Upon completing the sun's movements, I think it would be best for it to be under the green buckles on its rise - I'll have to wait and see whether I keep it there for the fall, or just wait for it to write out the name to be on top. I also need to get rid of the green buckles, either by fading them out or letting the path drag them off-screen.
With the writing out of the name, I like the wee bit of character I've given the sun as it shakes the final three letters out into place (timings are ludicrous).
The next challenge was getting the rays of the sun to lead off the circle and onto a wee trailing path around the screen. I thought this would be a simple case of having one line move away and then start a repeater pattern growing as it came away. Once I had a path drawn out, I created the pattern and rotated the line to turn along the path. This, however, was disastrous.
Eventually, after many iterations, I realised that I would have to have one object that followed a path, auto-oriented to that path, and then just duplicate the object. The fact they were starting in a circle, not from one position, is a problem for another day.
And then, of course, came a million issues with auto-orient, rotations, anchor points and positioning. I had hoped to use one of the strokes (with its anchor in the centre) to branch off on its own, but when I duplicated it to start the next one, the anchor point was out of place. When changing this, the positioning shifted ever so slightly. When I fixed the positioning, auto-orient swivelled the rotation out of place. When I sorted the rotation, the entire path moved with it.
This is the point I started shouting at my mouse for not doing the things I was asking of it.
Then I cracked it. I made one stroke that journeyed around the whole circle and then wandered off onto the chosen path, then duplicated that and was able to (essentially) restart it at the correct points around the circle. By shunting each one back three frames, I'm able to ensure timing and spacing stays uniform throughout across the fifteen strokes as they travel around in one big snake.
Nearly there.
There.
Once this was complete, all I had to do was parent the strokes onto the original sun, play around to find the right speed of rotation to marry up to the pre-comped strokes' rotation, and now I get to worry about the strokes interfering with the C and L on either side of the O.
In order to get more out of this screen I wanted to have multiple snakes going across the yellow background. I'm chuffed to say that I had planned to create individual lines for each snake, but by repurposing the pre-comp for the snake and then adapting small factors like size or speed I was able to create a sequence where each part feels unique.
Within the top snake there is a stroke that will introduce the next transition (and actor). I want that stroke to bounce around, full of character trying to escape from the long line - basically the opposite of the square in the opening of the sequence. It jitters and dances a little bit in its line, but I think the snake might be moving too quick for this to be noticeable. I want to draw the viewers attention to it before it starts to grow - essentially (like I discussed in the brief) having things for more switched on viewers to be able to say "I say that coming".
One way I can help bring attention to this dash is by clearing the screen before it starts to work its magic. I wanted the Sabrina text to leave in a natural way, so having the right-hand snake lead it out works well. This was much more hassle than I anticipated, as I figured I'd be able to set a simple path for all letters to follow - this was not the case. After setting each one on its own wee journey, I'm in two minds about the timing. I'd like the whole word to flow out in one big train, but the expanding effect that it currently has looks quite nice. I may have to do some versions and ask some people which one they prefer.
This next video is simply all that I have brought together for the first time. According to my style board I'm nearly finished, and this video is close to the 60 second minimum.
However, timings are all over the place. I knew this was the case, and was assuming that most things are travelling far too slow, but there are a few things in here that have surprised me.
Line of squares - moving too fast, perhaps the rolling square should jump in later in the line so as not to rush its transformation?
‘presents’ - maybe come in faster or slower, it just feels a bit off. Perhaps the speed of the triangles is too quick?
red lines - when the yellow road zooms in, why do those lines migrate up? The whole scene may be zooming, I don’t need that
‘13 peoples’ - far too slow, and I don’t think I believe the hills are hills
buckles - should the backwards E already be in place? Just stretch Marge’s name to the edges?
red sun - do I want it to be behind the buckle line? maybe sometimes
red sun - its pacing and scaling is waaaay off
Sabrina - we can see her letters trim-pathing in
red sun - needs to pause and realise it has to shake out the rest of the letters - maybe it should go beyond, then notice and jump back? possibly salt-shaker out the E, then I, then L?
strokes - they come off the sun far too fast
all strokes - they’re all moving too fast and blur a little, if I slow them all down, it’ll give the Charles stroke more time to be noticeable
Charles - that’s obviously not finished
My main reason for doing this at this "late stage" is that I need to make a decision about music. I'm very keen for the animation to tell a story along with the beat of the audio, and I'm very keen for the music to give the exact impression of the happy-go-lucky, adventurous tone that I'm looking for from this film.
Ultimately, I really want to use something like Ziggy Marley's "Believe in Yourself", but I can't afford to pay Ziggy's royalty fees, and it was already used for the Arthur cartoon. I listened to a ton of Trojan Records' songs to find what I want, but considering I'll probably want to share my final product in the future, it will be a lot less hassle if I use royalty-free music.
Below is a list of eight tunes I've found across the internet. Each offers something different, but I'm going to listen to them alongside my frankensteined video to see if any of them fit the vibe (as the kids/ my classmate say).
Click each song to hear it!
Summer Reggae - A little more dour than I remember
Funny Reggae - It's just "Why you gotta be so rude?" by Magic!
Cupcake - A bit repetitive, but with cool steel drums
In The Ocean - With a beat this would be excellent, can I learn to DJ in a matter of days?
Smile - Maybe too on the nose, should I be complaining about that?
Jerk Sauce - Super cool vibes, good beat changes for scene changes
Summer Party - Amazing stuff a wee bit into it, but 53 Euro to get wrapped up in licensing jargon is a bit steep
The Sound of Sunshine - Great stuff, but Spotify would never let it happen
(I've just done a bit of research into Michael Franti who released that last song. He seems like a good dude, but not sure on his opinions on licensing laws.)
Red Stripe - Just came across this additional one, it could be great
After much deliberation I have chosen Jerk Sauce by Andrey Rossi. It's upbeat vibe and occasional changes in pace or instrument lend itself to my chopping and changing animations and transitions. It was almost two minutes in length, so I had to take it into GarageBand to move some parts around, shortening the lengthy middle section to just a few repetitions, and then cutting the ending bridge right down to bring the climax forward by about 30 seconds.
With the edits I've made following the video above I have around 50 seconds of animation - giving me 20-30 seconds left of music to fill. Once I've polished off the Charles Hyatt animation and brought in the title card for the movie I believe I'll be exactly where I want to be.
I do have dreams of rotoscoping some footage into the end of the sequence, allowing the titles to ebb into the actual film (à la Dr No and a thousand other movies), but we'll see if it'll work out the way I want. I just want to rotoscope something.