Final Piece

After being stressed about not knowing how to use After Effects properly, trying to learn, researching and rethinking ideas I have finally come to my final animation, I'm really happy with what I have learnt and what I have produced. Of course there is always room for improvement but I think I achieved a good result after never using the software before. I actually quite enjoyed the project and may now consider animation in future projects where as previously I wouldn't.

                      

Nearing the end

I went back to After effects and combined the lights and shadows that I liked from the previous post. I do like what I produced and it is what i thought was going to be my final piece but I think i will make one final adjustment on the back light as I think it is slightly too dark and takes too much away from my original off-white colour.

                      

Adjustments

Here I have included a screen shot of me working on adding some lighting to my animation and the results of it.

                    

                    

In these two tests i liked and disliked different features. In the lighting test I liked the lighting on the background as I think it adds a dimension to the page and isn't so flat an bland so I think i will use that in my final piece. I don't like the red lights on the the dots though as I don't think it adds anything good.

In the shadow test I like the use of drop shadow as it adds a subtle depth to the shapes and brings them out of the page so i will use that in my final animation.

Development

Below you can see a screen shot of all my laters in After Effects. I decided to split every single element of my animation into separate layers to make it easier to work with.

After working with all my layers I had produced a 2D version of what I actually wanted but I still need to lift it and make adjustments.

                   

Start of the final piece

This is the first stage of creating my final piece, I have put all of my baselines in time with my music, having not tried anything with music yet this went surprisingly well.

                       

Although in my storyboard it showed the bars pushing each other off the screen I had a happy accident in not achieving that and ended up with an overlap which i actually quite like and I think the speed of the bars fits well with the music. I decided it would take 3 seconds to get a bar fully across the page.

Typography Selection

As I am having an end screen on my animation I need to choose typography. I have selected a few fonts which I liked the look of.

I tried to choose quite bold fonts and I think a few of them slightly fit with my music. 

I have chosen to use number 3, the font 'Impact', i have chosen this because i think it is quite similar in that it is bold like the album cover so i think it fits best. Although I like some of the more hand writing style fonts i don't think they are suited to my animation or music.

Experiments

Taking my idea into After Effects I have been experimenting with the movement and the lighting and produced a coupe of results.

                     

I really like the off-white colour, but i have tried to use white lighting to emphasise the red dots and it hasn't really shown up so more work needs to be done on it.

                     

In this version there is a slight red light which could bring out the red colour more and I like how the slight drop shadow just lifts the shape from the page without being too dramatic. i think while creating my final project I will refine this more.

Advanced Storyboard

I have re-drawn my storyboard to include my selected colours and show in more detail my transitions with my baselines. this includes rough timings. I have also drawn a diagram explaining light positioning.

Meanings

I have chosen to use the red, black and off-white colour scheme. In my opinion every colour and shape has meaning and a relationship with the music.

Off-white - a blank canvas the music is placed onto

Black - the dull, droning sound of the bass

Red - in contrast but also the bright tone in the melody

Rectangle - dull, angular, sharp, flat lines thought of while listening to the music

Circle - in contrast but also the soft 'lines' thought of in the melody

To me everything just fits together so well.

Colour Selection

Taking inspiration from the inspirational videos I looked at I have created different arrangements of colours using my storyboard as a base. 

I decided to do these two brightly coloured options but I don't think they fit the music at all because the music is quite dull with some contrast but these colours are bright and cheery.

I also tried out this off-white, grey and back theme but decided that there needs to be some colour to bring a bit of life because it looks too dull.

I then went to look for inspiration for other colour alternatives. I looked at the album cover for the song and saw the black, red and white theme so decided to try and use that.

I think the black background looks good but I decided to also try it reversed. I sort of prefer the white background as it fits slightly better with the music and to me shows meaning in every part both shape and colour.

I also looked at adding a simple texture effect to try and bring a little life to it and I think I may look more at texture. I think the image is very flat but it is a good base to work from.

Another experiment I tried was feathering the edge of my shapes to make them less harsh, I think this is a lot more subtle than the texture and I like the soft appearance. I also prefer the off-white colour because of it being less harsh.