Assignment 1: MOTION DESIGN Experiments Lily Hall n11349361

For the inspiration, the youtube tutorial allowed me to think of the idea of shape morphing. I thought that it was a very interesting and fun idea which would look great if I can add more movement to the shape. The images inspired me because I wanted grainy textures for the shadows of the shape and the first image inspired me to have very fine grains.

For the first experiment I wanted to make warping shapes, which had lots of movements and distorted shapes to portray exaggerate movement. When I drew the storyboard, I planned the direction and shapes which I chose to warp and where the shapes would travel through out the animation. Where one of the important aspects of animation was for "...viewers to anticipate events and their outcome."(Furniss, 2014, p.96). This was the first time I used After Effects a, and I met barriers with my skills with the program but I was able to make myself learn the techniques through the tutorials and online research. I make a circle shape warping into a square then making the square travel out frame and into frame to create interest. During the process I had to adjust the shape of the objects and it's speed very carefully because if it is too exaggerated it looked unnatural, but if there was not enough movement it didn't look interesting.

Final Animation

Experiment 2: Kinetic typography

For my inspirations, I was inspired by the music video 'The Baddest' by K/DA(League of Legends), with the movement and distortion of the texts. I though the movements were very interesting and how there was excitement and anticipation to all the motions.

I wanted to achieve a more simplified version which would show similar aesthetics. At the start I had obstacles in creating the storyboard as my skills were limited and I did not know what I could create so I only set a very broad guideline on the aesthetic and the kind of movement I wanted then I added to it on the go as I learned in the tutorials and from research online after I knew what I was capable of creating. I did not use a wide variety of texts, but just the text 'Hello' , which I would add visual interest by changing the colours and making distorting or extension effects.

Final Animation

Experiment 3: Infographics and data visualisation

For this experiment, I was more inspired by the minimalistic and business-like infographics which wouldn't have too much movement and colour palettes. I like this aesthetic as even though there isn't too much vibrance or elements on the page, the layout and aesthetics creates a whole mood which is elegant.

I wanted to achieve something which looked minimalistic but not simple, and sophisticated enough but not too serious. with the storyboard I mainly planned the camera movement and the information which would be shown in each frame. I wanted to have as less text as possible to achieve the very minimalistic look, and emphasise the movement on the graphs more to create visual interest. After research online and learning in the tutorials I acquired skills to create graphs and camera movements to create the aesthetics which I wanted. During the process I created each graphs separately and combined them into one composition so I could more easily create the camera movement and nulls. The camera movement is quite simple and straightforward but I had to make adjustments to the speed of the overall design so it didn't feel too rushed or too slow paced. Furthermore, how long each element stays on screen is very important in animation, (Timing for animation, 2021) where I had to adjust how long the text and the graph panned away so that the viewer doesn't feel rushed.

Final Animation

EXPERIMENT 04: CHARACTER ANIMATION

For this experiment, I was inspired by the cute cartoonish characters I found during my research and the cute motion designs by other artists. Also I really liked the refreshing aesthetics from some of the images which I wanted to incorporate into my design. I chose this because I liked the cute and bubbly aesthetics and I could work better with colour if I had more simple characters.

For the process, I already had a character design from my experience in illustration, and I had to think of a medium to transfer that design into after effects. With research of possible directions, I chose to draw my character in procreate and make that a photoshop file then transferring that onto after effects. I wanted to create a very bright and vibrant aesthetic, but within my skill limits. With the storyboard I planned to just have some movements on the head and limb, which would emphasise the mood in a simple way. Also, at the beginning I didn't have plans to had any sounds in this animation but as highlighted by Maureen Furniss, "It is common for beginners to be enamoured with the visual components of animation and give very little attention to the soundtrack." (Furniss, 2014, p.83). I took notice of this and I added soundtracks to other animations as well, which enhanced the motion design as the visual and sound worked together to create a whole aesthetic.

Final Animation

Experiment 5: iLLUSTRATIVE MOTION DESIGN