To show us what was expected from us or should I say the style we would be working in; we were shown a lyric video for 'MGMT - All we ever wanted was everything'. After looking at this video we started to base our ideas around this. I was impressed with the way the video came together and it was clear that it worked due to the illustrations and the timing combined, if the timing was out I feel it wouldn't have been as successful.
MGMT - All We Ever Wanted Was Everything from oneedo on Vimeo.
To start the process we needed a 2D scene to work with, this meant creating an artwork illustrator; with each element being on a separate layer. The reason for using separate layers was so that when working in after effects you can animate them separately. Some people used images from the internet to give them inspiration, but I decided to just create a scene from my own imagination; it was just a simple street scene with houses and street lamps. I had two background layers as I wanted to switch from night to day during my animation. I kept the scene quite simple as although the example had a lot going on in the scene, the individual elements themselves were quite basic. Thinking about the animation I ordered the layers in the order that I wanted them to appear, hence why I put the first night background to the bottom of the layers stack. For the animation to work well we were asked to have roughly 6-8 objects; the art board was then stretched out so that all the elements fitted on the page.
When in after effects and opening the file, you have to click retain layer styles. Then you move on to the composition settings where you make sure 'lock aspect ratio' is unticked, the width is 1920px and height 1080px, frame rate is 25 and the duration is 10 seconds long. After all the setup you drag the file into the composition and activate the 3D square on the toggle switches. There are three different directions of movement; x, y and z, to see these better you need to set up your views. Originally you're only given 1 view so we changed that so we had two views; the left was the active camera, which is the position you render from and the right view was the top view, which helps to see the objects and move them in z space. For the camera to move effectively through the scene, the object had to be staggered in z space; this is so that theres enough room for the camera to fly through at a reasonable speed. I put the middle object in the middle of the page and then staggered the rest out evenly in z space with the background being the furtherest away. The advantage of this method is that you can build the whole project using two key frames, with the focus being on the visuals looking nice.
The quality of your artwork can be improve but before doing so you must consider the affect it will have on your file size and rendering time. At the side of each layer you can click on the box which has different line styles; the dotted line is the poorest quality whereas the solid diagonal line is the highest quality. Another way you can improve the quality is by clicking on the form comp layer button and it will fill in with an icon; this makes your images clearer/smoother when zoomed in.
The next stage is scaling up your items so that you can't see any of the black background when your camera pans through the scene; also by having your scene fill the space it makes the animation look more professional and finished. I wanted to add more depth to the objects so I decided I was going to add a texture to the background and some of the objects in the scene; some people replaced the original colours for just the texture but I wanted the texture to be applied to the colours I already had, achieving a more subtle effect. To import the textures I went to files > select layer in timeline > lay menu > precompose (short cut shift + cmd + c) > leave all attributes in main comp is selected, then I double clicked on the layer I wanted to add a texture to and dragged and dropped the texture underneath on the comp box > drop down menu > choose alpha mat and I also changed the setting of the object to multiply.
Finally I added a rolling effect to the objects and made them come in at different times to create a staggered layer structure. The technical term for this is a page turn effect. To get this you select a layer to work with then go to - effect > distort > CC page turn. I used the controls change it to classic UI - I controlled the position by using the fold position - change to -180. Then move the timeline curser to where you want the effect to start and click the stop watch on the position, roll it off the page, then move your timeline curser to where you want the effect to finish and roll your object back onto the page.
As an extra part I decided to add music to set the tone; I felt it was missing after watching the music lyric animation earlier. The music I chose was a relaxed song which would make the piece feel like you're drifting through the scene. I feel this added the missing element and finished off the piece well.
Overall I was pleased with the outcome; I feel that this has been one of my strongest pieces to date. I think the reasons for this is that I didn't require much animation and the focus was on the illustrations. If I have more time I could create a developed scene with more layers which would improve it even more. Often I don't enjoy these workshops as I can't get a grasp of the programs and animation, however this week I really enjoyed the process and learning a new skill. I think the fact I like the outcome contributes to the fact that I enjoyed the workshop. After this session I feel more confident using the software and I can see myself using this technique in the future to develop myself as a graphic designer.
