Motion design was not completely new to me, as I had played
around with it a few years prior to this course. I didn’t understand much of it
then, and was all very daunting to me, as After Effects was one of them
programs made by Adobe that had a million settings and didn’t make an ounce of
sense to you as a beginner. I decided to jump straight into the world of motion
graphics, doing this before any other area in my FMP.
As anyone does in the 21st century, I decided to Google
“an intro to Motion Graphics”. I found a beginner friendly video explaining all
the little settings and buttons and how to combine the use of things to make
your work stand out. I continued to create short little animations by following
tutorials, and I soon gained an insight into the very basics of After Effects.
This motion graphic was created when I was watching a
tutorial on the very basics of motion design. It was very helpful and consistent,
and this was the end product. I was still a complete beginner, and had little
experience with properties of shapes as seen in this video prior to this. The
video is very short and quick, but if put on a loop looks like it is going on
forever. The video begins with the white circle jumping down onto the blue
screen and bouncing upwards. As it does this, a number of rounded rectangles
appear and explode around the circle, but not before a mask comes out of the
circle and covers the screen, inverting the colours. This only lasts a few
seconds to the animation, but makes it seem much more complicated by adding too
many objects for your eye to keep track of. As this continues to go on, the
circle hits the ground again, causing it to bounce up again. It then turns 90
degrees while turning into a square, which is followed by the same explosion
effect. This time, the square does not bounce and goes straight down, ending
the video. If you keep the video on a loop it looks like the square turns into
the circle and begins bouncing all over again, infinitely repeating. The shape
movement is very smooth and does not look tacky or badly animated. Each
animation eases into itself in some way. The video is quite bright and has a positive
atmosphere, and does this without any sound.
This animation was also created by watching a tutorial, as I
saw an opportunity to create a geometric design and wanted to learn more about
the program (After Effects). This video is really short and is only 2 seconds
long. On top of this, the animation feels very fast because of how fast things
are moving. If this effect was used for a longer video it would look quite
trippy and the amount of shapes would be much higher. The video begins with an
orange background, and almost instantly a number of squares come into frame
from a spoke wheel animation, which also causes the yellow lines to appear,
which then stretch out to the end of the screen and out of view. The yellow
lines turn very thin and, simultaneously, are covered with a line of squares
increasing in size from the centre. These squares rotate in while the yellow
line simply turns thin. The entire object and all the shapes that came into
frame then disappear using the same spoke wheel animation and are followed by the
illusion of the lines being sucked into the centre.
This video was 3 seconds long but felt a lot longer than the
previous video as this animation was slower and more relaxed. This video was
also created using a tutorial, but helped me understand a lot more about how
movement works in After Effects and the properties needed for it to function.
This video could be the start of a longer video, like an intro. The animation
begins on a yellow-orange background and instantly a square scales in from the
centre of the frame, with a spinning plus sign on it. Once the square reaches
its position, it becomes clear that there are two plus signs, and that one is
on top of the other. They both separate and go to opposite ends of the square.
Between the two plus signs is a dashed line, and this is helpful as a visual
aid for the square splitting. The line is directly where the square splits and
it looks like the dashed line and the plus signs cut the square in half. While
the plus signs separate, there are also a few subtle accent explosions in the
background to help make the video look more complex and professional. Small
enhancements really push a video higher, as the eye tends to look at the bigger
picture instead of the little things, therefore thinking there was too much to
look at, which must have been good. When the square and the plus signs are almost
horizontal, the dashed line disappears and the plus signs scale down while
rotating in a clockwise motion. While this is happening, two blue rectangles on
either side of the split are moving away from the square, which is a nice
effect and helps the main shape from not looking too boring. These blue
rectangles move to the left and right, and by the time these disappear, so does
the light circle accent explosion, which makes everything look fluid and not
too crammed. At the same time, a circle forms behind the squares, forming the
colours black green and blue. The next thing you instantly see is a hole in the
animation, then the entire animation just swipes into itself in a fluid-like
motion. This was the first animation I actually liked, as it was very complex
and took a lot of time, but ended up looking very sleek and professional.
This animation was much longer than the rest, and this was
because the animation was very relaxed and had slow-paced movement. Personally
I liked this effect a lot as it had a good flow and the movement in this video
was astounding. I watched a tutorial for this animation once again, as it is
the best way to learn new things. The animation begins with a light blue,
slightly desaturated background, with a bright red and purple circle on either
side of the frame. Separating these two circles were two lines, one green, the other
blue. You can see as soon as you play the video that they move without being
touched, and have a lot of similarity to water, or some form of liquid, This
was an effect that was placed on the entire composition, so everything looks
like it is in a liquid form. The red blob moves into the green line, but does
not go behind or in front of it. It goes straight through the line, creating a
bending of the green line. There is then a white watery accent explosion to
detail the passing through of the red circle. It then continues to pass through
the blue line, causing the same effect. When it gets to the purple circle, it morphs
with it, and creates an even bigger purple blob. As soon as this happens, the
purple circle sends out an orange wave, which then breaks up into small pieces,
which all disappear quite quickly. As soon as it does this a yellow line also
emerges from behind or inside the purple circle, which gets to a certain point
then shrinks back. You then watch the purple circle and the two lines for a few
seconds before the video ends. I think this was a very different animation to
the usual sharp-edged animation that is normally seen everywhere. It also added
a sense of nature in it, as the water effect felt real in the video. An
improvement I could have made was to make the background colour less bland and more
saturated or a brighter colour.
This animation was when I decided and realised I had enough
knowledge of After Effects to try and create my own small animation, without
the use of any tutorials and no help. I found the technical things easy; it was
the creativity that I lacked at the time. I didn’t know a great deal of what
you could do with After Effects and I was having a hard time thinking of what
could happen next or how it would transition into it. I stuck with it and
finished it, proud of the end result. The animation begins with a solid white
background. In a split second a blue dot appears, then turns into an outline of
a square. There are 4 instances of this within the first square, which get
smaller each time. When they are all in the first square, the first square
moves down and rotates while changing position. The first square moves to the
bottom centre of the frame, the second square moves to the left, the third to
the right and the fourth to the top. This is the part where I was confused and couldn’t
think of any direction for this animation to go in. Soon enough I found an
answer. They all form back into circles in the same order they went out in.
When they were all lined up, I filled the first circle with a bright orange. I
did this with the rest of the circles, using bright colours such as green, yellow
and blue. Once the fill part of the animation is done, there is a sheen sliding
over the object from left to right to give the impression that the object is
shiny and glossy. It then moves to the bottom right of the frame and begins
throwing out colours over the whole frame. There could have been some form of
text in those colours before the next colour came up, but I was just showing
what was possible. The throwing colours part was my favourite part, as it is
the one I came up with on the spot and found it very simple with a bit of
guesswork. Overall it is a very simple animation and could be improved. The
element that makes this animation pop is the way the objects ease in and out. There
is more speed going in and going out but after a certain point it looks very
fast.
This animation was created after watching a tutorial, as I
wanted more ideas and more inspiration on what to do with the videos I was
creating, as well as learning new skills. The video begins on a stark blue
background, and suddenly the left section of an M rises from the ground. A
split second later the other half of the M rise and connect with the first
half. The same happens with the line of the T, with the exception that the line
begins in the air. The top half of the T is then filled, and is then followed
by the V, which is done differently. Like the others, it could have each half
of the V fill in from either side. Instead, the V rises from the ground like a
stick, then widens until it looks like a V. The way these letters have been
filled in is with staggered layers. This is the reason for why the colour is
first yellow, then orange, then purple. Personally I think it is a good
addition to the video, as it really makes the animation stand out. When the V
is almost done, the letters begin to move to the right a little, and are
staggered, which I like. It looks like they have a white shadow behind them,
which contrasts well with the rest of the colours on screen. I then reversed the
video to play out the way it came in, which gave it a smooth touch and ended
the animation with a clean end. The words say MTV because it was supposed to be
in the style of the channel, hence the bright colours and sleek movement.
This animation was also created by watching a tutorial, yet
I only watched the tutorial for the technique on the bubbles. The colour and
text were created by me. It is a slow animation and lets your eyes wander
around instead of being really fast and not letting your eyes stick to
anything. This kind of animation would be used in advertisements and
promotional videos, to try and relate to the customer and keep their design
modern and clean. It starts on a white background and the first part of
animation is the yellow thin bar. As this moves down, a red bar is also
apparent, and now the colours are visible. The first two colours are yellow and
blue, which work quite well, and red and green which is also a popular colour
scheme. As they move down, you can see the words slide up, which is a really subtle
yet effective part of the animation. I used a different font for the two
different texts, so there would be a major difference between the two. I also don’t think the opposites would have
worked in the other boxes. The text then slides down while the text slides up,
creating a modern look.
This video is and feels much more professional than the rest
of the videos, most likely because this video has real life footage in it,
mixed with some motion design. It could be used as an ident, an advert or a
promotional video. The video begins with a camera facing the people on the
pavement, then moves up to capture the skyscrapers and tall buildings in New
York. You begin to see small parts of letters and broken pieces of objects,
which then get bigger and bigger until they fill the screen. It reminds me a lot of a David Carson style
motion graphic, as none of the text is readable and is more for looks than
legibility. When I created this, the trick was to experiment and to put letters
where I felt appropriate. The way everything stops and starts is also very
modern, as there are more glitch-style videos and art-pieces today rather than
any other decade. Near the end the letters and shapes all come together to form
one object, which then inverts colours a few times for the extra effect. I
think this video grabs your attention more than other animation videos, as this
is a combination of both motion design and real footage.
This is a motion graphic of a countdown from 3, and can be
used anywhere. I learnt a great deal about how After Effects’ paths can be used
to make simple yet effective animations from a tutorial. It can be used in an
advert, in a trailer, in a movie, and much more. The video begins with the
simplicity of a black background and the number 3. You then wait a second
before it changes into a 2, but not without the effects behind it. If you pause the video while the 3
is transforming, you can see the different colours behind the main blue 3, such
as the pink and yellow. You can also see a green background with stripes, and
dots that look an awful lot like benday dots, the design that was very popular
for Roy Lichtenstein’s use of benday dots in his pop art work in the 60’s. When
the 3 is changing, it does not look very linear or robotic, and instead looks
fluid and almost natural. You then see the 2 change into the 1 with the same
effect. I then time-reversed the layer so it would play backwards, meaning that
if you played it on a loop, it would never feel like its ending, and would go
on infinitely. The colours are quite bright and help you see each part of the
transformation without losing sight of everything at once. The blue, pink and
yellow seems to work quite well, as each colour is visible against the black
and green.
This is a very interesting motion graphic and my first
thought was that it could be used as a loading icon or a moving symbol for
something within a game. I really like this style of motion design as the
design is modern and used in a lot of different media. The reason I like this
so much is because there is so much going on that your eyes don’t look at
everything the first time, making it look much more complex and detailed. I
also created this video after watching a tutorial. The first thing you see is a
textured background, which looks like a wall. The first thing you see is a
polygon coming outwards to fade out near the front of the frame. While this happens, the polygon moves out
from the start position and gets nearer to its end position. There are many
more polygons that have simply been created as accent explosions, to give the
animation a little more detail. You also see a dotted line go round and
disappear before a lot of the main polygon has arrived in the frame, which is a
small addition that fills the screen to stop it from being dull or boring. At
about 1 second in, it slows down, to really emphasise the movement of the
shapes. As it finishes a polygon fades out and the rest of the polygon
disappears through the displacement effect. The last thing you see is another
small dotted line, which again, adds depth to the animation instead of simply
having the polygon and nothing else. This short clip could also be a very short
ident for a channel or a sting, as it would fit in very well since it is so short.
This was my own twist on the previous animation, as I wanted
to try something I had been thinking about for a while. I wanted to try and
implement a channel logo into an animation to see how it turned out and how it
would look. I decided to do it with this video. This video begins with a grimy,
rough texture as the background. The shadow on the background is ahead of the
real animation, to make it seem more complicated and to give more depth to then
motion graphic. The circle then swipes in from the right, and goes round in a
sweeping motion for a split second before the slow motion takes place. Instead
of everything transitioning out into nothing, I transformed the circle into the
Channel 5 logo by using the same sweep effect as the circle. The font and
colours were all close to the original Channel 5 logo. It then again transitions
to an inverted colour version, which is the end of the video. I especially like
the shadow that the logo has cast on the background when it has sweeped in.
No comments:
Post a Comment