Details:
Create a motion graphic splash that can be used as an intro/outro in company media.
Logo should be a part of the animation and also inspire the movement.
Development:
As we all know, the diameter is a straight line that travels through the center of the circle, connecting two points on the circumference. I couldn’t help but remember my high school math teacher explaining it as a line that chops a circle in half. The idea of chopping stuck in my mind and started to develop into a concept.
The trickiest part of this whole piece was developing the swing and fall after the circle is divided. With some intricate keyframing and speed graphing (and many trials & errors), I finally got it to where I was happy.
Little intricacies are what truly make an animation feel complete. For example, most subjects travel in arcs — the faster a subject is moving, the flatter the arc can become. Nonetheless, things don’t usually move in absolute straight lines. Similarly, things don’t fall straight down — they tilt or flip or drift as they descend. Also, multiple related subjects — when prompted to move — don’t all initiate movement at the same time. Think about being at a traffic light when it turns green; the cars don’t all start going at the exact same moment. This staggering of movement is something that is natural to the human eye/mind. While animating, I always try to get a sense of how things travel and function in the real world — a lot of the same principles can make an artificial conceptual animation feel grounded and organic. It’s important to keep these natural behaviors in mind. Like how things that are not self propelled disperse from a single point of force. Usually, the smaller fragments will travel faster and further than the larger items. Or think about projectiles and the sizing difference between entry and exit points on a target. Details. Always consider the details.
Finally, no animation is complete without sound design and nothing brings more life to the party than an engaging audio track. The sounds I use for my work are from a wonderful library of clips developed by Andrew Kramer at Video Copilot. It’s an immense collection and has been wonderful to use. Be sure to check it out. It’s usually a toss between Premiere and Audition when I’m developing the sound design. I found audio files that fit well without heavy editing, so I decided to lay it all out in Premiere after importing the After Effects comp via Adobe Dynamic Link.
