Animation Project, Inspiration and Ideas.

Last week we started our Animation section of this module, our task is this; create a 30 second animation using moving 2 dimensional figures. So I thought I’d post some of the work I have done so far along with the inspirations for the animation I’m trying to create.

I started off searching sites like YouTube looking for 2D animations made with  Adobe After Effects, so that I could see I how other people have used the software and what could be done with it by people that have experience. During this I found some professionally produced advertisements created entirely from After Effects, yet they look so seamless and perfect.

This work is really impressive, and even though it’s far beyond what I could hope to achieve at this stage, it is a good example of what the programme can do if used right.

Another animation that I found that ended up being the main inspiration for my project is this animation by another YouTube user called ‘Awakening from Dusk’

I really liked the Colours used and the silhouette effect. And also the use of the puppet tool to animate the hair and clothes to look as though they were blowing in the wind. This made the animation feel more cinematic, rather than completely still figures sliding across the screen. I also liked the use of the buildings in the foreground and background to create a 3D panning effect,  hopefully I can master this effect for my own animation.

From the start I knew I would rather use an alternative means to make my character than use the pictures we took in the first lesson. I decided to base my main character image on the character Raziel from the game Soul Reaver: The Legacy of Kain. 

As I was drawing the figure, I noticed that it was also similar to a character called Kakashi, from the anime Naruto;

These are the initial black and white drawings for the character where you can see these influences.

My next steps will be to colour in the images, and then separate them into layers for animation using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. I will also need to find objects that can be moved in the background and foreground relevant to the surrounding, E.G. Trees for a forest, buildings for a city etc.