WEEK 6 to 7
Starting to Animate
In order to animate our piece, we decided that a few of us would draw the base planets for the actual final. Everyone would more or less use the same base planets to keep the consistency throughout the whole piece. Here are the base planets I did for the animation. (In order) these include Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Jupier, Mars, Mercury and the Sun.
In order to make these, I used textures from here and painted over them, also manipulating the colours as well on Photoshop.
In order to make these, I used textures from here and painted over them, also manipulating the colours as well on Photoshop.
Next I made a background. We all generally made our own backgrounds or used each other so we didn't have the same type of backgrounds in each shot considering space doesn't look the same anywhere you look.
For the end shot I needed a post card picture, so I had to do a single shot of a scene in our piece that could be zoomed out. It was actually hard to line up everything, but it worked well in the end.
Below is the scale test for the planets. They aren't exactly like the real life scales or else you wouldn't see Pluto in this image, so I had to play with the scales a bit.
Since we are working in 2D, we can't exactly spin the planet around as it moves, so I did this picture to show we can portray movement through the placement of eyes and spinning of texture. This was just a reference piece for the rest of the group to look at in case they needed it.
This is the pluto eyes I was working on in flash. As you can see, I used a base image of the planet underneath.
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Although I was using Pluto as the base planet, I used it to animated the movement of Mercury's eyes. Even when he turns etc.
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More of Mercury's eyes. This is what it would look like withouth the bas planet. I saved this file as an swf of the eyes and imported it into AE to put onto the pre-comp of Mercury.
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Just a Happy Pluto.
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Below is an example of the flash eyes at work on top of a pre-comp in After Effects.
This was actually a test. As you can see mid way I had input the eyes. This was before I knew how to add onto the pre-comp layer which I later discovered and put to good use. This was also to test the timings and flow of one scene to the next. Quite a bit had changed from the this scene to the final you see later.
Here is an example of my use of After Effects, manipulating the path the planet Pluto takes and where he ends.
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Here is an example of the use of 3D on Pluto for when he gets closer to the sun and Mercury. The speed in which he reaches Mercury was too fast as he got closer, so to fix this it was suggested to put Pluto in 3D space so After Effects effected the path like it would a 3D object. So the closer he got to Mercury, the slower Pluto became.
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Here is an example of a pre-comp I did. I had to use flash to put on the eyes. It was really confusing at first, but I got the hang of timing on flash and importing to a pre-composition on AE. This way made it easier to manipulate the eyes as they followed the movement of whatever the planet did.
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MY FINAL ANIMATED SCENE
This is my final animated scene. I got the final part of the animation where Pluto finally reaches Mercury and they take a picture together which they then send to Uranus and Neptune.
I think my piece turned out quite well and followed the animatic properly. I followed the timings and shots which I think worked out. Working out After Effects during the process of making was at times frustrating, but when I got used to it it became a very enjoyable experience. Although I only had to manipulate circles, I tried to imbue the planets with as much movement, even if supposedly still by making them move very slightly, as if floating.
The use of flash helped me make the eyes and was the easiest way around animating the eyes. It was easy to import the flash files onto the characters and I found it really rewarding to see AE and Flash work together so well.
In hindsight there are a lot of things I would have changed, but I am still proud of what I have made as it helped me learn how to use After Effects and Flash. I would have changed some of the shots and maybe made them less static. But I wanted the story to be put across really well and follow the animatic I drew, so I kept the shots simple. I could have made the background move a little to add to the atmosphere, but I wasn't sure in the end. Also, movement of the planets did seem a tad awkward at times, but I put that to the fact that I was new to AE, but I hope to improve a lot over the coming year.
I think my piece turned out quite well and followed the animatic properly. I followed the timings and shots which I think worked out. Working out After Effects during the process of making was at times frustrating, but when I got used to it it became a very enjoyable experience. Although I only had to manipulate circles, I tried to imbue the planets with as much movement, even if supposedly still by making them move very slightly, as if floating.
The use of flash helped me make the eyes and was the easiest way around animating the eyes. It was easy to import the flash files onto the characters and I found it really rewarding to see AE and Flash work together so well.
In hindsight there are a lot of things I would have changed, but I am still proud of what I have made as it helped me learn how to use After Effects and Flash. I would have changed some of the shots and maybe made them less static. But I wanted the story to be put across really well and follow the animatic I drew, so I kept the shots simple. I could have made the background move a little to add to the atmosphere, but I wasn't sure in the end. Also, movement of the planets did seem a tad awkward at times, but I put that to the fact that I was new to AE, but I hope to improve a lot over the coming year.
FINAL GROUP ANIMATED PIECE
Here is the final animation put together.
I am actually really proud of the team for having pulled this off. It looks like a whole piece, but you can obviously see the individual styles. I think it was the use of the same base planets that kept the animation looking consistent most of the way through. It flows well from one person to the other and every one pulled through in the end which was all one could ask for. There are a few inconsistencies that was due to a lack of communication which involves the eyes of each planet, but other than that I think it works.
I am actually really proud of the team for having pulled this off. It looks like a whole piece, but you can obviously see the individual styles. I think it was the use of the same base planets that kept the animation looking consistent most of the way through. It flows well from one person to the other and every one pulled through in the end which was all one could ask for. There are a few inconsistencies that was due to a lack of communication which involves the eyes of each planet, but other than that I think it works.
Below is the animation without credits and a title.
A few last words
I think I've learnt a lot over the past project and it was both enjoyable and completely frustrating at the same time. I got to work in a group of people with different skills and ideas which was both good and bad, but in the end we all pulled through with our animations. It got hard when we all butt heads, but in the end it was worth the differences. I know that in the future, working in a creative industry in particular, that I will have to work with others, so this was good experience in handling the pressures especially as I had to act as the director and judge and determine quite a few important things.
Also, I learnt a lot about software like After Effects and Maya. I think the most helpful thing I learnt was just using After Effects and now I feel confident enough in using it to at least a basic level to complete something. It is a really fun program and I hope to apply my knowledge of it in future animations in a more professional manner.
Also, I learnt a lot about software like After Effects and Maya. I think the most helpful thing I learnt was just using After Effects and now I feel confident enough in using it to at least a basic level to complete something. It is a really fun program and I hope to apply my knowledge of it in future animations in a more professional manner.