Light Night

Light Night 1

My response to the Light Night brief was going to be simple. I wanted to show earth as a natural element, exposing what makes earth, earth. 

Air, water, fire and earth. The 4 most vital and important elements, combining to create the earth.

The visions I had of this animation were in a Motion Graphic. The spiralling of the 4 elements, then POP out grows the earth from the middle.

But how would I create a spiral effect?

I was hoping there would be some Spiral effect inbuilt into After Effects, after finding out their wasnt, I created a Vector spiral in Illustrator instead which I would paste into the Position module of my assets and have the assets (the elements) follow the vector as a motion path!

My colour scheme.

Obviously inspired by the colours of the graphic industry, I decided on this colour pallete. They all complement each other well and look like the typical colours you would see in a mainstream modern day Mograph.

My assets;

I was happy with how my element assets looked, they are easily distinguishable as elements. (I found out by asking people, however the 'earth' element was once mistaken for a faeces) 

For the wind element I was inspired by Zelda Wind Waker's symbols for Wind;

The style of the elements tie in beautifully with the earth.

The production was relatively efficient although I had trouble in creating the spiral animation, it was most time consuming and tricky and took a lot of rotation and position keyframes but I feel I achieved the spiral effect very well. Much better than if they were just rotating in a spiral but gradually decreased in size, they looked like they were spiralling together to form the greater mass of the earth.

I also found a useful effect called CC Spere, which meant I could map my earth onto a sphere and have it rotate at the end to really put the cherry ontop of my animation and carries it to its end;

I also like the white circle outlines that bounce out, that act as the light source of radiation created from the elements combining.

As an after thought, for that little bit more added, I made the sky go darker with the circle outlines and even added some stars which scale up onto the scene along with the sky. Using the graph editor I created an easy ease effect with the stars' entrance and it creates a 3D effect which I find very effective.

For 1 second of footage I am very happy with what I have achieved in a short space of time, it shows I wasnt just 'following' the motion graphic tutorials, I was learning. Learning enough to apply the knowledge myself to create something okay!

Light Night 2

I decided to do another Light Night entry but this time in my specialised medium of 3D.

I wanted to be stylized with my entry and have a go at the low-poly aesthetic which I will be applying in the module 'telling tales'..

This aesthetic was not only time efficient but it also looks really effective I feel..

This was my final outcome. I am very happy with how it looks and admire its simplicity which complements the aesthetic. I also feel my animation is very topical considering its autumnal vibe. I also like my application of colour; scarlet bushes in comparison to the black/grey sky go nicely together. It also sets quite a stormy atmosphere, complemented by the leaves falling signalling a wind starting, hinting at a storm and destruction. I also like the randomness in the animation of the leaves, I feel it looks really realistic.