Module 7: Advanced Motion

READING & WRITING

Chapter 11 in Liz Blazer’s Animated Storytelling goes into a lot of detail about how to market your project. I found all of the steps to package up a project very familiar, especially since my job invlved marketing and creating assets for a Broadway show. Although this chapter is more focused on releasing a film and the steps needed to get your film out to the public including the festival or youtube route (Blazer, 197), a lot of the tips can be applied to any medium of storytelling.

One of Blazer’s most important points comes across when she says, “the internet has become crucial for filmmakers looking to get their work seen” (Blazer, 198). The internet is crucial to get any project to get seen by all audiences, no matter what the demographic. I also enjoyed reading the teaser section because building an audience with small teasers, snippets, and previews can increase engagement and anticipation (Blazer, 201).

Blazer, L. (2020). Animated storytelling. Peachpit Press.

Personal Reflection:

I really enjoyed this class and was probably most excited about this class when I started this program. I have no experience with animation so all programs at the beginning were very foreign and it took me a very long time to get familliar with the programs. By the end, I got much more familiar with AfterEffects. There was a big difference in figuring out key framing from the beginning of the class to the end and utilizing many different masks, shapes, and filters.

After filming the stop motion project, I realized that I enjoy the post production experience much more than the production experience. Although I love performing, I’m not sure I love the logistics of filming (continuity was very challenging). However, I loved the editing process and it was really enjoyable to coordinate the timing of the music to the animation. Finding music and sound effects was one of my favorite parts of the class and I look forward to exploring more audio classes and video classes.

RESEARCH TO INFORM

I love the way this Shopify ad uses kinetic text. It really helps convey the message and the juxtaposition of the animated sketches with the real photos gives it a fun tone.

I think this animation involves many layers, kinetic text, and expressive animation to create a guide for kids. All of the art is really stylized, consistent, and is animated in a creative way when it moves from scene to scene.

This video uses a lot of animation techniques such as anticipation. The complex color sequences use advanced animation with many layers to create the full screen multicolored animation.

This animation is an advanced overlay technique in After effects. I would love to learn how to create this on AfterEffects. After this class, I will continue to research this type of overlay to explore more AfterEffects projects.

CREATE

My advanced animation final project is a “how to” video on calming your mind with breathing. I have a family member who often deals with anxiety and panic attacks and I wanted to create something that they could listen to and visually focus on when experiencing anxiety. All of the animations are focused on slowing your breath since a symptom of anxiety is increased shallow breathing. I also created many visual effects to help the viewer focus on calming visual elements instead of their overwhelming thoughts.

I used many scaling key frames to emulate slow breathing and timed it out with the words. I created a voice over of inhaling and exhaling and timed it out with the words and visuals. I also created a kaleidoscope effect, turbulent displacement to imitate a bubble, adjusted the lighting, and utilized the wave effect to create an underwater scene. The most challenging part was the timing and customizing the kaleidoscope effect. In the end, I really enjoyed working on this project. Although sometimes tedious, the relaxing water content and recording the breath voice overs forced me to relax as I refined and tested the meditation video.