Sam Mason directed this installment of Facebook's "Year in Review 2018", continuing Hornet's longstanding relationship with Facebook. Unique in execution, this "Year in Review" is a randomized timeline serving users their content in thematic blocks of content and helping them celebrate the year in 3D style. The end result represents the combined efforts of an extremely talented group of producers, artists, and engineers both at Hornet and at Facebook.
What better concept for Facebook than a book? The "Book of You", to be exact—a personalized unfolding of pages designed to recap the year gone by with a series of thematic modules. In total, thirteen modular “worlds” were animated, covering themes like friendship, life events, travel, and family—key pillars of Facebook’s community-driven ethos.
To pull it off, the imagery needed to exaggerate the rose-tinted gaze of nostalgia. Caricatures needed to support the live action photos thematically. Illustrations needed to connect with users emotionally. In the end, we get a masterful collage of live action and 3D illustrations that expertly stitches together aspects of the real world with surrealistic imagery.
"There's something cerebral and wonderful about 3D illustration."
-Sam Mason
Ultimately, millions of personalized stories were created, as was one unifying story for the Facebook brand. The animations aren't just meaningless eye-candy. Each digital illusion serves a specific thematic purpose. Each one adds to the narrative. It's the culmination of these animations that transforms the "Book of You" from boring biography into bursting-with-life fairytale.
