of thoughtful planning, The Piano Fox started to take shape and eventually became real. Right now, it’s a passion project. It gives me a space to keep building my design skills, explore new ideas, and create something that feels fun and engaging.
Each video ends up being a full process with a lot of moving parts. It always starts with the music, since that’s really the foundation. I write and build out the soundtrack using a keyboard and MIDI setup, and at the same time I create the sheet music. There are actually two versions of that, one designed to work cleanly in the videos and another formatted for print.
Once the music is in a good place, I move into the visual side. I design the characters in Illustrator, figuring out their look and personality, then bring them into Adobe Character Animator where they can actually move and react. Along with the characters, I build out the environments they live in so everything feels like it belongs in the same world.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
After that, everything comes together in After Effects. This is where I animate, sync everything to the music, and build out multiple compositions that all stack together into the final piece. It takes a mix of planning and creativity to get everything feeling smooth and cohesive.
At the end of the day, The Piano Fox is really about making something that feels fun, a little playful, and easy to connect with. It’s a way to combine music, animation, and learning into something that people can just enjoy without overthinking it.
