Saturday, 19 December 2009

After effects: work in progress

This is a bit late but here is the results of some experiments in After Effects. For these clips I have five seconds to comunicate my word (fold). The actual word must be used, with no sounds and limited colours. I'm having more fun than I thought I would learning the program, its not exactly easy but I like the logical way it works. The potential of what is possible to create in this program is actually far greater than I thought at first.

So then, here are some testers I have put up on youtube.com


















None of these I consider finished, a couple I will work on to improve, but others I will look again at the concept and re think. Its interesting that getting the timing right can take just as long as getting the movements right on some of these. I did attempt to plan a timeline but I found that timings I thought would work were far from the reality of the pace I needed. I have found it far better to just experiment live in the program to get timings of movements looking good.

5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Very impressive, Paul. There's a real good sense of 3D in these, especially with the lighting and camera angles. You say you're still going to tweak a few; definitely carry on with 2 and 4, the 'fold' is literal and works well in the time space. Though 3 is a great effect, too. The criticism I have would be with the lack of other posts and visible development.

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  3. All four video's appear to meet the requirements of the brief. The later three communicate the word "fold" much more successfully than the first video. The lighting and camera, like Ian mentioned, work really well to give an impression of depth, which is probably quite important for your word. If you still wanted to work on the video's you could try and use a range of different paces in the folds. Nice work, :)

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  4. Thanks guys, only just seen the comments (no internet) I have had another play with them over xmas, just really to learn the program better. I still need to get that develpment up as well, thanks Ian.

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  5. Video 01:

    In my opinion this video falls down through the concept not being conveyed clear enough to the viewer. Having said that use of scale is effective in giving a sense of depth along the Z axis. What you have produced would work really well for the stimulus of Rotate or Reflect...?

    Video 02:

    This video I really, really like. The way that the letter forms 'fold' accurately respond to your given theme and work well in terms of providing an illusionary 3d environment. My only nag would be that you can see where the letters are going to fold before the video has started... it would have been slick to have seen just a solid black mass. Other than that, camera angles could possibly improve the interactive elements for the eye (not that I experimented with these). Oh and to be picky again, I would have loved for the final frame to have shown a shape that had a meaning. I.e another letter form or icon?

    Video 03:

    This video is brilliant, possibly my favourite. I don't know how it is done as yet... which is the magic of things such as this, but I really like the lighting effects and the way the red section folds like a consortina booklet. Could perhaps rotate the camera around to the sides to explore what is possible from here. Answers the brief directly, love it.

    Video 04:

    This video conveys the word fold extremely effectively and therefore answers the brief without question. As with the 2nd video though, I would have liked to have seen the final frame show something with meaning, but that is just being picky. Overall, every element works together and the video is fluid with little weakness or room for improvement.

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