Rationale

This self-directed motion design project explores 2.5D and secondary motion in the context of a fantasy UI design with a sci-fi feel. The animation depicts a story that revolves around space travel. The audience travels through each planet at light speed to acquire significant data on each world.

The first clip depicts an introductory sequence with the project’s title “Space Adventures.” The first sequence depicts an interface launching at hyper-speed to various planets. When the fantasy UI is launched, it will appear more high-tech, creating a dramatic contrast. One motif that will be noticed throughout the animation is the utilisation of circles, which will be apparent in the planets and UI interfaces. These are frequently in the form of spheres, aided by lighting, effects, and secondary motion, and enabled by the 3D layer function to meet the 2.5D goal. The HUD animation is a great example of this; it sets the mood and gives the spectator a sense of engagement by breaking the fourth wall. The HUD animation is a great illustration of this. The UI’s cold tone palette of aqua and white with a dash of blue is another nod to the science fiction genre. To visually depict a sci-fi vibe, these colours are then applied with a glow effect over dark backgrounds. The hyper-speed scene, which opens and closes the sequence, serves as a gate to all of these planets. This effectively summarises the animation’s whole story. VC Orb, a powerful new After Effects plug-in for creating detailed 3D spheres and planets, was also used. Forms formed using the 3D layer function are used throughout the animation to help achieve the 2.5D goal, as well as lighting, effects, and secondary motion.

self-directed animation project

Learning Opportunities

In the technical aspect, the idea of working within the same layer was revolutionary. This enabled the direct designing of each interface, rather than separately in separate compositions, as well as allowing multiple lines to be animated in this scene, with the same motion succinctly in one layer. The use of pre-comp was similar in this regard and has proved its worth with efficiently animating the HUD sequence. These facets required to be animated as a whole unit rather than individually.

The usage of effects was essential to achieve a sci-fi style. Its use has demonstrated the significance of layering certain effects in a specific order. The use of expressions has helped me to improve my understanding of the programme. Looping, typically in rotation, basic linear movement, and changing opacity for a blinking motion were all examples of simple animations. There were other phrases for generating random numbers and text to simulate the analysis of coded data.

In hindsight, the project’s conclusion was the research of 2.5D and secondary motion. It could have also added additional small background pieces, according to some. However, I cut it out due to concerns about overloading the viewer’s senses and distracting attention away from the story, as well as a practical concern about my device’s ability to handle such a feat. Bien Kiel’s concept that “the blueprint doesn’t lay everything out,” thus “things have to suit the spirit of the plan, but they don’t have to rigidly conform” accommodates this detour from the original concept (ed. 2011, p. 182).

Overall, working on motion design for a sci-fi UI proved to be a good challenge for honing technical skills. But, similar to Oliver Latta’s animations, a future endeavour to develop on these parts would be to use them to explore texture.

As Rudy VanderLans have said (ed. 2011, p. 177):

“There’s no shortcut to getting from recognising good design to actually making it. It requires practice, and it requires a lot of editing, and you get better at it over time. If you’re lucky, you’ll never really get there, because if you do, you’re probably not challenging yourself.”

Critical moments / Design decisons

Because of the large amount of memory/pixels required, the planets’ components were difficult to design. One of the interfaces kept generating an error code because the buffer was bigger than 30000 pixels, which was unexpected. Furthermore, the file continued failing to render for numerous proofs in Adobe Media Encoder (AME), making it difficult to re-watch various parts of the animation. However, I overcome this problem by using AME to convert the file to a smaller format, such as a YouTube 480 Sd video (standard definition). Instead of waiting hours for a full resolution render, I was able to get a quick render to test various areas before committing to a final design.

As I previously stated, for each animation piece in the clip, I experimented with different features of the software. Experimenting with the temporal dimensions of my animation and considering how they may affect the final output was the most difficult task for me. This, I believe, was my most valuable learning experience and most successful application of the clip’s timeline. Furthermore, I found it tough to get used to the lighting and 3D features of this project at first, but after some practise, I was able to do so.

Final Project

References

Meet The Artist Behind These Viral 3D Animations. (2019). YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5QEQ3YDcS8 [Accessed 5 May 2020].

Lupton, E (ed.) 2011, Graphic Design Thinking : Beyond Brainstorming, Princeton Architectural Press, New York.