Igniting a Flame :)
I did not think I was going to like Adobe After Effects... I love creating vectors, but I've just never thought of myself as an animation type of girl. Well, I was wrong, because I ended up really enjoying animation! Yes, there were several times where I wanted to throw my computer out the window, but the end products are just so rewarding. So, I will continue to work with animation.
Concept & Objectives
The goal was to create an animation with the following requirements:
1. must look good as a still
2. must have movement (more than just fading in and out)
3. must loop
4. must contain at least one pre-comp
5. must be at least 30 seconds exported (looped or full animation)
I decided I would use my icon set to make a map of a zoo (see the sketch below,) but I just didn't love that idea. I didn't really want to create a brand new scene, either, but... that's what I ended up doing!
I chose to do my animation based on a scene I saw at a mountain lake after a long hike. I have sketched this scene before because it means a lot to me (see sketch below.) I love this memory and nature, so I decided to remake some assets in order to create something I was really excited about. (On the bright side, I've gotten way better at Illustrator, so creating the assets was much quicker!)
Sketches
The first image is my sketch for the zoo idea. I planned to have pawprints go around the path, and the various animals would appear when the pawprints got to them.
The second image is the mountain scene I sketched last winter. It is based off a mountain lake called Moose Lake (see the photograph.) I used both my sketch and the photograph as inspiration for my animation.
Vector and Animation Drafts
I had two main vector drafts for my assets. The first image has a tangent between the mountain and the tree. Plus, the stars are more unrealistic. I have also included the animation based on these assets.
In the second image, I added a Gaussian Blur to the stars, and I moved the trees to eliminate tangents.
Incorporating Feedback
I received feedback on my first animation to use a path for the shooting stars to make them more realistic, and I was encouraged to eliminate pointed stars. Plus, my fire needed some work, and I had some tangents between the trees and mountains.
Instead of using a path to make the shooting stars quicker, I ended up putting the keyframes much closer together. I think this created close to the same effect. I also added blurs to my stars to get rid of the points. I tried using the puppet pin tool to move the fire, but it just looked weird, so I ended up changing the opacity and scale. And, I moved the trees to get rid of tangents.
Final Animation
Here is my final animation! In the future, I would like to add a fish jumping. I think it would be cool to also incorporate a slight breeze that would create ripples in the lake and movement in the trees, smoke, sparks, and flames.
A Few Lines Defending My Animation...
Vectors: I believe my animation looks good as a stand still. I used subtle gradients, and I got rid of tangents.
Movement: My animation does have several points of movement. The flames grow and shrink, the smoke moves upward, and the shooting stars change position. Plus, the opacities change as well.
Loop: I used the "Loop Out" feature.
Pre-Comp: Honestly, I still don't really understand the benefit of a pre-comp, so I don't think I utilized it. I did pre-compose my stars, shooting stars, flames, etc., but I did it at the end, so I don't think it did anything. It's something I can continue to learn about.
30 Seconds: My animation is 30 seconds long.
