Motion Design- Type Factory
Did you know that 5 seconds of animation at 24 frames per second is 120 frames? This piece took about 30 hours from inception to final execution.
Project overview and objectives | Use principles of observed motion to create a 5 second count or countdown. Demonstrate understanding of After Effects, motion design and sequence. Utilize music to enhance the animation.
What I learned | My experience with After Effects before this class went as far as a few Andrew Kramer tutorials. Going back to the basics allowed me to understand certain principles better. I found that there is great value in the story boarding and problem solving processes. One of the most valuable things is to seek out critique all along the way. I consulted my instructor and classmates regularly and made adjustments accordingly. My composition and storytelling improved with time. One of the most valuable lessons is the amount of time it takes to animate things correctly. Parenting movement is crucial, as is masking, easing and timing.
Process | The process may look simple, but the devil is in the details of animating each frame.
First I had to come up with action storyboards, which show important keyframes in the animation that will need to be communicated.
Initial Storyboard:
Secondary Storyboard:
Next art storyboards had to be made to show how each of the same keyframes will look in context. My art storyboards look nothing like my finshed piece due to the many adjustments along the way.
From there I spent time in Illustrator adding texture fills to each element and solving some of the design issues that had arisen. To keep things simple I grouped like elements that would be animated together into separate files. I also designated a separate layer for each shape with an appropriate name. These files with their layers were brought into After Effects. Each moving element was animated in its own composition and brought to the main composition where they were positioned and adjusted. My motion was off and my music wasn’t working at first, so after spending a 7 hour all nighter, I had to change things quite a bit. Making the necessary adjustments took another 8 hour stint to get things feeling right. After receiving critique from the class and from my instructor, I was able to make some final adjustments with color, motion elements and value. One thing that is great about parenting animation is the ability to go into the original artwork, and animation composition and make adjustments and they update in the main composition automatically. I am pretty excited with how the piece ended up, the evolution from inception to final is quite drastic.
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