The thing about time-lapse videos is that they typically require a lot of… er, time. It took 12 years for Frans Hofmeester to create that stunning video of his daughter growing from newborn to preteen. But director Anthony Cerniello found a way to bypass all that waiting to create Danielle a five-minute film that shows the subtle and nuanced ways one woman ages from childhood to senior citizenry.





Cerniello and photographer Keith Sirchio went to the director’s friend Danielle’s Thanksgiving family reunion last year and shot medium format portraits of her relatives, young and old, then edited it down to those with the most similar bone structure. He then enlisted animators Nathan Meier and Edmund Earle, as well as and 3-D visual effects artist George Cuddy to work their magic with After Effects, 3-D Studio Max, and Nuke to morph the portraits together as one person.





The result is a mesmerizing journey across the face of one life, aging nearly as imperceptibly as we all do. And another quiet reminder of the inexorable march of time.

h/t to Colossal