Look Up- Final Copy

27hrs later...

After really rethinking my animation for this semester, I have managed to create 1 minute piece that I am extremely proud of and really hope it expresses the message that I intended to create. I have used many techniques whilst making my animation, with YouTube tutorials helping me almost entirely when using After Effects to a professional standard (eg. when creating the fire, explosions, and the cityscape silhouette in Photoshop)

I have worked very hard throughout this project and I really hope that this shows through the quality of my work. I also hope that my sketchbook shows my creative side and a development of ideas as the sketchbook continues.

My original idea was to create a post apocalyptic sequence that shows the effect that recent developments in technology has on our lives, forcing us to lose focus on the things that matter in life such as physical human interaction. I created post apocalyptic scenes within my animation through the help of Photoshop and After Effects itself. I followed certain tutorials off YouTube that taught me how to create the special effects I needed to enhance my video and make it look realistic.

I included symbolic images from social media networks such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter in order to try and express the idea that we are becoming brainwashed (hence the exploding head//minds) and that we are becoming technology dependent, losing sight (hence the eye images) of what is real.

However, towards the end of the video, I try to include a more Utopian view of the world if we just take a step back from our technology dependent lives and enjoy the world as it it, for its natural beauty, hence the sunny cityscape. I included the message: 'Refuse to let technology control you...just switch off', to try an enforce the idea that we do not need to remove technology completely from our lives, just don't become dependent on it.

Overall I am extremely proud of what I have created and I believe that I have improved my overall technical skills and therefore expanded my knowledge on how to use After Effects. I think I have met the brief  'Looking Outside' in a creative, unique way exploring a very real problem in the 21st century.

Rethink

After discussing my ideas with the lecturers, I have decided to alter the narrative structure of my animation as this will make my idea seem more original and heighten the technical difficulty, therefore perhaps heightening my grade slightly.

Instead of sticking to a linear narrative, I have decided to erase the entire of an narrative altogether. I was shown an animation called 'Revolver' (posted below) that uses the idea of a continuous loop of the same sequences and focuses heavily on sound to create effect. This relates to my idea of 'Nostalgia' as life is one continuous loop and for many people we repeat the same things day after day. The animation shown to me also used the loop idea to help draw attention to all areas of the screen as you watch the sequence more than once thus making it a much more interesting animation to watch.

I also was advised not to use Cinema 4D for my animation because this just over complicates things and it could be produced using Photoshop. I am happy about this as I am far more confident on Photoshop than Cinema 4D anyway!

Cinema 4D Experiments

These are examples of where I have taken a landscape image off Google (in this case a Snow Tundra texture) and applied it to the bare landscape shape on Cinema 4D. This then makes the scene look much more realistic.

In order to create my animation, I will be using Cinema 4D to create the outside landscapes and the objects that will sit within the frames. Here are a few examples of work i have produced using Cinema 4D. Obviously these are just experiments but i am quite proud considering I missed the first lecture on how to use the software.

Realistic Fog

For my apocalyptic scene, I wanted to add a layer of fog and this video explains simply how to create one! I hope to work alongside this tutorial in order to create this fog then use it in an appropriate manner in my animation.

Photoshop Fire

I intend to create flames within Photoshop, like the examples here, so I can later import them onto my background layer of a cityscape. I will use the technique of blending and layer masking so that the image looks professional and realistic. I will later upload my attempt of this flame creation when finished,

Cat

This is a first attempt of using layer masks to create multiple layers in an image, without deleting anything. This will come in handy when creating layers for a backdrop of a city. Also, this way of manipulating an image is far more advanced than just selecting an area and deleting it.