This is the first week of 'I have animations to show, which don't feel like they accurately show the amount of time and effort that has gone into them'. But believe me: both time and effort have been put into them.
Hope you're convinced.
The idea of the square rolling then finding its place in the pattern has been with me from early on, so I wanted to start with that as a learning point: how to make a square roll naturally. Obviously the corners would be the sticking point of a basic rotation, so by editing the positioning during each roll I was able to create something like a realistic roll where the physics of the square not going through the floor seemed to look real.
While I liked the red square's movement, it seemed like a lot of work and playing with easing for what it was. So I then decided to play with the anchor point so that I could ensure the corners wouldn't dip down. I also looked into the square's shape changing with some bounce in the manner of knees bending when a person lands.
Just more playing with paths here.
The bounce I'd worked on with the blue square only really pays off if the square seems sentient, so I had to make the square look like it was pushing itself into the turn. It's not perfect, but it gets the point across. I'm also working on the weight of the square, so making it seem heavy to lift off then gaining speed to drop down onto the next edge.
It's not perfect, still, but the weightiness of the square is shown quite well, the effort of the square to push itself is there and the colour-change aspect gives another element of character to the object. Adding in the jump gives another moment where I can give the square some personality.
I have gathered this week that I've spent a lot of time with After Effects and, while am nowhere near mastering aspects of it, I'm competent with some things (paths, basic transformation of properties), I really need to go back and hammer the basics soon. There are many things like anticipation and bounce that I just need to really sort out. It's a bit like what I'm doing with Helvetica right now.
Solidify the foundations, then we can build.
Putting this all together was fun. The file has multiple duplicates as I was keeping track of the learning, so having a final piece that brought each of these together felt really fun. I'm always chuffed when I create a seamless link from one layer to the next in order to adapt properties, as I have for the colour change from yellow to orange. But I'm even more chuffed now that I've utilised the colour-change effect, so going from orange to blue didn't require another layer.
Before I got to the above repeating pattern, I had to learn about repeaters. Before I showed my pitch to the tutors, Rebecca mentioned that there were dead easy ways to have patterns repeat that didn't involve duplicating vectors - and boy was she right! I don't take advantage of the wee 'Add' arrow that's always beside layers in After Effects, but once I learned that Repeater did everything I wanted, oh the fun I've had!
This video is a bit of an onslaught. I hadn't been struck with it because when I was building it I focussed on one aspect at a time, but all at once it's far too much! I think it's probably down to the speed. I'm really sorry that you've got to watch it.
Creating vectors that tile is going to be fun, and playing with the growing distance of the circles was really enjoyable. I think aspects like that, and the transition of the circle towards the end is definitely much more effective than I expected, so I reckon I'll be using something like that again in my final piece.
Having this idea realised was quite a big moment for me. It's brought in a lot of new learning twinned with my current abilities, and I'm really happy that what I was seeing in my head it (pretty much) what I'm now seeing on the screen. Many things are still moving a little too quickly for me, and I'm unsure about the colour changes as they're not on my proposed palette. This was never intended to be used in my title sequence, but as it's my first animation in this class I'm really looking forward to seeing it beside whatever the final sequence looks like.
Once I'd completed my development on this pattern section, I turned my attention to kinetic typography. As it was the end of October, I had the idea of having some zombie-esque type pushing through from a formal font.
The original idea was to have the serif font in the centre, then have a more jagged version of the word break through it. I searched for examples of zombie type to get the semi-robotic, jerky movement that zombies are known for, but to no avail.
Following this, I looked at examples of the Incredible Hulk bursting through his clothes, considered movie scenes of bones breaking through skin, but I struggled to convert that into a friendly version of animated type. I considered having the original lettering as clothes that would show bursts where the second layer pushed through, then fall to the ground. For the desired effect it'd require a lot of specific, artistic and organic-looking animation work - I know I need to work more on the principles before I'll be able to pull this off.
I played with various morphing options, and I think a mix of what I do with OF here and the jerky motion of the C is probably what currently looks most effective.
Following a conversation with peers I've established that, going into week 7, the showreel should really be the priority. Now five weeks from the deadline, learning techniques is super important, and while I'll have the title sequence in mind as I go through, having my technique bench deepened will be more useful (time-wise) than making Caribbean patterns.
Five weeks to learn all of this. I'm actually not as intimidated as I thought I would be. I need to start with the principles of animation, then possibly develop things I already have (the blueprint image, Call of the Abyss) and build up to Expressions (I've used these once for a small section of a tutorial, and they scare me) and applying multiple assets.