For this brief we were experimenting with using After Effects, we got to learn the basics of the programme and created mini projects to practice these skills.
This lesson was useful as we created a simple animation of an old game of ping pong. For this we experimented with the ‘position tool’. We learnt about creating key frames and how to parent objects to each other in order for the animation to work. To start with we created a line shape by using the shape tool. We then started to move the line up and down and for each movement moved the playhead along, this adding new frames. We then drew another line and placed it on the other side of the screen and did the same to this object. Then parented one line to the other so that they would move at the same time. We then created a little ball object to animate going in between each line, creating a ping pong effect.
For this animation we experimented with the ‘puppet pin tool’. This allows you to take a still image and give it joints, allowing parts of the image to move. For this piece of work I downloaded a cartoon image of a person, used the puppet pin tool to put joints in the appropriate places e.g knees, neck, elbows and waist. By pressing down the alt key the joint tool changes, so that you can add a bone like structure to parts of the image, allowing for a more realistic movement. We also used the position and rotation tool to animate the cupcake being kicked and flying across screen. Again, for this animation, we added a new frame after each movement; whilst moving the leg and body to recreate a kicking movement, and then again for the cupcake flying and spinning. To finish the animation I inserted a background behind the images. I was happy with how this turned out as it was my first attempt at using the puppet pin tool.
For the next workshop we had to animate text bouncing up and down. For this I used the position tool to animate the text moving up and down. I wanted to try animating by using key frames instead of lots of new frames; for this I added a starting frame (when the text is in the middle of the screen), a middle frame (when the text touches the floor) and a final frame for the finishing position. I also, to try and make the bounce look more realistic, halved the height of each bounce as in reality when an object bounces it loses half of its momentum and the bounce becomes smaller, until it eventually stops. To make the bounce look smoother, I added motion blur to the animation.
After the lesson I decided to revisit the bouncing text and try making the letters bounce individually. For this I separated the text up into letters, in Photoshop. After this, I imported the individual letters back into After Effects. I did the same to this text as in the last attempt, only instead of moving the whole word, I simply moved each letter up and down, whilst using the position tool. To get the effect of the letters bouncing individually I set the key frames at different heights and also had some letters bouncing for longer than others. This gave the effect that the movement is random and more natural. For a little extra effect, I animated the ‘o’ falling over, I liked how this turned out. However, the text, in some places bounces too fast, making the movements looks unnatural. This is something that if revisited I would change.
I wanted to expand on the bouncing text to try and improve the animation. For this one, I tried to add the ‘squash and stretch’ technique. When the text hits the ground, it squashes a bit due to the impact. Then ,when the text bounces back up it stretches out, until it eventually returns to its natural size. This made the bounce looks more realistic and I prefer this animation to the previous one.
However, when animating the text I forgot to add the easy ease effect. Easy ease makes the start and finish of the animation appear smoother, as it eases in the animation and eases the animation to a smooth finish. This makes the animation have less jolts in it and makes the animation look better overall. If I revisit this, I will add this effect to improve my animated bounce.
For the next part of the brief, we had to make 2D images into 3D objects. We did this by adding the sphere effect onto the image. I used an image of Freddie Merury, once I had chosen my image, I dragged the sphere effect from ‘effects and presets’ over onto the image in the middle of the screen. This changes the image into a sphere. I then played around with the shading and shadows of the sphere, this making the image clearer. To animate the sphere spinning, I set two key frames, one where the animation would start and another when where the animation would finish. I then started the stopwatch on the rotation tool and moved the playhead to the end key frame and made the sphere rotate a few times. The when I dragged the playhead back to the beginning and press play, it allows you to see the rotation that was just created. I then turned on the position tool and started animating the sphere moving around the screen. For this I just moved the playhead along each time I moved the sphere. This resulted in the sphere moving around and spinning at the same time.
To expand onto this, I made two attempts at animating two spheres that are both moving and rotating, and also bumping into each other. To create the second rotating sphere I did the same as I mentioned above. However, this didn’t really work as the first sphere was already animated, so when I tried to animate the second sphere, I couldn’t get the correct timing or positioning. Because of this, when I tried to animate the two spheres bumping into each other, the first sphere ends up being behind the second. The movements ended up not looking random enough and didn’t look believable.
To expand on this even further, I wanted to animate the whole of Queen as spheres, all spinning, moving and bouncing into each other. To try and make the bouncing into each other look more realistic, I decided to animate them all at the same time instead of one after another. This allowed me to have the correct timing and positioning through out the animation, to make the interaction look real. To do this I started the stopwatch for the position tool, I then moved the playhead along, moved all of the spheres, then moved the playhead along again and moved the spheres again, I did this until the last key frame. By doing this, the interactions between the spheres looked more natural and believable, whilst still making the movements look random.
For the final attempt at this, I wanted to add something different to try out and get used to more tools. For this, I decided to have the Queen logo appear and get bigger towards the end of the animation. For this I played around with opacity and scale. For the beginning of the animation the opacity of the image was at 0 and throughout the animation it gradually increases up to 100. Whilst the opacity in increasing, scale is also increasing. To start with, the scale was also 0 and as the opacity increased, the scale also increased. I really liked how this overall animation looked. If revisited I would sharpen up the interactions between the spheres, as at certain points they bounce off each other without fully colliding.
Sapphire's Animation yr2 