Living Inside A Pollock.

Living inside a Pollock After effects animation from Andrés Magana on Vimeo.

This animation features a nice sense of progression, starting off from a single drop of ink, and spreading out to a complex maze of webs that go into the background, and exist in multiple planes. I like the way the camera goes into the webs, as it allows you to feel more involved in it, as if you are going deeper into the animation, rather than just show it to you as two dimensional. Also, the subtle rotations throughout the piec makes it seem as if it is truly 3D, not just clever manipulations of 2D shapes. I am aiming to add some psuedo-3D qualities into my motion graphic, as I find the affect appealing, and believe it draws in the user more than a standard 2D image; I will achieve this by using 3D Layers in Adobe After Effects.

I enjoy the use of limited colours during this motion graphic, and I believee this adds to the appeal of it. The use of red, which is introduce partway briefly, also adds to ths appeal. I like the sense of progression in this animation, but I would like my motion graphic to show a true sense of progression, rather than just start off as something small, and expand to be more complex.

E4 E Stings

For my first piece of research, I will look at the E4 E Stings, which are featured on the E4 Channel. This is the type of thing I am looking to achieve making, albeit longer, and for the time being with a more general theme, which I can narrow down in the future if needs be. I like the concept behind these animations though, and it shows how much of a variation you can have of one single theme; in the case of these that would be the E4 logo.

This is the winner of E4's 2009 E Sting competition. This animation has a really clever design, and is very abstract, which I like. It uses a combination of photographs and animation, which gives it a unique feel. The fact that the majority of different pieces to this animation are photographs help give this a more professional look, which in turn allows for more time focusing on the actual animation itself, not creating the images.

However, whilst using all photographs could save time, I'm looking to working with solid colours and vectors, although I will probably use photographs. This is because I want my piece to be something that I have created from scratch, not just getting a bunch of photographs together and manipulating them.

This is an example of a more traditional animation, featuring characters. I like the style of this animation, and I believe that the limited colours, along with a contrasting colour for the main focus, give a really appealing aesthetic, and one that I may try to use when creating my final piece. The animation itself is very slick and fluid, and I find this to be appealing, and something that I want to achieve, especially since I'm looking to just create a graphic, not an animation of characters interacting with one another.

I may include a character in my animation, but it will only be there to continue the flow of things, not to make it the main focus. Thinking about this, I would like my animation to focus on movement, trying not to include any noticeable pauses; this will allow me to create an animation that flows nicely.

This E Sting has a more realistic look to it, due to the use of 3D perspective and shadow. However, it still uses animation that isn't photographic, which adds to the appeal of the animation. Whilst this animation isn't as fluid as the other animations, it contains lots of subtle movements which work really well. As with the last animation, I like the limited colour scheme, although this lacks the contrasting colour that the last one had, unless you count the bright light to the dark shadows as a contrast.

I like this animation, but it is too realistic, and not a lot happens on it; this isn't really what I want to achieve, as I want my animation more abstract, and flowing.

I really like the style of this animation, and the abstract, continuous movement is something that I want to include in my animation. Again, this uses the limited colour scheme which I like, although this one uses a transition between colours for part of it. I like the fact that the animation of this is really random, yet it manages to flow smoothly. Although I would like to pick a theme that I could base my animation around, I would like to keep it fairly random, and spontaneous.

This E Sting features a clever use of perspective, and dimensions. All of the people are 2D, whilst the buildings, and music equipment, are a sort of pop-up 3D. When the music equipment is used, all the people burst out into colour, and are moved into different angles, adding to the 3D effect. The animation uses a good camera pan, and it helps bring this seemingly flat world to life. The piece has a sort of dull, monotone look, but it bursts to life when all the colour comes into it.

I like the use of 3D on 2D in this animation, and that would be something that I would think about using when I am making my animation. The only thing I don't really like about this animation is the use, and reliance, on the characters, however they all follow the same pattern and behaviour through most of it, with numbers over their heads being the only way to tell them apart. This gives them the appearance of being one single entity, which as a theme is really clever.

Final Major Project

This blog is where I will put my research on the subject I am focusing my Final Major Project on. As my key outcome is the creation of a short animated graphic, I will look into existing animations and graphic pieces, and place them here, highlighting what I like and don't like about them. This will help me come to a conclusion of what I want my final piece to be.