Behind the Making of XCVI Stop Motion

If you’ve seen our dreamy stop motion video - complete with floating clouds, dancing plants, and a felted world full of whimsy - you’ve experienced the handiwork of animator and creative wizard, Adam Essig. We caught up with him to talk about his process, his background, and what really goes into making magic out of wool, string, and a whole lot of patience.

Adam and I (Eden, XCVI ecomm team) have been friends since we were teenagers in a Jewish youth group, so when it came time to brainstorm ideas for creative promotion, his talent immediately popped into my head and I reached out about creating stop motion content for XCVI. 

Why stop motion? There’s something undeniably special about stop motion. You can feel the texture, the time, the love that goes into it—especially when it’s made from materials as cozy and tactile as felt and wool. It’s a perfect match for a brand like XCVI, where comfort and creativity go hand in hand.

I’d never seen another clothing company go this route, and I was so excited to try something new and different, let alone have the opportunity to work on a professional project with a dear friend.

“I grew up loving stop motion animated shows on Nickelodeon and MTV,” Adam told us. “I started teaching myself stop motion when I was 13 with a free demo version of some animation software. I’ve always loved the idea of being able to bring real objects to life with this medium—there’s a kind of magic to it.”

That early spark turned into a full-blown creative career. Adam now crafts vibrant, tactile animations for brands like Apple TV, Lucky Charms, and XCVI. But before any camera starts clicking, there’s a whole lot of prep that happens behind the scenes.

The Process: (Detail Work, Trial & Error, and a Little Bit of Chaos)

We spent some time throwing different concepts around, and the bulb eventually lit up when we decided on a clothesline scene that would feature miniature versions of some of our essential Core pieces.

Adam began the process by creating 2D test animations to visualize how elements like color and movement would work together. Next, he sketched out storyboards to lock in the look and feel of each frame—down to the exact shades and set design. Once the vision was made clear, it was time to get his hands—and apartment—messy.

The entire set is handcrafted from felt, wool string, and other odds and ends sourced and pieced together by Adam himself. “It’s like building a tiny world,” he says. That includes hand-crafting plants, birds, clouds—and yes, even pants. Adam cut fabric from the actual full-size pieces to make two tiny pairs of pants and our beloved Trace skirt. Adam attempted to make the first pair of pants by himself. Initially, it didn’t exactly go perfectly.

“They were a disaster,” Adam laughed. “I had to call in Sophie for backup to make the real ones.” Adam’s partner and my good friend Sophie’s prolific sewing knowledge helped us get that signature XCVI ruching just right—even on an unimaginably tiny scale.

Once the set was built and the props ready, Adam moved into testing, animating individual elements - a bird flapping, a plant swaying, or a pair of pants prancing - to make sure everything looked just right in motion. After that, the main event truly began: frame-by-frame animation. This is the especially meticulous part - Adam adjusts each object ever so slightly, snaps a photo, moves it again, snaps another, and repeats… hundreds (if not thousands) of times.

At one point during the process, I remember walking into Adam’s apartment and it was completely taken over by this project. Black out curtains all around, racks of clothing for reference, and a table with every element of the set displayed for shooting. Oh, and let’s not forget the tufts of cotton sprinkled throughout the space.

For the floating clouds and XCVI logo, Adam used a special “downshooter” rig - essentially filming through a pane of acrylic from above to create that dreamy, suspended-in-air effect. The clouds themselves? Cotton fluff, hand-shaped to perfection. After all the frames were shot, Adam dove into editing with Adobe Premiere, timing everything to flow seamlessly, correcting small imperfections, and combining different sequences into a single cohesive stop-motion story.

I’m so grateful to have been able to work with my friend Adam and witness his creative process. His patience and willingness to try again and again went hand in hand with his deep appreciation and integration of art into every aspect of daily life—a tenant that XCVI holds steadfast to.

“I love stop motion because it lets you breathe life into things that don’t normally move,” Adam says. “It’s like creating your own little world, one frame at a time.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves, and hope you enjoy the little world we created with big love and care.

Go ahead, breeze into style, one frame at a time.

Thank you for reading, watching, and taking it all in!

With love,

Eden & the XCVI team