Since starting this Assignment, I have appreciated how all the fundamentals of animation are used to create works, like in ads or in TV shows. My design process has been one of trial and error, and just discovering new things and workarounds as they come up.
As a result, my first After Effects work, called ‘Transition’ was scrapped after I did not find a cohesive theme or design to latch on to. My first work was about exploring the principles of animation and the transitions that I could do between them, but I also neglected to take care in the Design quality and themes.
My current AE document ‘Coral Sea’ is all about exploring wave forms in motion. The three starting waves are a good example of this, but I also use it for moving the tiny shapes around by giving them a wavelength effect. The wave effect is a good example of squash and stretch, one of the 12 Principles of Animation. It gives the illusion of an ocean by squashing and stretching what was originally a straight line. My project also aims to explore colours in a gradient and the wavelengths of objects. I have a more cohesive colour scheme of pinks and blue/green that fit well with the design theme of ‘coral sea’. I utilised this concept by adding small shapes and putting wavelength effects on them, to simplify deep sea creatures and adding enough movement to make it feel like small organic life was moving.
My challenge was showing the illusion of motion with the three waves. By just adding a wavelength effect on a stroke, I was not able to simulate movement of the sea and it just felt like lines going up and down. To make the motion better, I changed the position so that the stroke went from right to left while doing the wavelength effect, and it looked much better.
I went through the 7-step design process while making this. For ‘Transition’, I did no prior research and instead relied on messing around in AE to produce something for this assignment. My only goal was to focus on how I could utilise AE and what effects I could produce with my limited knowledge. Transition ended up being a prototype for Coral Sea, which I had a better approach to and did a moodboard for it before starting on it. I learned from Transition and implemented a better design aesthetic and theme this time around.
In the UK Double Diamond Model of discover, define, develop and deliver, I alternated between discovering what After Effects can do and defining my project the second time around with Coral Sea. I am getting around to developing the final product.
My AE Coral Sea work as a whole is meant to be a simple but artistic representation of the beauty of the sea. Using ideas like wavelengths and gradients, I feel that my process for this project is solid.
Amely Koenig's Blog and Art 