The set task for the start of this session with Sara was to bring in a few illustrations that are linked to a set of lyrics from a song. I decided to do one of my favourite songs, Put your records on by Corrine Bailey. I produced three lines of lyrics, a few illustrations, including a window, and three birds. Obviously, when taking pictures of these sketches and opening them on the computer, the colouring needed to be corrected and lighting needed to be adjusted. Therefore, I opened the image in Photoshop in order to correct the illustrations so they could be placed individually on a new white document. I have displayed the box below that I used to adjust the setting on my image. I used brightness/contrast, increasing both to create deeper black lines, and brightening the white background. I also changed my image to black and white so there was no off white/ yellow toned shadows. The outcome I got is shown below. I then opened a new document, 1920x1080 pixels, and copied each feature into the document, creating a number of layers, rather than them all being on the same layer which would make it hard to move each element separately once placed into After Effects. I have three lines of text separated, the birds are all on different layers, and the window is on an individual layer too.
I saved this Photoshop document, and then opened it up in After Effects to start my animation. I added it to my timeline, as well as adding a background colour, using 'Layer: Solid' and picking a colour that I thought would go nicely with the animation. I also added another layer, an audio. I downloaded the song to match my lyrics and illustrations, I then placed this onto my motion graphics time line so it played throughout the 10 second composition. I would edit this audio at a later stage.
At the moment, the illustrations and drawn text, have a white background with black sketched lines. These layers need to be changed so they have no white background, and they stand out well on the coloured background I have chosen. At the bottom of the timeline, is a 'toggle switches/modes' option, I clicked this button and it gave me an option to change the style and colouring of the layers features. It was originally set to 'Normal' however I changed each layer to 'Divide' this deleted the white background, and changes the lines to white, a good colour to stand out on the background colour I had chosen. As you can see on the screenshot displayed above, the background layer is still set to 'Normal'. Now each feature that is going to be shown in my animation looks okay, I moved onto adding the effects for movement and motion. The first stage of developing my animation, was to turn each layer to a 3D layer. I was changing my layers to 3D because later on in my development, I am adding a camera motion, which glides through my illustrations, almost as though they are flying in a three demential setting.
Before adding the camera layer, I created a few effects on different layers, including position movements, scaling, rotations etc. Below is the extension on my first appearing layer. I have adjusted all three of the options, creating a sliding in effect, as well as increasing in size whilst rotating to its final position where I have set the key frame. Each layer is quite different, for example the window uses a corner reveal effect. Each layer has been set to different times to appear. Starting with a few lyrics, then the window enters, with my birds swooping in from different angles, finishing with a last line of text.
The final stage to my development (apart from adjusting my audio), was to add the camera. To do this, I went to layer, and selected camera. From this, it was added onto my animation timeline, which I could then adjust the point of interest and position. As you can see below, I have shown where I found the camera form, and how it has been placed onto my timeline, showing across the full 10 second length.
To develop the movement of my elements, I needed to open two views, one of the animation itself, and one showing how the camera will move between each layer. Each layer is shown in the camera view by a line that holds an axis, the further down the line, the quicker the camera flies by. I can move each of the layers up and down using the Z axis (blue arrow). For example, the bottom layer that the camera flies by first will be my first piece of text, one line of lyrics. The line above this on the camera view, is the second line of text that is shown in my animation. This carries on with each layer, until the last layer is shown and the camera finished zooming in on it. I have linked my final developed video to the bottom of this post. I am very happy with how it looks, as I took time after the session to work on my editing as well. Making sure the effects work nicely with the camera motion and everything is proportioned correctly.
Three Little Birds from Emily-Beth Phillips on Vimeo.
