Top 10 - Bridesmaids

For the Bridesmaids sequence, I wanted to differentiate the bride from the bridesmaids as they were filled in two contrasting colours - pink (a consistent colour featured throughout Bridesmaids and its promotional materials) and white (the bride). I therefore decided for these to feature at different times - possibly in time with the 3 beats of the backing track.

The bridesmaids imagery enters slightly before the circle forming the background fills the frame - this is so it enter in time with the music.

Top 10 - Adding type in AE

Should I include text?

In one of the progress crits when I showed one of my test animations, it was unclear as to what imagery represented what film. As I didn't know whether to incorporate text into my final title sequence, I kept the type fairly basic with simple transitions. The type appears, as if revealed, at the start of its corresponding sequence and moves out of the frame either midway or at the end of its sequence.

I have added some more imagery relating to 'The Inbetweeners Movie'. A tie drops down from the top of the frame with the knot appearing first and revealing the rest. This is in sync with the music and moves towards the left hand side of the frame to then reveal 3 beer bottles, appearing in partnership with the 3 repetitive beats featured throughout the track.

Top 10 - Further development

For 'The King's Speech', I began preparing the imagery I previously designed in Illustrators. I had a clear vision in my head and in reference to my storyboards on how I wanted the individual assets to 'move' and transform into one another. The microphone would pulsate (in time with the music), a yellow circle would then appear, forming the coin of a medal. This would decrease in size, repeat 3 times, and a ribbon would reveal above, forming a royal medal. 

I imported the microphone as a nested composition so I could keep my layers organised. These pulsated 3 times in sync with the 3 beats of the track. I made sure the inner circle didn't extend too large.

I was going to incorporate the crown imagery also (featured here) but realised that time was starting to run out and I needed to keep the segments brief but effective - the transitions would therefore run more smoothly as opposed to being rushed. 

Top 10 - Particles / Transformers

Sarah provided the following tutorial on how to create particles / stars in After Effects. It consisted of just one inbuilt plug-in - CC Particle World. I experimented with the 'Producer' and 'Physics' panels until I achieved something similar to what I envisioned (white glowing stars on a black background, similar to the image below).

The 'Viscouse' Physics animation seemed like the perfect choice as it gave the impression the viewer was travelling through space. I wanted the moon to appear from behind the viewer (as outlined in my storyboards here) which was of a similar movement to the stars.

Top 10 - Further Development

Following on from my test animations, I noted that the transition of the window / scenery to the enlarged eye of the monkey was not as smooth as I hoped. I therefore reapplied new keyframes and altered the size of the monkey in order to attempted to match the eye perfectly with the window frame below. I also added a new monkey expression.

Top 10 - Adding other imagery

Test

Added some more transitions and imagery, now progressing from Super 8 (ending on the blur lens flare) to Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The lens flare was done created using the tutorial I followed (in another post) However, the window as part of the ROTPOTA scene did not match in sync with the music whatsoever. I intended for the trees to appear one at a time but in order for this to keep in sync with the music, I needed to limit this to 3 as opposed to 4.




Test 2

Altered the window scene to match the track and added the ape imagery towards the end. I am not too sure why the eye scales larger than the window, this will be changed for the final animation. The green background has changed slightly from my original piece of imagery - think I worked with CMYK to begin with therefore this needs to be changed. The overall aesthetic needs changing as there is currently a lot of timing, colour and size issues.

Top 10 - Anamorphic lens flare

I found the following tutorial on how to create an anamorphic lens flare - much like what is featured throughout Super 8 - a famous characteristic of the director, J.J. Abrams. In order to apply it to my title sequence, I applied different transformations to increase the brightness and width of the lens flare which then ultimately fills the screen.

Top 10 - Icon storyboards

A few storyboards experimenting with transitions using the imagery I previously designed in Illustrator. I printed several icons off and arranged them on a storyboard in order to investigate how I could 'morph' one image to another to create fluid transitions.

Top 10 - Intro to 60 sec animation

The video begins with a film reel appearing on screen which in one aspect is introducing the 'Super 8' imagery sequence, but is used to encompass all films in general. I intended to match the 3-part animation of the U.S Air force logo with the 3 strong beats in the track. I've just noticed after watching this video that the start of the film reel does not sync in time with the start of the track.

Top 10 - Planet of the Apes

For the Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I needed to incorporate an ape, somehow. Using source imagery, I designed a couple of initial illustrations when then involved into 3 distinctive facial features. In my animation, I intend to do a progression of emotion - much like the film - from happy, to sad, to angry, shown simply through facial expressions.

Source imagery

From Google and Dribbble (Dribbble contained a lot of monkey illustrations which I used as inspiration for my own, as you can see from the example below).

Top 10 - More imagery

Super 8 camera - the primary basis of the film itself. Unable to think of a movement or transition I could apply to this though, it currently seems too static, maybe I could just include a lens flare instead.

Magneto helmet - an important asset to the film.

The coin is featured quite heavily during the X-Men film, becoming a major factor in a main characters death. Part of the film is set in Nazi Germany. I re-created the coin with and without the type. Font = Germinaca.

In the King's Speech, the King wears various royal medals when wearing his full attire.

Bridesmaids - 1 bride, in white, to distinguish this character from the others.

The Inbetweeners - Tie worn as part of their school uniform