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Archives for category: Night out animation
I’m very glad that this project is over. Not that I haven’t enjoyed it, because I have (most of the time). It’s just been difficult because it’s the first project of the year and I have remained obnoxiously unaware of what to expect at the end of it all. What can I say; I’ve certainly spent copious amounts of time trying to reason with After Effects and establish a mutual friendship with the program. I’m rather pleased with the end result of these labours. And I’m defiantly grateful for everyone else in the class for their tips on how I can make improvements to my project when I’ve felt like it just wasn’t enough.
I think I’ve finally got my head around using a blog as my project folder. I just need to remember to keep updating it whenever I can; this is something which I have learnt from and will keep in mind in my future projects.
I’m going to write out how I did everything now. Hopefully I can elucidate why I’ve chosen to do everything that I have without it sounding utterly ridiculous and outlandish.
Yes I can safely say that I am happy with my idea, the progression of my idea, and the end product of my idea.
I like it. I deem that it is well related to the story which is linked to my ‘night out’ and that it portrays it in a means which I am happy with and feel comfortable sharing with people.
I consider my animation to be well connected to my experience as I believe that it displays all the emotions which I have felt upon this time. I understand that this will never be an exact replica of my memory, but I still know that
Why did I change my idea?
Simply because I wasn’t happy with it. Before I expand an idea I have to feel comfortable with it. I just wasn’t feeling very confident with my original idea, and so when I had an opportunity to think of something better, I tried to think of something which was more meaningful than just a night out on the town. This is simply the end result. I was aware that changing my idea halfway through the project was indeed a risky decision. But I knew that there was much more that I could explore with this one. Such as how seagulls change their personalities at night, just like people do. I believe that the more comfortable with an idea you feel; the more productive you will be because you’re enjoying what you’re doing.
I don’t know if my old idea would have turned out successful or not. It still had strong relevance and meaning to me, but I was never 100% sure on how I would get around animating it. Overall I just know that, I have had the opportunity to be much more creative with this idea. I never really did that much research into my previous idea, I think I was just putting it off because I didn’t like it very much. I know I had other ideas as described in pervious posts, But the seagull idea seemed to instantly appeal more to me. The second I knew it was right, I started making my storyboards, and thinking of different ways in which I could make things look better.
How I created my animation.
I used three programmes to create my animation; Adobe After effects, Illustrator, and Photoshop. I began by creating the main background (the poles and wires) from scratch in Illustrator by using the pen tool and curving tools. Once I had this completed, I imported it into after effects, added a dark blue mask over it and adjusted the opacity. I did this because I wanted to define the time of night which the animation is set in (midnight) I thought that the ‘midnight blue’ would settle comfortably over my background and not look too unnatural.
The seagulls were also drawn in illustrator with the help of some templates, using the same tools. After I had finished with Illustrator, I loaded the images into Photoshop where I separated each individual image into layers. I did this so that it would make the animating procedure much easier and smoother later on. I separated the wings from the main body of the birds into separate layers.
After I had done this to the seagull images, I imported them into after effects as cropped layers. I then created a new composition for each bird and parented the separate layers. To animate the wings, I ensured that the body of the bird was the parent to each wing. I then adjusted the anchor point accordingly before adjusting key frames in the timeline. I mostly just had to adjust the position key frames but it varied with each bird and the way in which its wings were placed on its body. I made each composition in a 3D layer as this gave it more depth. The lights were produced by creating small red and yellow masks and bringing them over the main background. I then sized them down, and added a glow to it. I did this through the effects tools. You may have noticed that the birds have no features to them. They are just white. This is because they are supposed to be. I wanted them to look like ‘lost souls’ that drift emotionlessly on the wind, and I thought that my giving them more features would ruin this effect and give the birds feelings or personalities.
Without a doubt there are certainly things I could have made improvements on, and by no means is my work perfect. When I watch it I don’t quite feel as though this is 2 months worth of solid work, but I know that it does everything I want it to which is what matters most to me. I feel as though the space in the sky is a little empty, but then this is intended, as there are never very many at night compared to in the daytime.
You may have noticed that there is no sound in my animation. I like it this way so I will keep it as it is. I think that adding some random ambient music to it will not add any more meaning or significance to it, so why leave it? Please understand that my animation should be taken with a pinch of salt. I understand that it may look very simple and basic, but I like it that way. By no means is it supposed to be heavily complicated.
Overall I think I have achieved what I started out to do, in a manner which has allowed me to experiment with different programmes, and new techniques for editing.
Here it is! An evaluation to follow soon 
I drew this picture because I wanted to exaggerate detail on the birds wings and see where would be best to separate the bird into layers.in the end I realized that I would not be able to go into so much detail, but the drawing has still ben useful to me.
Today has been a struggle. I have also realized that I still need to upload my storyboards and some other sketches which I have made which are related to my research.
I’m hoping that today is going to be a productive day today, so I can just crack on and get some work done…please!!!
Remember the simple after effects animation of the birds in the city that I made? Well thats never really left my head as a possible stimulus since I changed my idea to seagulls. Heres some silhouettes which found. I like these because I am considering using white silhouettes on a background of the seafront at night.
