This week in the Intro to the making of Module we would be playing around with Adobe After effects to help us get more acquainted with the software but this was also picking up from what we learned about the Multi plane Camera that Disney used in its animations many years ago and was actually mentioned in the documentary video we watched last week. We would be approaching a similar aspect with After Effects the idea being we would be experimenting with provided background images provided in a zip file then it would be like working with layers in photoshop which was one of the elements in animation and the multi-plane side of this exercise. We played with the software to begin with to get acquainted with the controls and features of the program but we started with starting a new project and there were specific settings, we could create these using either the new composition button or the keyboard Apple-M. We were told that we could use this to make a comp effect in programs like Toon Boom or even keep an open mind and play with the software called Nuke.
What we needed to take away is that we could take large scale images and make a showreel of animated passes in an animation so that our concept art could be shown in a show reel.
The settings were the following standard settings that Annabeth suggested that we used which was HDTV 1080 25 this would automatically set the frame rate to the standard television time of 25fps.
When starting a project in this or any file in this or premier Pro its a good thing to save our projects before we begin creating the project file itself this is the life blood of a project which is like an archive of what we're doing and if we lost it we would lose all our work in After Effects. The composition appears within the project browser at the side of the canvas( as shown below)
We could name the composition and so we called it "testing after effects" the key thing we needed to remember was this wasn't a packaging shot software we would be doing shot by shots in this animation software and these would be in separate files so that as Annabeth put it " We don't lose our sanity" This was split into four time digits hours, minutes, seconds and frames, to get a closer look we could use the magnifier to zoom in on the canvas to get a better look on the frame we are using, but we leave it alone for scaling the frames.
We began creating shapes to animate as a test run of using the software and we could create solid layers and to do this we would do this by the solid option in the toolbar and use the settings to create a solid shape within the canvas, this was a quick way to create a blank colour of shapes and by default it shows that it covers the entire canvas but using it we could create a simple shape. This was great for backgrounds and set it to 400x400p and this created the shape that we wanted and by clicking okay the shape will appear as a first layer within the animation timeline.
We then get shown the parameters that we could set for the shape by opening the layer and showing the transform option and we could alter the rotation, position, anchor point, rotation, scale and opacity. Annabeth mentioned something that immediately caught my attention and that was all Adobe Packages were very similar to each other like animate, premier pro, and even photoshop this was something that I would possibly need to look into further to see if she was right and could possibly be of use in the future. We began with a basic A-B motion using the selection tool to move it to the side but when doing animation its to do with the blue line in the animation much like how we set keyframes in maya by moving the time line to a few seconds and setting the key frame by starting a key point at the start and end using the stopwatches next to the movements we make such as the positioning and the computer sets the keyframes for us. This then created the movement within the cube when we scrubbed the timeline it shows movement.
What we needed to take away is that we could take large scale images and make a showreel of animated passes in an animation so that our concept art could be shown in a show reel.
 |
| settings for composition |
 |
| Range of settings |
 |
| Canvas view project browser on the upper left side of the canvas background. |
 |
| magnifier |
 |
| Red solid layer |
One thing we needed to remember is if we removed the stopwatch keyframe it would delete the data of that movement. Annabeth showed us that by going in-between the keyframe and moving the pivot point within the shape it would create another keyframe this seemed much like the graph editor within maya when smoothing out an animation we've created.
This created a curve motion within the stop motion and when playing the animation it showed that it was rising and then falling to the ground in the animation which was interesting and even switch the rotate angle of the values which created another keyframe set to 4 seconds and even created a rotation movement. We could even create a pendulum like movement within this animation and so we created a pendulum animation within the rotation animation, so we made another solid shape rectangle and this time create a width of 100x600 creating a rectangle. To do the pendulum much like in maya the pivot point needed to be moved up to the top of the rectangle. The stacking motion of this would be very important in this later much like the rule of layering with Photoshop. The cube motions needed to be closed so that we didn't get confused when doing the animation.
We began making rotation keyframes within our animations and we were even showed a nifty trick of lassoing the keyframes to replicate the values of the animation. One element when doing the pendulum was doing an effect called motion blur which was an element that I remembered from Clip Studio Paint. When creating key frames this needed to be on the stop watch for rotation creating a swinging movement then copying the values and pasting them in to create the pendulum swinging back and fourth. There was a trick we could use to ease the swing of the pendulum and this could be accomplished by right clicking on the key frame and select keyframe assist and then select ease in which excellerates the swing whilst the ease out decelerates the swing which was a simple way to slow and speed up the pendulum, and so I applied this to the swinging pendulum. To created the influence of fast motion we could apply motion blur and to enable this there was an icon with three balls blurred against each other and enable it to have the blur, as well as, the composition and we then find a blur at the end of the movement but it only shows on fast moving objects and to show this we could actually move our keyframes closer along the timeline to show a faster motion.
If there was a extension on the time line we weren't using we could easily trim the workspace down and shorten the timeline to the time it plays for and its focused around the keyframes.
This was more apparent the faster it moves. In order to render a final animation for our blogs piece we needed to go to the composition option in the tool bar and select add to render que which then brings up a box below which allows us to apply the render settings.
After the break we began doing an exercise in Rostrum animation which meant working with backgrounds transition much like how Disney did using the multi-plane camera many years ago before After Effects even existed.To begin we were shown how to begin the exercise and that this time the composition needed HDTV 720p rather than the previous version then Annabeth told us we'd be using one of the images in the documents we downloaded. The idea of Rostrum animation was that we would be moving over an image that was bigger than the window size which was used in background animation. The test image would be an illustration of Winnie the Pooh and to import the file it would be file and import then when the file is imported it would appear above the composition and we could drag it into the composition to begin the process. Looking at the dimensions the image would be bigger than the frame and it was zoomed right in.
This was making us think back to our perspective workshop about the window and the positioning, of the frame creating an animation for an illustrative and narrative story using limited animation this then clicked something in my mind it reminded me a lot about motion comic books that I look at on Youtube and wonder how they do it I therefore asked Annabeth for confirmation and it seemed I was correct so this made me download After Effects for my own mac to create my motion comics later on. We could also use this to create an image slideshow for all our work. When doing keyframes within the animations we needed to follow the rules of introducing a hold just like we learned with Animation 101 and have it four seconds along, and much like Maya we needed to animate the different key frames for different motions like the zooming out and zooming in of the beginning frame or proceeding down towards the characters.
This was much like the beginning of old disney films where it began with a story book opening and focusing on the first illustration of the book.
Whilst having a go at this I could see the appeal and how it could be applied to motion comics how they focus on either the page or separate frames in the page. However before I could consider this there was one thing that I needed to know and that was how to transition to the next frame or scene. Thankfully Annabeth was able to answer that question for the next stage of this animation. To begin we would be using an image of a background from the tv series Adventure time and with this landscape image Annabeth showed us that it was a good idea to have the current settings however every program has its limitations and in this case it would be the pixel size and it was limited to 10'000X10'000 pixels. To accomplish a fade transition we needed to change the out points of the layers so they would know when to be visible and this would be at the edge of the layer and would show an arrow allowing us to scroll it along to the end or start point, so that the last keyframe would be overlapped.
Annabeth mentioned that in premiere we could stack images against each other and use transition but here we wouldnt be using it. However to add a more ease transition we needed a second assest and this lied in the keyframes and in this instance it lied in the opacity of the adventure time layer. To accomplish this we selected the opacity area and switch on its stopwatch and alter it to zero and on the next keyframe it switched to 100 creating the cross fade effect of transition. We would then start scaling big towards the village and sometimes we needed to consider the logic of what we were doing and consider the positioning of the piece before doing this. The frame would start wide then on the scale option on the key frames the piece would then be moved slightly across to the village in the scene. We could add rotation if we wanted but I decided to keep this a simple transition animation but it was a very good example that Annabeth showed us, and may explore this at a later date. We could also add the easing trick to the animation which would add as Annabeth put it Finesse, and so I added this to the beginning and transition keyframes to make it run smooth.
When trying this I did run into some issues of focusing on the village as it didn't reach the village only the bridge so I tried repositioning the image and it did seem to help in terms of focusing on the village. Given the current composition it was telling a story so I decided to add an opening element of this animation and so I introduced the map from the file. I had to stack up the layers as it was to do with the layer order in this software and so I placed the image at the start of the animation. However when doing this I had an issue where it only showed one of the layers and couldn't play the animation or anything, so I sought Annabeth's opinion on this matter and she explained it was because I double clicked the layer and to exit this I double clicked again getting me back to the canvas. One other issue soon arose when I was introducing the beginning frame and it was the repositioning of the keyframes since the image frames were moved along the key frames went with them and given how many there were it was difficult to get them in place.
I consulted Annabeth on this matter and she suggested deleting these keyframes and introduce new ones to get things back in place in the animation. Thankfully this worked and the story went along smoothly. Whilst I was doing this Annabeth mentioned about an effect being added to the animation.
One example of this was a rain effect. The way this was done was by going into the effect option within the toolbar and then select simulation which would open an option of effects and the one that we wanted was CC Rainfall and this was selected and this created a blue screen element but when reordered in the frame count it would show the rain on the background.
I didn't pick up on this at first so I asked Annabeth to run through the process with me again and she was very kind to, and I applied this to my frames but focused on the Winnie the Pooh and Adventure time images since the map frame was the introduction element. This was then rendered in the render que, however with my focus on this I had forgotten how to render it so Annabeth reminded me and thankfully I didn't forget the settings on the render for the animation. See animation below:
The next animation exercise was the process that I had an interest in after last weeks session and this was the process of doing background animation using multi-plane styles of animations this was called offsetting . To start this exercise we had to begin in Photoshop and create a video file in the following settings HDTV 1080P 72dpi. This was a saved format in Photoshop and it produced a document with surrounding boarders but Annabeth explained there was a reason for this and that would be because these were the safe areas within a projection which we learned could crop an image if it was within these boarders. The outer line was called action safe where characters could come out and we didn't want any performance going within those boarders the same would apply to title sequence the inner line was for title sequences.
The main point is was to keep this within the safe margin lines, and if we messed around in maya with an element called the field gates which was exactly the same tools and in Toon boom it would be in grids which was an element needed to keep a job in the industry. We were told we could create a new background colour within this layer and alter the colour in the new document preferences but from experience I knew the colour could be altered to in the background layer by double clicking the background colour then selecting a colour off the colour wheel, in this case it would be blue. We would be making a very simple image of a mountain scene with clouds and hills in perspective having four layers but it would be up to us how we draw it but we needed to draw it so that it would move side to side in a loop much like a roller that they would use in cartoons like Scooby Too for example moving very fast. I began using a softer brush to create a sun in one large dot as this created a very interesting glow effect in front of the background.
A new layer was introduced but not before we named the layers as this would be curial when doing elements in After effects. We began to draw in clouds and I knew exactly what kind of brush to use and this was a textured brush which created the feathered effect within the clouds very nicely giving it a realistic effect.It was then time for the mountain element of the background and before applying it we were given some advice about doing them they had to maintain the same shapes when the mountains move otherwise it would look unstable, and wouldn't work as a movement in the rostrum animation. The order needed to be consistent and in my original piece I had a cloud in front of the mountain but for now Annabeth told me to have the clouds behind the mountains and whilst as an artist I argued against this if this was a requirement for the session I chose to follow.
To compensate on the next layer I included some green hills in front of the mountain layer and tried to keep the shapes the same even going back to the mountains and colouring them in or even making them more pointed triangles so that it would move more even against the background. Once the Photoshop element was complete this needed to be saved and then imported into After Effects. When importing a layered Photoshop file it needed to be set so that the layers would appear within the composition, and when importing a box would appear allowing us to alter the settings and set it to composition so that the layers would be included when imported.
When imported the new composition showed the background art file and the layers included in the document itself the next stage was creating the movement within the layers of the background art to create the multi plane motion effect within the background. The way this was accomplished was with the use the effects option within the toolbar and select the option called distort-offset this would be used to create the motion within the background. Annabeth said that we needed to make sure that the elements went in different directions at a different speed but not to make it too fast in the presentation. I began altering the offset within the clouds and much like the other animations the keyframe stop watch was activated to create keyframes as the timeline was moved across a few seconds and set the keyframe. Whilst working I did have some speed and pace difficulties such as the moving of the backgrounds and the stopwatch settings as the arrow in front of them had to be dragged along in order for that particular frame to move.
When the finished product was played there was a little skipping within the movement of the frames, but this was something that I would need to re-visit at a later date for refinement or see if I could find a work around for this element of the offsetting process.
End film:
Looking back at this lesson I believe I may have indeed learned a great deal in both the multi plane element of background animation and the animation behind motion comics. I've decided to download Adobe After Effects from my creative cloud package and further teach myself in its use for both this module and for my own uses in motion comics. This may also help for my city project in terms as a possible approach to the animation task though I would need to discuss this with the group before we make a final decision. I would think that I learned a lot about After effects in this area of animation and will continue to refine my skills in the software and could yet learn more in the future of this course.
If there was a extension on the time line we weren't using we could easily trim the workspace down and shorten the timeline to the time it plays for and its focused around the keyframes.
This was more apparent the faster it moves. In order to render a final animation for our blogs piece we needed to go to the composition option in the tool bar and select add to render que which then brings up a box below which allows us to apply the render settings.
In the rendering que there were preset settings but in order to set the settings required for a certain type of format in our case we would be using the setting for a youtube video 1920- 1080 at full resolution which is selected automatically, this would be saved on best settings for now . We first needed to alter the output module in the animation codec by clicking lossless and open the format option then select the settings of H.264 then upon setting these settings we needed a place to save them to and in this instance it would be the Rostrum document and the rendered piece would be saved to that area. There would then be an option to render and once clicked the video would be rendered and created into a movie document.
The finished video could then be viewed and looking back at it I could see the end result of playing with the interface seemed to work very well and it helped me learn a few more things about after effects and it was beginning to peak my interests as I wondered what else it could be used for.
After the break we began doing an exercise in Rostrum animation which meant working with backgrounds transition much like how Disney did using the multi-plane camera many years ago before After Effects even existed.To begin we were shown how to begin the exercise and that this time the composition needed HDTV 720p rather than the previous version then Annabeth told us we'd be using one of the images in the documents we downloaded. The idea of Rostrum animation was that we would be moving over an image that was bigger than the window size which was used in background animation. The test image would be an illustration of Winnie the Pooh and to import the file it would be file and import then when the file is imported it would appear above the composition and we could drag it into the composition to begin the process. Looking at the dimensions the image would be bigger than the frame and it was zoomed right in.
This was making us think back to our perspective workshop about the window and the positioning, of the frame creating an animation for an illustrative and narrative story using limited animation this then clicked something in my mind it reminded me a lot about motion comic books that I look at on Youtube and wonder how they do it I therefore asked Annabeth for confirmation and it seemed I was correct so this made me download After Effects for my own mac to create my motion comics later on. We could also use this to create an image slideshow for all our work. When doing keyframes within the animations we needed to follow the rules of introducing a hold just like we learned with Animation 101 and have it four seconds along, and much like Maya we needed to animate the different key frames for different motions like the zooming out and zooming in of the beginning frame or proceeding down towards the characters.
This was much like the beginning of old disney films where it began with a story book opening and focusing on the first illustration of the book.
Whilst having a go at this I could see the appeal and how it could be applied to motion comics how they focus on either the page or separate frames in the page. However before I could consider this there was one thing that I needed to know and that was how to transition to the next frame or scene. Thankfully Annabeth was able to answer that question for the next stage of this animation. To begin we would be using an image of a background from the tv series Adventure time and with this landscape image Annabeth showed us that it was a good idea to have the current settings however every program has its limitations and in this case it would be the pixel size and it was limited to 10'000X10'000 pixels. To accomplish a fade transition we needed to change the out points of the layers so they would know when to be visible and this would be at the edge of the layer and would show an arrow allowing us to scroll it along to the end or start point, so that the last keyframe would be overlapped.
Annabeth mentioned that in premiere we could stack images against each other and use transition but here we wouldnt be using it. However to add a more ease transition we needed a second assest and this lied in the keyframes and in this instance it lied in the opacity of the adventure time layer. To accomplish this we selected the opacity area and switch on its stopwatch and alter it to zero and on the next keyframe it switched to 100 creating the cross fade effect of transition. We would then start scaling big towards the village and sometimes we needed to consider the logic of what we were doing and consider the positioning of the piece before doing this. The frame would start wide then on the scale option on the key frames the piece would then be moved slightly across to the village in the scene. We could add rotation if we wanted but I decided to keep this a simple transition animation but it was a very good example that Annabeth showed us, and may explore this at a later date. We could also add the easing trick to the animation which would add as Annabeth put it Finesse, and so I added this to the beginning and transition keyframes to make it run smooth.
When trying this I did run into some issues of focusing on the village as it didn't reach the village only the bridge so I tried repositioning the image and it did seem to help in terms of focusing on the village. Given the current composition it was telling a story so I decided to add an opening element of this animation and so I introduced the map from the file. I had to stack up the layers as it was to do with the layer order in this software and so I placed the image at the start of the animation. However when doing this I had an issue where it only showed one of the layers and couldn't play the animation or anything, so I sought Annabeth's opinion on this matter and she explained it was because I double clicked the layer and to exit this I double clicked again getting me back to the canvas. One other issue soon arose when I was introducing the beginning frame and it was the repositioning of the keyframes since the image frames were moved along the key frames went with them and given how many there were it was difficult to get them in place.
I consulted Annabeth on this matter and she suggested deleting these keyframes and introduce new ones to get things back in place in the animation. Thankfully this worked and the story went along smoothly. Whilst I was doing this Annabeth mentioned about an effect being added to the animation.
One example of this was a rain effect. The way this was done was by going into the effect option within the toolbar and then select simulation which would open an option of effects and the one that we wanted was CC Rainfall and this was selected and this created a blue screen element but when reordered in the frame count it would show the rain on the background.
I didn't pick up on this at first so I asked Annabeth to run through the process with me again and she was very kind to, and I applied this to my frames but focused on the Winnie the Pooh and Adventure time images since the map frame was the introduction element. This was then rendered in the render que, however with my focus on this I had forgotten how to render it so Annabeth reminded me and thankfully I didn't forget the settings on the render for the animation. See animation below:
A new layer was introduced but not before we named the layers as this would be curial when doing elements in After effects. We began to draw in clouds and I knew exactly what kind of brush to use and this was a textured brush which created the feathered effect within the clouds very nicely giving it a realistic effect.It was then time for the mountain element of the background and before applying it we were given some advice about doing them they had to maintain the same shapes when the mountains move otherwise it would look unstable, and wouldn't work as a movement in the rostrum animation. The order needed to be consistent and in my original piece I had a cloud in front of the mountain but for now Annabeth told me to have the clouds behind the mountains and whilst as an artist I argued against this if this was a requirement for the session I chose to follow.
To compensate on the next layer I included some green hills in front of the mountain layer and tried to keep the shapes the same even going back to the mountains and colouring them in or even making them more pointed triangles so that it would move more even against the background. Once the Photoshop element was complete this needed to be saved and then imported into After Effects. When importing a layered Photoshop file it needed to be set so that the layers would appear within the composition, and when importing a box would appear allowing us to alter the settings and set it to composition so that the layers would be included when imported.
 |
| settings for import. |
 |
| layers and functions |
 |
| effect option Distort - Offsetting |
 |
| offset settings |
End film:
Comments
Post a Comment