Meet Wilbur
Open tight on Wilbur’s face and pull back, leaving him small against an empty frame.
Charlotte’s Web, in a minute and a half
A book trailer that re-introduces E.B. White’s classic to a new generation of readers, told through a lonely pig, a spider’s web, and three words that change everything.
- Role
- Solo: concept to final export
- Tools
- Adobe Illustrator, After Effects & Stock · Suno · ElevenLabs
- Runtime
- 01:38 · 1920×1080 · 29.97 fps
- Context
- Class project
The brief
Sell a 1952 classic to someone who hasn’t read it
A book trailer has one job: make a reader want to pick up the book. For Charlotte’s Web, the challenge was to capture the story’s warmth without retelling the plot, to hint at the friendship between Wilbur and Charlotte and let the mystery of the web do the rest.
I planned the piece in an eight-panel storyboard in Illustrator, then built it in After Effects using Adobe Stock imagery and backgrounds, an original score generated with Suno, and a voiceover produced with ElevenLabs. A soft rose-and-hay palette runs throughout so the barn, the typography, and the closing book shot feel like one world.
- StoryIntroduce Wilbur alone, reveal the spider nearby, then let the web “speak”: Some Pig, Terrific, Radiant.
- TypeTitles set along curved paths, so the words drift like thread instead of sitting on a line.
- CameraScale-driven push-ins and pull-outs to move from close-ups to the barn and back.
- SoundA Suno-generated score under an ElevenLabs narrator, with the voice timed to land alongside the on-screen lines.
- CloseA 3D rotation of the book itself, ending on the cover as the call to action.
Storyboard → screen
From eight panels to the final cut
Each storyboard panel beside the matching frame from the finished trailer. The quoted lines are the voiceover script from the storyboard. Click a timecode to jump the player to that moment.
In the corner of a quiet barn
The barn fades in behind Wilbur as the opening line travels along a curve from the spider’s web.
“Friendship can weave the strongest webs.”
A little pig was born
The spider descends on her thread while the next line arcs over the scene.
“In a quiet room, an extraordinary story begins.”
Some friendships last forever
The barn opens into a full frame and the tagline settles beneath Wilbur.
“When all hope is lost, a friend spun a miracle.”
The next morning
A dramatic push into the barn resets the scene for the reveal.
“The next morning, the barn woke up to something magical.”
Some Pig. Terrific. Radiant.
The storyboard’s side-by-side layout became a point-of-view shot in the final: we watch from behind Wilbur as each word is spun into the web over the barn door.
Courage, kindness & love
The theme line rides a single path across a clean rose frame, a breath before the close.
Rediscover the classic
The book turns in 3D and lands on its cover.
“Rediscover this timeless classic, Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White.”
Closing shot
The book as the hero
Instead of ending on a title card, the trailer ends on the object the viewer should go and find. The cover and back were set up as a 3D layer in After Effects and rotated so the camera catches the spine and back cover before settling on the front.
Script
On-screen text
In the corner of a quiet barn…
A little pig was born.
Some friendships last forever.
Some Pig · Terrific · Radiant
A story of courage, kindness, and love!