Process And Production (year 2) - After Effects - Loops and Living holds

For the first After Effects workshop of year 2 we were introduced to Loops and Living holds; we began by looking at an existing animation to get an idea of what direction we would be heading in. This session was also a partial recap on the skills we had learnt last as for me i'm not a regular user of Adobe After Effects so I had to remind myself how to do certain things. Although though there was time for a recap we also learnt how to use a new tool called the wiggler. 

The thomas beale Cipher  - Andrew S Allen
The Thomas Beale Cipher from Andrew S Allen on Vimeo.

The motion in this clip is very simple and some frames seem as though they are still images. The movement is only slight. Although the motion is very simplistic I think that the overall aesthetic is appealing as it lets the illustration tell the story without the effects being overpowering. Due to me not having much experience with animation I think that I will focus more on the illustration of the video rather than try to over complicate the effects. 

To begin the session we had to create a portrait using Adobe Illustrator which I'm fairly comfortable using; so that the illustration would work in After Effects I had to make sure that each component was on a different layer. This was so that each individual component would then be able to be animated and controlled separately in After Effects. You could do a portrait of anyone but I decided to base mine on Florence Welch from Florence and the Machine; from the portrait we was only looking for a basic outline to give the end result a modern stripped back look. 

Whilst in Illustrator I set the document to 1920px X 1080px so that it was the same size as the composition I'd be using in After Effects later. I used a photo of Florence, reduced the opacity and started to draw the different features using the pen tool. I labelled the different layer in correspondence to what was on the layer so it made it easier to identify the different components in After Effects. Once I was happy with the portrait I saved the file and imported it into After Effects by selecting file > import file > PERSON and then before opening it I deselected the option 'Illustrator/PDF/EPS sequence and changed the import as to 'composition - retain layer sizes'. 

Then I began animating the figure using the transform tools; I remembered using them last year throughout the After Effects Workshops. So that the hair and hat moved with the head I used the parenting tool, I did the same with the hands and the body etc. The rotation tool was used to move the characters head from side to side, almost as if she was dancing. To change the point the the components were moving from I used the 'pan behind' tool to change the anchor point and in this case I moved the anchor point to just below the head. I used the wiggler tool on opacity for the clothes (body) layer, however I don't this that this looked right as it was flashing and didn't look coherent with the imagery/ vision. I also tried the tool on the hat using the rotation transform which was more suitable but I still think that due to the lack of control you have it's hard to use the tool effectively. I then moved on to applying textures to the background and then to her jumpsuit. The background was simple to apply by just dragging the texture into the composition line-up. To apply a texture to the jumpsuit I took an image from my files, imported it, dragged it to underneath the body layer and then changing the track mat option on the image to alpha matte. This makes the texture fill the shape of the jumpsuit. I liked the texture I picked as it looked as if she was wearing a glittery jumpsuit which fits with her profession.  





This is selecting the import options for the illustrator file. 









This is changing the composition settings. 









This is using the rotation tool to move the head. 









This using the wiggler tool. 





Here are some of the terms I learnt today:

Motion loop - piece of information that ends and starts in the same place. This means that a key frame can be placed at the start and at the end resulting in the image going back to it's original state at the end even if it has moved throughout the animation. This is useful if you want the start and and end to look exactly the same. 

Living hold - is a production tool where the action has stopped but the animation is still moving; thus slows down production.

Grouping - this can be used so that layers work together, to do this you used the parent tool which allows layers to be grouped. The advantage of grouped layers is so that you can move the layers at the same time. 

Coding - instead of using the tool option panel, I can input the code myself. For example to do this I'd select the transform tool and pick one such as rotation, then hold alt and click the tool. A text box will then pop up which allows me to add information to effect. For example I could right wiggle(5,50), the frequency and magnitude must be separated by a comma. 

Wiggler - it is a shortcut to creating key frames. Features that you can change are the frequency which is how many frames per second and the magnitude which is how big the motion is. The positive to using the wiggler is that its very fast to create however once the key frames are there they are set in place and therefore to change them you would have to delete the effect and re add it. *remember when wanting to change the magnitude make sure you are clicked on the transform property for that layer*.

Below is my final outcome...


Loops and Living Holds workshop from Jade Irving on Vimeo.