I have really enjoyed this module, i have found it fun and exciting, but also very challanging as i had never used Adobe after effects before, my skills in the programme are still basic but i feel that i am slowly learning the programme and understanding the world of animation. i am very pleased with my final animation as its just what i was working towards, i feel it fits my music as well. my aim for my animation was purley simplicity and i feel i have archived this in my 30 seconds. 

My Final Animation

 Animation

About

About my animation, i based my animation on my three words about my music happy, relaxed and simple, i wanted to create an animation purely using adobe after effects so learn and develop my skills in the programme and to create a smooth flowing 30 second animation. 

when listening to my music it felt like you were on a journey so i wanted to replicate this in the imagery, my animation its self is a simple design but i feel its effective. 
i decided to go with a colour scheme of white, black and red as they are powerful colours and i feel the colours together work very well, my animation is a journey, a little ball falling and following a line to get to its destination, rolling up hill and down to the music and changing in scale, eventually the ball coming to end falling off a platform as he goes to fast and cant stop hitting another platform bouncing back and exploding to finally end my 30 second animation, by doing this hoped to create a interesting outcome that even if the music wasn't there you would be able to see a change in tone and pitch so a visual to music, a form of sound waves.

Development

Here is my development progress and the steps i went thorough in after effects to create my animation, i will talk you thought the steps, so you will be able to see how i created my 30 second animation 

I started by opening Adobe After Effects CS5

opening a new composition 

here is my blank composition 

to animate a line layer > new> solid 

here is the new layer i just made, i will now reduce the opacity so to 0% 

adding text, i simply just used the text tool to get mt text to appear in the composition 

now using the pen tool i followed the outline of the text, then putting the opacity back up to 100% 

this is a new layer to create my line in my first shot, the rule layer> new> solid and simply using the pen tool again i drew a straight line then to animate the line using the timer 'end' 0% move up your scale then back to 100% 

positioning my key frames in the correct places to give me the right timings and look 

putting the ball into the animation layer > new > null object 

i selected the colour then drew the shape of the ball, holding the shift key to get a perfect ball 

and there it is :) i positioned the ball over the o in Rob 

i then removed the o in Rob so that when the ball drops it looks like the red ball is the o 

testing the animation so far to see if it fits and paying with my keyframes

playing with scale

using the same technique i made more lines and made the ball follow it, i did this by simply just usoing the position tap and dragging the ball in the direction i wanted

tweeking the ball so that follows the line but also messing with the scale of the ball to add effect 

Working Progress

here is my animation in working progress, so far i am very happy with how its looking, it still needs work but its a case of working out after effects which is challenging

Test's

Ball & Line Test 

 

here is a little test i did on after effects to see how i would get a ball to drop on to a line

Playing with Line 

another test on a line animation 

Square 

following the other line test i then did one but with 90 degree angles

for any line i made and created i just followed a simple pattern on after effects....

animating a line? 

 layer > new> solid 

reduce opacity 

draw line, put opicity up 

effect > generate > stroke 

change colour, stroke width if needed 

select on transparent 

set keyframes 'end' at 0% then more the slider in the timeline 

and set to 100% where you want it to end... 

then its just a case of playing around with timings to get the correct speed of the line transformation 

After Effects

1

 This is the first time have used after effects, I'm still getting to grips with it but looking forward to developing and playing around to create some animations.
2


3


these three little animation were all made using Adobe after effects in workshop sessions, it was our brief introduction in to using the animation software, i helped me loads learning the basics of after effects an was a starting point for my project

Ideas!

Bits of research 

Rayograms

A Rayogram is a photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a photo-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. The result is a negative shadow image varying in tone, depending on the transparency of the objects used. Areas of the paper that have received no light appear white, those exposed through transparent or semi-transparent objects appear grey.

Test Strip 2,4,6,8,10 seconds 

I exposed the this at 15 seconds 

This was created by have my light timer set to 2 seconds, i started off with the scissors closed an slowley opened them up after every 2 second exposier

This is a very similer rayograham in the sence i used the same method but just rotated the scissors 

simple 12 second 

Here i developed my picture by painting on the developer using a paint brush, i love the outcome of this rayogram 

These 3 are a set, the chain, paper clips and broken glass, all exposed at 20 seconds 

Playing around with the developer, splashing on to see the effect i got, i like the outconme but its not 100% clear 

Movement, 2 seconds each, in total 14 seconds 

Painting on developer where my focus was 

keyhole, key and lock, a set the each other