Backgrounds

One of the issues that I feel I faced within my short animation sample was that there was hardly any texture at all, especially within my backgrounds.

So I decided to experiment in Photoshop with photographic backgrounds and textures, to add more detail and depth to my work, and so that I could incorporate more advanced effects to these using After Effects.

These are two exterior backgrounds which I created using Photoshop. 

I made sure that all the photos I used to create these were under creative commons licensing, so that I was free to use and alter these as I wish within my work.

In the first image, I have used the tower adapted from my own hand drawings. I also have left the sky in both of these images blank so that I can switch between day and night, and also different weathers if I wish to.

These interior backgrounds were also  adapted from my own hand drawings and created using Photoshop. 

Again, I made sure that all the photos I used to create these were under creative commons licensing, so that I was free to use and alter these as I wish within my work.

I have also again left parts of these backgrounds blank so that I can insert different elements into them when I need to.

Although these images look fairly basic for now, I hope that once I come to adding in effects and detail in After Effects, that they will look more professional and creative.

I have created all of these backgrounds so that they can be used repeatedly in different scenes, so that I am able to progress more easily in my animation.

Character Rigging in After Effects

After watching a few After Effects tutorials on Youtube, it became clear that a useful way to help animate my characters would be to use character rigging, or body rigging. 
This means that parts of their body would be joined together, and so move together, to create sort of hinged joints.
I used this Youtube tutorial to help me with my work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4dT4ibEhHM 

After managing to overcome problems in Illustrator, I was able to trace one of my character drawings, but drawing each part of her onto its own layer. This was only a rough drawing as it was my first time experimenting with body rigging.

Because I had drawn the different part of my character's body on separate layers in Illustrator, I was able to import the file into After Effects and have the layers and body parts still separate. 

I used the pan-behind tool to change the position of each part's anchor points, so that they would later be able to rotate around that point.

I then used the parenting tool to link together the relevant body parts, for example the foot to the lower leg, the lower leg to the upper leg etc.

Then, by changing the degree of rotation on a certain body part, I was able to make the body parts linked to it move as well.

This method of character rigging/body rigging was extremely useful to learn, and one that will save me a lot of time when it comes to animating my characters in an effective way.

Clouds Moving

Another experiment I decided to do in After Effects was to follow a tutorial on how to make clouds seem to move across the sky (http://vimeo.com/6834205)

I split an image in half using Photoshop and copied these pieces onto two separate layers in After Effects.

Then, by moving the anchor point and using skew and transition keyframes, I was able to create the movement of cloud moving across the sky.

Matte and Text Layers in After Effects

Once I had got used to the basics of how After Effects works, I went about the task of creating a mask and text layer.

I used three layers within this experiment, the first of a background layer.
I then created a second layer, which would be the matte. I used a pink rectangle and altered some of the properties for this.
Then I added a text layer, and some animated intro and blur effects.

I feel that this experiment helped me to improve my skills in flash, and become more used to the organisations of keyframes, transitions and animated effects.

First Practice in After Effects

I had never used After Effects before so in order to get to grips with some of it's basics I decided to just play around and experiment with the program.

I started with simply a background and an animal image, this one of a dog, and then worked how to use keyframes and certain simple effects.

I'm still not entirely certain what I was doing with all these effects and properties, but I feel that this first practice experiment was very useful in getting used to how After Effects works..

Animation Sample for First Assessment.

Here is my final short animation sample which I will use towards my first assessment:

Animated Scene in Flash - Tower

I decided to create one more short animated sequence for my animation sample first assessment.

I chose to animate a short clip of Rapunzel's tower, to give variation to my animation sample, as it had only shown interior settings so far, and so showing an exterior setting would give it more variety.

I used a scan of one of my hand drawings of the tower, edited it into a clear JPEG file using Photoshop, and then imported it into Flash.

I edited the image in Flash, and then converted it into a symbol. I then used a motion tween to create a zooming in animation on the tower. 

This is how my sequence of zooming in on Rapunzel's tower turned out: