I got a reply from Wolfhound Media about working on one of their unfinished shorts, asking if I would be interested in it.
Since I’ve started creating assets for my own short and the deadlines are in February mostly, I’m conflicted. Also, I have pretty little experience in VFX and don’t want to waste their time, that being said, I think I’ll maybe give it a go.
This is the result of following the tutorials cited below which taught you how to use the puppet tool to rig in after effects. Exactly what I learnt from those tutorials is detailed in the previous post “Character Rigging”.
I figured this would be a useful skill to have, and also it seemed pretty fun to do as well.
Things Learnt:
Illustrator
hold alt and drag on a layer and it will duplicate it
when moving shapes to different layers > select the shape > click and drag the dot in the layer panel up to the new layer
My Character
After Effects
Import the illustrator file as a composition
Use the pan button to move the anchor points from the centre of the screen to the bending points on the character e.g. for the arm, place the anchor point at the shoulder
Pick-whip the various body parts the the appropriate parents, e.g. the head is parented to the body, the hair is parented to the head etc
Parent the body (which everything is ultimately what every limb is connected to) to a null object so then you can scale the body via the null. If you don’t use the null to scale, then every limb scales proportionally to itself and not in relation to the character overall
Puppet Tool : simply click the pin icon and then click along the centre of the image to add the pins where the character should bend. Recommended expansion is 2 and triangles is 450.
Animation wise, have the “puppet” label selected down in the composition tab, and then simply move the pins into the required position and it will automatically key them
Parallax : make all layers 3d > create a camera with depth of field enabled > create a null object and parent the camera to it (use the null object to move the camera) > simply play about with the depth of field & aperture settings in the camera until you’re happy with the results
In order to apply for the Motion Graphics post, I need to update my website.
However, since my website has mostly modelling and VFX on it, I figured it’d be best to just set up another motion graphics specific one.
Hence, I researched some other motion graphic sites, to see what was the typical format. I picked one independent artist and the other was a motion graphics company.
Notes:
All one page
Still has contact specific page anyway
Portfolio page
About me page
Contact info is at both top and bottom along with social media
Aisling posted about the opportunity to work with Wolf Hound Creative on a short film.
I applied for that today and so we’ll see how it goes.
I spent the last two weeks building up a body of VFX work and updating my website and LinkedIn, so hopefully that will count for something.
There’s another position at MCS with After Effects that I’m going to go for and the closing date for that is the 27th, so hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze some more work in for then.
Essentially all elements are created in Illustrator and then brought into AE
Use one of the colour schemes to create a good palette for your creation
Use the pathfinder to create quick shadows by duplicating the layer > offset it > select both layers and use the appropriate pathfinder button to trim the excess > darken the lower layer
All limbs should be on different layers for animating
In AE import the assets as different comps
For the koala comp I then rotated the limbs to make it appear it was climbing the try and then I moved the position of the background
Add an adjustment layer > drop on turbulent displace > increase complexity > decrease size – when your happy that’s the sketchy appearance created
Create the map assets in Illustrator using separate layers for the separate items e.g. boat and land etc.
You should have 3 different illustrator files. The map, a file (the same dimensions as the map) but sliced into 5 different segments and a file with the leaflet at the end
Import the compositions (retaining layer sizes) into After Effects
First work on the comp with the slices. Parent each slice as follows; 5 is parented to 4, 4 to 3 etc. Then move the anchor points of each slice so they are on the edge of the slice joining it to the one on the right, however, 5’s anchor point is to the left
Make the layers 3D > go into top view > key the position of the layers and the rotation > move forward a few frames > use the y rotation on each layer to fold the map
Add a spot light off to the side to add shadow to the crease and an ambient light for the entire comp to light the shadows. Then lower the intensity, as it creates a white spot.
Go to the map comp and animate the boat by simply changing it’s position, I then added a wiggle expression to the rotation. Expression: wiggle(per second, degrees) I then played about with the values until I was happy with the result
Bring map comp into slices comp. Bring it below slice 1 (should be the bottom layer) > make map 3D > change track matte to Alpha Matte (map should then appear on slice 1)> parent map to slice 1. Repeat for remaining 4 layers ensuring the map layer is beneath the corresponding slice
Have the layer selected and double click the rectangle tool, if you then want to perfectly cut it in half diagonally then click off the shape. Then click on the shape again, select a corner and press delete (or backspace)
Creating 3D Precomp
With the plane created, you precompose the layers and move all attributes > then with the precomp created collapse transformations & make the precomp 3D
Using what I learnt by watching the map tutorial I was able to trim a path that looks like skywriting.
I feathered out the text which I created in Illustrator to make more fluffy.
