After weeks of hard work here it is my After Effects project.
Cat Fancy from Caitlin Lundin on Vimeo.
I'm very pleased with my project. I had fun with it and have always wanted to do an animated piece with construction paper. When I first put the animation together it was 30 seconds long and was far too rushed. That has always been a problem of mine, but I was able to slow it down to give each section the time it deserves. It was hard work for me to figure out the best timing, but overall I'm pleased. There are places that may benefit from a little more time of them but it was a tough call for me. I had some trouble with making movements look natural. There are some parts where the cat moves his head and it looks like something is just moving from one keypoint to the other. The are some things that I like like the wagging of his tail and the turning of his head and eyes. I'm glad I completed the project the way that I did. Definitely learned alot.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Final Stages
Construction Paper pieces were separated on to individual Photoshop layers so that they could be animated individually in After Effects.
Other than the common keys for things like position, scale and rotation I did a few other techniques. I made each piece 3-d so that I could use a camera to navigate in between the scenes. Parenting was also a technique that I used frequently in order to make the cat or other elements move together since everything was built on it's own layer but had to create one creature. I used puppet pins as well to create fluid motion in the stiff paper parts that weren't suited for multiple layer construction.
Sound has to be added next which is one of my favorite parts because it gives the piece so much life. I'm going to look the the sound catalogue and get me some good sounds. I'll export the completed project from After Effects with no sound. From there, I'll take the .mov file into Final Cut Pro to add the layers of sound.
Other than the common keys for things like position, scale and rotation I did a few other techniques. I made each piece 3-d so that I could use a camera to navigate in between the scenes. Parenting was also a technique that I used frequently in order to make the cat or other elements move together since everything was built on it's own layer but had to create one creature. I used puppet pins as well to create fluid motion in the stiff paper parts that weren't suited for multiple layer construction.
Sound has to be added next which is one of my favorite parts because it gives the piece so much life. I'm going to look the the sound catalogue and get me some good sounds. I'll export the completed project from After Effects with no sound. From there, I'll take the .mov file into Final Cut Pro to add the layers of sound.
Progress on the Project
The story changed. I wasn't pleased with what I was able to come up with in the Amelia Bedilia like story. I moved to the dreams of a sleeping cat. It'll be a short piece but it will be a complete story which is what I want.
Having an incredibly busy end of semester, I have neglected the blog. This was the progress for November 20-26. I know that it is recommended to be in After Effects at this time, but planning these out and constructing them was a time commitment as well.
I cut out the pieces of construction paper and assembled them the to the amount of completion that I thought would work best in After Effects. For example I built the cat head separate from the body so that I could put them on different layers and animate them individually.
Here are the rough scans of the construction pieces. I'm really pleased with the look of the scans. It's cool to be able to see the grain of the paper and the shadow of the edge of the paper.
Having an incredibly busy end of semester, I have neglected the blog. This was the progress for November 20-26. I know that it is recommended to be in After Effects at this time, but planning these out and constructing them was a time commitment as well.
I cut out the pieces of construction paper and assembled them the to the amount of completion that I thought would work best in After Effects. For example I built the cat head separate from the body so that I could put them on different layers and animate them individually.
Here are the rough scans of the construction pieces. I'm really pleased with the look of the scans. It's cool to be able to see the grain of the paper and the shadow of the edge of the paper.
It was fun cutting these pieces out. Some of them had to have parts touched up in photoshop just to give it a little extra and have it stand out. I also cut out letters for the credits.
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