Character Design - The Businessman - Development

After Effects Animation Test

Last week we had a formative review of our work so far for the pre-production module. I'm on track with my work but I've still got quite a lot to finish over the next two weeks. One of the things Hillary asked me to do for this Thursday's tutorial session is an animation test. She recommended for me to try the hardest scene in my film because if I can do the hardest scene using the method I am wanting to use for the entirety of my film, then the rest will definitely be do-abble in the time frame we have for production. 

Animation Test References 

The type of animation I am going for is a cut-out / snappy hybrid to create a nice slapstick style. I think it'll work with the fast cut method I'm using for most of my story and I believe I can achieve this in After Effects. 

Charlie and Lola

Although Charlie and Lola is done in CelAction2D, I think I can achieve a cut-out style in After Effects.

Looney Tunes 

I have always been a huge fan of Looney Tunes' slapstick animation and they way they tell their stories. I hope to achieve a slapstick fast cut style of animation in my film.

The Animation Test

I have decided to animate one of the quick cut scenes during the service montage in Act Two of my storyboard. The scene in question is one of the shots where we see William eating his food. I have chosen this particular shot to test animate as there are a lot of things to consider, not just when drawing and setting up the layers in the After Effects composition, but the actual timing and movement of each action he will do.

Today I drew up William in his pose for the test as well as some quick sketches as to what he will be doing. Only his head and both arms and hands will be moving during the shot. Basically, he is going to shove burger after burger into his mouth and chew them in-between shoving the next one in his mouth. He will also turn his head from side to side before shoving each burger in his mouth. 

I'm going to be clever with how I set up the layers in Photoshop. For example, instead of seeing him grab a burger from the huge plate of burgers on the table in front of him, he'll grab one from behind the layer with the plate of burgers. Also, I can repeat the animation of him grabbing a burger, lifting it up in the air and shoving it in his mouth. 

Layers - Character, Props and Environment 

Emotions - Eye and Mouth Shapes

Hand deformation using the puppet tool

Now that I have imported the Photoshop document into After Effects and set up the Pre-Comps, I can now animate William!

Storyboard Editing - Extra Scenes

Throughout the storyboarding process, I've thought up of a few extra panels that could work in my film. However, from editing my final storyboard this past week, and creating a rough animatic from it, I've decided to leave them of the final edit for now. The extra panels do work, it's just in terms of production time, I'm not 100% sure if I'll be able to fit them in with everything else I've drawn up so far. 

Below is a quick synopsis of the two extra scenes:

- When we first see the man (his arm is holding door open) he should look ominous. After Betty looks up at the man, we see a light come up from behind the man which makes his shadow long making him look scary and dominating but when the light changes direction, we see a car turn left in the background. This reveals the strange light that made the man's shadow appear longer than it is to be from the cars' headlights. The shadow then drops in size to his real shadow and is revealed to be a short man. 

This scene does work, however it doesn't add to the story or characters in any way. I think it's more of a gag than a story point. 

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At the beginning of the third act, just after Betty has hit William over the head with a frying pan, and just before we see the party starting at the diner, I was thinking of adding an extra panel where we see people in silhouette form running from the buildings on either side of the diner into the diner for the party. They could be carrying champagne bottles, balloons, disco ball etc. 

This would work in my film as it'll establish that Betty's friends (since we saw her looking up to the building earlier) are the people at the party, and not random strangers. 

Concept Sketches - Exterior Props and Party Guests

Character Design - Hand Shapes - Development

Because there is no dialogue in my film, and the characters are the focus points, they have to convey what they are thinking and feeling not just through facial expressions but through hand gestures too. 

I've found the characters' hands to be a bit of a challenge but I think they are getting there.

Final Storyboard Edit Before Starting the Animatic

The After Effects Industry and How I Fit In

After Effects is an extremely powerful motion graphics, post production, visual effects and compositing program that can be used to compile both 2D and 3D work together to create truly wonderful pieces of work. The animation and film industries use this program extensively in their projects. There are many companies and studios that use this program to create work for clients too. Perhaps the most popular form of media to use this program is tekevision advertisements and childrens' shows because of its reasonably low cost and ease of production.

Examples of companies that use After Effects and other compositing and animation softwares to create work for their clients:

360red Productions - corporate business advertisements

Blue Zoo - award winning animation studio

Blue Chew Studios - advertising and creative media company 

Freelance artists also use the program in their work too such as 3D artist Adam Inskip from the UK. Although he specialises in 3D animation, he does use After Effects and similar compositing and animation softwares to create his work

Mayday After Effects Advert on Vimeo 

I want to use this project as an avenue for which I show off my graphic art style and After Effects skills. By doing an animated short instead of animated pieces, I get the opportunity to show my story telling too.

Since starting this project I've come to realise how much my graphic art stye has grown and also how After Effects will be used for my film gets me excited about my film even more as I feel more confident in my abilities to produce this film especially since we're about to start the production stage of the project.