Animating the Stranger Things Title Sequence Eric Demeusy shares how he used Red Giant Shine to create the Emmy-winning titles for one of the most popular shows on Netflix.

When “Stranger Things” Season 1 premiered in 2016, few expected the show to become a global phenomenon that would serve as a cultural touchstone for 1980s nostalgia and a driver of Netflix subscriber engagement. A decade later, “Stranger Things” stands as Netflix’s defining flagship franchise, attracting partnerships with brands like Burger King, Coca Cola, Nike, and Lego.

Essential to the visual identity and retro charm of “Stranger Things” is its iconic title sequence. Animated by Eric Demeusy at Imaginary Forces, the opening sequence has received acclaim from fans and critics alike for perfectly setting the tone for the show and ultimately won an Emmy for Best Main Title Design.

We chatted with Eric about his path into the industry, how the “Stranger Things” titles started as a modest project for a small Netflix show, and how he mimicked the look of classic, hand-crafted effects.

Demeusy: My passion has always been filmmaking and movies, so I went to film school to study directing. After graduating film school, you get sent out into the world to find any industry related job that will pay you. My strengths were cinematography, editing, and motion graphics, so I started applying for work in those fields. One thing led to another, and a music video director I worked for recommended me to an animation studio. Once there, I quickly discovered this world of creative studios that make title sequences and commercials for film and tv. A lot of the work I did starting out was animating end tags for commercials. Then eventually I got to work on some really amazing projects with super talented artists. When I got to work on the Disney castle logo intro for “Tron Legacy,” it was the coolest thing I could ever get to work on. The title sequences were always the things that fed my creativity. Through all that I was still developing movies and finally got my first feature made a few years ago. Now it’s been a balance of developing films, writing, and animating.

Demeusy: I was working at Imaginary Forces at the time and this title sequence project came in that they asked me to help with. It felt low-key at first, but it was a big deal to me because I love working on title sequences. The project was presented as a Netflix TV show, back in 2015 when Netflix had just started making their own shows. It was a cool concept, and at the point I had come on, they had already presented a few design ideas for the sequence—mostly simple concepts like letters floating in space. However, I always find simple ideas the most intriguing for some reason. They told me about the show and I remember very early on we had the first two episodes to watch and the music track they were going to use for the title sequence. I immediately jumped into motion tests.

Demeusy: The Duffers had a lot of references to films and TV shows from the ‘70s and ‘80s. “Altered States,” “Pulp Fiction,” “The Dead Zone”—these gave a real sense of the slow ominous vibe that they wanted. There were also a lot of Stephen King book covers for reference when thinking about the logo. The soundtrack ultimately keyed us in the most on what the sequence should look like. It had a sort of 1980s handmade, John Carpenter-esque sound to it. It really helped us imagine what the visuals would look like to match that sound.

Demeusy: We started off with motion tests. In the beginning it was about finding the pacing and timing of the animation and how all the letters came together. There were ideas of making it one long shot instead of individual close-ups of the letters. Originally I was animating the letters sort of quick and punchy. We eventually found the right sequencing and timing. But then it was about getting the look right. I had seriously considered doing them practically on an optical printer. For reference, I did some practical photography, and those tests really informed the way it looked. We ended up keeping the animation digital while incorporating all of those imperfections we saw from the tests and from old film ‘80s titles.

Demeusy: One of the elements of the original design frames that the Duffers liked had this sort of light ray effect on the letters. It reminded me of the titles for “The Thing,” which were done practically. Since we decided to go down this digital path, I knew Shine would work well for this. I had used it a lot in the past and when you double and even triple up the effect, you can get a really cool organic look. That’s what I ended up doing. It helped take it beyond just a standard glow effect and gave me some natural looking blooms and glows that you’d get with shooting something practically.

Demeusy: Probably the biggest challenge was the amount of iterations we went through. Each shot took a lot of layering, masking, and stacking multiplying effects in order to get the look right. Any time you change a letterform, the shot has to be rebuilt. It’s like you’re constantly re-designing how it looks every time because the glows react very specifically to letterforms. It’s not like you could just swap a “T” for an “R” and everything updated. We started off with a totally different typeface, and I had built the glow look off of that, but it didn't have serifs, so once we changed it, the glows were reacting very differently to the serifs of the font. The only way around it was patience, and I actually enjoyed the fact that it felt hand crafted. It wasn’t something that could easily be created with just a couple effects in an adjustment layer.

Watch Eric Demeusy’s full breakdown of how he animated the Stranger Things title sequence: 

Demeusy: It reminded me that some of the best work comes from tedious, handmade processes. It’s often a misconception that digital technology just allows us to automate things faster, especially now with the emergence of AI. I’ve learned repeatedly that taking shortcuts often compromises the final output. Sometimes the only way to achieve the result you're after is a handcrafted, frame-by-frame approach.

Demeusy: It was exciting to see. I liked the titles a lot but I didn't know how people would react. At the time, most title sequences were elaborate, 3D rendered sequences and the Stranger Things titles were completely different. I found that minimalism refreshing, particularly the fact that the whole sequence was made up of only the letters in the title. When the show took off, anything associated with it drew attention, and watching it grow from relative obscurity into widespread recognition was fascinating. That kind of evolution is unpredictable and witnessing it firsthand was inspiring.

Demeusy: My best advice would be to get the foundation of what title sequences do for a movie or show, what the purpose is, how to set up the story and world—learn all the basics, then try to do something different. Find new tools, mix art forms, and try different formats. Mix old techniques with new techniques. Surprise people and captivate them.

To learn more about the production of the Stranger Things title sequence, check out Eric Demeusy’s behind the scenes video.

Key Takeaways

• The Emmy winning Stranger Things title sequence was inspired by films, TV shows, and book covers from the ‘70s and ‘80s.

• Eric Demeusy used photography tests to create reference images that helped get the look of an old school practical effect right.

• Red Giant Shine allowed him to achieve natural looking glows and blooms in After Effects.