Here I am just going to give my general thoughts on each piece and look back on how I have progressed in regards to gaining confidence with after effects.

Animation 1

My first animation, in which I made many silly mistakes which I would correct in hindsight. When I made this, I didn’t even know what importing a composition meant, which resulted in my saving twelve different illustrator files for the twelve different letters of the logo.

Also, while I think the swordfish looks good, looking back I would have used different layers as I have with my other animations, then I could have had the eyes turning and the fins swaying which would have really helped make the video seem more professional. Finally, I would have liked to find a tutorial to make bubbles rise in a similar way to the smoke effect I made in my fourth animation. Then I could have added a clam shell opening and spewing bubbles which I feel would have really added interest to the piece.

Animation 2

I am much happier with my second piece than my first. Learning where to use parenting helped boost my confidence and this experience really taught me where to break down characters into different parts which I can then animate. Really with this animation its small things I would change. I would have liked to add something to the background, even something as simple as an indication of wind passing through the flowers.

Also, when making the animation I thought having a flap of the winds every half second would work however on watch back I perhaps should have made this ever quarter second. A hummingbird flaps its wings fast enough that you cant see them do so, and here it’s a little strange to have the rapid humming audio track to what is a comparatively very lethargic visual.

Animation 3

This is my favourite of my pieces. I feel like the audio and visuals work well together and while I haven’t used advanced methods what I have done works quite well. I would have liked to add small things such as animating the individual parts of the face in the rug and something I had intended to do but couldn’t figure out was to have a child in the bed, becoming scared when the hands start to emerge.

In terms of more sophisticated effects and techniques, it would have been nice to have some mist emerging from the shadows as that would have really helped make the finished piece look more complete.

Animation 4

I would say this is the piece I am most frustrated with as the idea I had for the piece and the end result are very far apart. I like the smoke effect I made but can’t figure out why I couldn’t duplicate and move them to litter the forest floor. As this would have been a nice effect, it feels like something simple that I am missing but I do feel it really takes away from the final effect.

The creature designs are okay, but I do think the two art styles of having a real-life background with drawn elements fight each other in a way I personally don’t like. Also, it would have been nice to do something to the sky to make the visuals appear more ethereal.

My overall thoughts

from experimenting with more advanced techniques. I still have no experience with rotoscoping or masking which means there will be more for me to learn when making the large final piece. I had intended to use masking for the fourth animation piece, however when I pitched my idea to Darren I was told my idea didn’t lend itself to masking and so instead I made it as I did.

The main thing I have taken away from my pieces is to add as many small details as possible. With my favourite animation (animation 3) I didn’t use any advanced techniques, but just through adding lots of small animation I feel as though it resulted in the most interesting piece.

—- Full reference list —-

Arthur Morris/Getty Images [found via online article] Wired.com
‘hummingbirds can see colors we cant even imagine’ Wired.com.
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[Accessed 25/03/2021]

Bensons for
Beds (2018). Bensons for Beds timeline [Facebook]. 31st May.
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digilusion (2020) ‘Create Procedural Smoke Effect In After Effects – No
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Animation Tutorial‘. Available online:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hTjA4lmpYw&ab_channel=MoveShapes [Accessed
23/03/2021]

Nagaty
Studio – Sound Effects (2020) [YouTube Video] ‘Stone
dropped in water sound effect no copyright | stone sounds | HQ‘.
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[Accessed 04/02/2021]

Nanakisan (2013) [Freesound.org] Evil Laugh 7.
Available online: https://freesound.org/people/Nanakisan/sounds/204705/
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newagesoup (2016)
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[Accessed 26/03/2021]

Paradise studio
[Shutterstock] (n.d.) Available online:
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[Accessed 03/04/2021]

‘Quarry Stone Font’. Iconian fonts. 101 Freefonts.com. Available online:
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Spanac, (2018). ‘Birds
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Spanac, (2019). ‘Hummingbird Sounds‘ [Royalty Free Online source]
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TipTut
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swordfish [Accessed 25/02/2021]

XxWebWorldxX (2017)
[Freesound.org] Ghastly Groan.
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[Accessed 07/04/2021]