My project, ‘Coral Sea’, has been finalised and completed. I will be assessing the project outcomes to see if it was a good choice.
For overall outcomes, I thought the technical proficiency was moderate. I didn’t try anything particularity complicated, it was just a refinement of the basic points in After Effects, using the transform tool, timing and stroke options.
Most of my motion design fundamentals that I used were zooming in and out. As well as using waves to convey a sense of movement.
I am very happy with my aesthetic outcomes. The gradient colour palette worked really well for a coral aesthetic and the contrasting colours gave it life.
The first critical moment for me was when I experimented with the exploding star in ‘Transition’. That was the point when I realised that I should have more confidence in my After Effects knowledge and pushed me to explore a little further. Using very fast keyframes and transform abilities opened the possibilities for me.
The second moment was when I scrapped my ‘Transition’ Project and started ‘Coral Sea’. I really liked the transitions I used for my first work, but unfortunately it was a little bland and had no cohesive design in it. It was me shifting from using my technical skills in a draft piece, to focus on the design of the real piece, which was always on the forefront when creating ‘Coral Sea’, unlike the ‘Transition’ piece which was hastily cobbled together.
My third critical moment was making the 3-wave pattern in ‘Coral Sea’. After trying for an hour to make the wave look like it is moving and not just going up and down, I made it look smooth. This boosted my confidence in the rest of the piece because I was able to get it down on a technical and artistic level.
As for looking towards the future, I am thinking of distinct styles of opening credits, like the two colours and transitions of Harrow, or a storybook design. I would be very interested to see if I could recreate the Harrow opening in After Effects, or maybe make use of that inspiration to make a new project. The transitions drew me in and was pulled off very well.
The other I want to try out is storybook style introduction or narrative. A complex example of this would be the Kung Fu Panda 2 Opening, where they use drawing still frames to give a storybook feel.
A simpler version, is this fan made video on Youtube, ‘Dovepaw- Rolling Thunder‘ where they use still frame drawings, giving the appearance of a storybook, plus they combine the video with lyrics and other effects.
This gives me an idea of creating my own PMV (Picture Music Video) on either an original topic or a fanbase I am into. I would have to probably make the drawings be rough sketches, as it would take a lot of time to storyboard and organise all the components, more so than trying a Harrow inspired opening.
Still divided on what path to take, but both are interesting to me in different ways.
Amely Koenig's Blog and Art 