#morphantimation

[unitba1b]

January 14th - Morphing Animation

I did another version of a possible rough draft for the after effects animation in tv paint and feel as though this version really helped clarify exactly what I wanted to achieve in my final After effects version of the animation. I was frustrated while even doing this but found that rough story boarding in tvpaint first made animating in after effects a lot more approachable. 

Also, while converting this video to a GIF, I ran into an issue I couldn’t resolve and so a bit of snow gets stuck at the top of the shot. Sorry about that 

[unitba1b]

December 13th - Morphing animation

At this point, I am actively avoiding after effects. I’m being completely candid here. I’m not enjoying the process of animating in AE at all. The learning curves is very steep for me. I’ve instead placed most of my efforts into my other projects and am definitely avoiding dealing with this problem. 

I understand that avoiding it won’t help me improve but something about the program just doesn’t agree with me. I don’t like making excuses so I am still trying though. I still don’t feel very strongly about the film that I picked and generally am really struggling with the minimalism aspect of animating in After Effects. I’ve been trying to traditionally storyboard in the hopes of making it easier to wrap my head around animating in AE but haven’t had much luck there. 

I think the biggest factor limiting my interest in this project is my lack of creative motivation. I understand that this isn’t a viable reason not to be producing though as in a studio setting I will be expected to produce work irrespective of my personal feelings or investment in a project. It doesn’t make in any less difficult of a hurdle to overcome. 

[unitba1b]

AFTER EFFECTS ANIMATION ROUGH - December 6th 

Seeing as I was struggling to properly visualize the course of my After Effects morph, I decided to try doing a rough draft in TVPaint. 

I feel as though the timing of this animation was off and that it could do with having the motion more spaced out evenly. I also wasn’t sure if the overall idea behind the the morph worked well. I definitely need to flesh out the motion more. 

[unitba1b]

December 6th - Morphing animation

I started working on figuring out the logistics of my AE morphing animation and I think I identified why I struggle with AE so much today. I really struggle with minimalism/simplification and my work tends to be really loose and feathery. I’m not saying that’s a good or bad thing, I’ve just noticed that that’s the way I naturally work. I feel as though animating in AE directly conflicts with that though at it definitely demands a bit of minilism in terms of breaking things down to their bare shapes. 

I understand that the ability to break things down to their simplest components is an essential skill as an animator however it is something I’m greatly struggling with. 

[unitba1b]

December 3rd - Morphing animation

We further discussed the brief for our morphing animation in After Effects and actually began to select our desired films and the props that we would Morph in our animations. 

I decided to go with the chronicles of Narnia and morph the wardrobe into the lamp post. I don’t even feel particularly strongly attached to the film? I just kinda chose it for the sake of choosing something. A problem that I find I’m running into quite a bit lately. I feel a bit uninspired I guess. 

I kept drawing blanks while story boarding and for some reason just really couldn’t get into the project. I just kinda zoned out for a lot of the session honestly. I went home and tried to continue developing my ideas for the morphing animation though and how exactly I could execute it. For some reason I was just really struggling to wrap my head around animating in AE.

[unitba1b]

November 26th - After Effects Intro

We received our brief for our upcoming animation morphing project that we would have to do in After Effects. The workshop also generally discussed the industry standard application of After Effects(AE) in the production of motion graphics. 

We looked through the website Motionographer in order to find some inspiration and examples of morphing animations that we could later apply to our own work. Some of the examples I looked at were:  “Snap - Us By Night” - Pablo Lozano “Animating Animation” - Khris Cembe “My New Animation” - Mazanobu Hiraoka  “[Interview] Buck:Good Books ‘Metamorphosis’“ - The Buck team “Love and theft” - Andreas Hykade

Through motionographer, I also found the advertising company Buck.tv and I really liked a lot of their work. Their animations are really smooth and give off an effortless feel which I found pretty amazing because I personally find it hard to produce anything smooth in after effects? 

We also discussed some information resources which would act to provide a helpful introduction to using after effects such as linkdin learning and the adobe help center.