Week 1 - Mercury (☿)

​This was incredibly fun.

I spent a few days mulling over some ideas. Spoke with a few friends about the assignment and decided on Mercury because of the dual meaning behind the word. Even though i'm focusing on the element, I make mention of the planet, some brief historical context and current use.

Here is a breakdown of the panels:

1. Close-up of the Mercury element illustration from the periodic table and a bottle of poison representing danger.
2. Liquid metal illustration representing how element is mostly known.
3. Entire periodic table illustration and mercury being poured over from beaker.
4. Planet illustration showcasing fast rotation and Astrological symbol.
5. Power and health illustrations representing historical context.
6. Industrial building, electrical chip and mobile phone illustrations representing current use.

I did attempt to use Adobe Draw on my Android, but I didn't like how wonky it was. So, I opted for post-it notes instead.

I'm looking forward to bringing this to life somehow.

Week 2 - Poison (Mercury)

I had originally thought to build for Instagram, but I think i'm going to build my final animation for YouTube.

I am so glad I have basic Illustrator experience. Even still, I struggled a bit getting the right basic shapes to work with me. I did use existing clipart as reference, but the color palette, shapes and final rendering are my own.

I think I might need to scale back on the final output for this animation.

It was very helpful to see the process of generating a character with 2 basic shapes. The new shape builder tool is gonna open up many doors to my final animation. I'm very excited to keep at this.

This course is a huge challenge for me. I'm ready to take the plunge.

Week 3 - Styled Storyboard

​I did it. I made the first 6 panels for Animation 1 out of 6.

• Panel 1 - empty frame
• Panel 2 - mercury element comes in from the right side of the screen
• Panel 3 - a divider line animates from the top to the bottom of the frame dividing the panel in 2.
• Panel 4 - poison bottle comes in from the left side of the screen
• Panel 5 - poison bottle tips over to the right
• Panel 6 - poison bottle lids opens and purple poison gas leaks out from bottle and unto the right side of the panel as well

My animation is meant to be pretty simple with a focus on narration and more panels all of which have a divider line illustrating some type of cause and effect and it blending in the last panel.

Week 4 - Animatic

​I really took my time with this one.

Animation still intimidates me. I found myself attempting to only animate 1 out of my 6 original frames, but I went back and added the original paper prototype frames.

My final animation now has 12 frames, but they are relatively simple and focused on telling a quick visual story.

As hard as this assignment was for me, I found it incredibly rewarding. I struggled a bit with After Effects, but I'm starting to feel more comfortable with the interface.

As for Illustrator, I've never spent so much time working in Illustrator. It took me 2 days to illustrate and separate all the components. I definitely feel a stronger sense of confidence with Illustrator. Very excited to see the final output.

Week 5 - Final Animation

​I really didn't think I was going to get this done.

This has been, by far, the hardest assignment I've had to do for the EdEx. I wish I was an illustrator/animator. But, I got my final vision executed.

What worked

• Everything was already set in Illustrator from last week, so no problems there.
• Importing the layers and working with the initial animation in AfterEffects was fine.

What didn't work or was wonky

• Keyframes are so hard to do in AfterEffects. I don't like how i can't tell the frames apart like in Adobe Animation. I feel like I'm guessing most of the time as to where a keyframe is going to be placed.
• Had to duplicate a layer to repeat the same image later on in the illustration.
• Accidentally forgot to fill an image in Illustrator and I'm unable to edit layer in AE because it was imported as a composition.

Even with all these issues, I got all 6 panels done, used the parent/child link, puppet position pin, position, scale, rotation and the pan behind tool.

Final Reflection

​Oh animation.

This has been challenging but incredibly rewarding. I think I need a few more courses in Adobe After Effects to feel fully comfortable with all the basic features. I've improved my Illustrator skills significantly with this course. I do want to explore more animation for sure. Still need more experience with Keyframes and specific frame timing. Wish that AE had a similar timeline to Adobe Animation.