DES 251 Digital Media Design III / Spring '18
DES 251 Digital Media Design III

Assignment 1a: "e-motion"

Due: January 29 (VIMEO clip(s) uploaded and added to the class website by the beginning of class)

This first assignment is a simple intro to motion graphics. The goal is to visualize contrasting emotions with the means of motion. These simple animations give you the opportunity to use and apply the elemental building blocks of animation as well as to learn the basics of Adobe After Effects.

Goals

After Effects Online Tutorial (Adobe)

Do these tutorials on your on time as soon as you can. It's important to get familiar with the AE basics before you start animating your composition. Together they're around 1 hour of video in total.

After Effects Workspace:


Essential tasks:

Assignment Task

Pick two opposites (you own or from the list below). Try to visualize these opposites as clear as possible with the means of motion.

Create two consecutive animations, each about 5 seconds long. Each animation should start with a plain, black background. Transition the two so that the position of the letter in the last frame of the first sequence matches the position of the first frame of the second part. The position of the "e" in the last frame of the second sequence should match the position of it's template. After the letter reaches it's final position, introduce the word "motion" so that the combination reads "emotion". In the end fade out all elements so that you end up with a plain black background. Below is an example that should make that clear.

In other words: by the end of the 2nd sequence (right before the word "motion" appears) the "e" should be in the following position: 486.2, 555.4. The position of the word motion should be at 1044.6, 527.8. You can see and adjust those numbers in the Transform options of the layers (at the bottom on the left of the timeline).


Emotion Opposites

happy/sad, ecstatic/depressed, energetic/lethargic, free/restrained, active/passive, excited/bored, joyful/desperate, love/hate, alert/tired, still/irritated, shy/bold, confident/insecure, peaceful/agressive, hesitant/certain, calm/angry, week/strong, surprised/aware afraid/brave, nervous/relaxed,

Motion/Time based Opposites

Motion opposites often relate to emotion opposites so think about time based opposites also and what they could represent. Combinations can enhance or clarify meaning: fast/slow, grow/shrink, horizontal/vertical, straight/curved, opaque/transparent, visible/invisible (short/long), steady/unsteady (irregular), accelerate/decelerate, rotate/stay,

Preparation: Illustrator

Download the following Illustrator file EMOTION template. I created the templates so they already match the dimensions of the movie you'll create (1920 x 1280px). The document has 3 layers: A black background, the letter "e" and the word "motion". You'll import these layers including the position of the elements into After Effects.

Preparation: After Effects

1. Open After Effects, go to the top menu and select File > New > New Project.

2. Go to File > Import > File, browse to you Illustrator file, select it and "Open" it with the following settings: Import Kind: Composition, Footage Dimensions: Layer Size

3. Composition settings will match the size of the Illustrator document. You can check by selecting the (automatically created) composition from the project window and go to Composition > Composition Settings. Below an example for the HD "720" version. Here you can adjust the duration of the clip. Choose a black background.