To start this project, I visited the library in Birmingham to find a text suitable for my micro project.
I had to show symbolism by using pictures, although alot of my peers chose poetry, I decided to use a non-fiction book on the solar system.
'Solar System - A Visual Exploration of the Planets, Moons and Other Heavenly Bodies that Orbit our Sun'
Choosing something more scientific, I thought I would be able to find more symbolism by using the long descriptive words included in the book.
I made note of the book I chose and the piece of text I used from it for further use.
Here's a copy of the page I used for my micro project.
Here is the final plan for the mini project I had for the first week. I created a very basic animation with no sound apart from the original voiceover for the text I chose.
The animation describes each word literally, I am hoping to change this alot for my final film as It doesn't show much symbolism or have a story behind it.
Basic animation with voiceover for the Mini Brief.
I would like my animation to look similar to the way this animation's been shown.
I will using a 2D space and use After Effects to complete this animation.
I like how the camera spins around each planet and how the planets zoom in or zoom out when progressing to the next planet to be described. I can do something similar to this by having everything on different layers, orgininally made in Photoshop, then editing each one individually so that the empty space behind each planet isn't moving as fast as the planets.
I will include my own sound effects to play each time a planet is introduced / leaves the scene.
As part of my research, I watched a segment of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
I like the way the Sci Fi visual effects are used, especially around the start of the film when the planets are displayed in a way i'd like to portray mine in my animation.
3D visuals have been used in this film however I will be using 2D animation using After Effects for mine.
I also really like how the intro is made for this film, I have never seen it been used for anything else.
The first three minutes of the film, there is nothing but abstract sound, this is a hard technique to use, however my animation is very similar and works well with my chosen text.
First page of Storyboard for my final animation, includes sound effects needed and estimated time for each scene.
Second page of Storyboarding, now I can create the layers I need by looking at my diagrams, and collect the sound effects I need by recording on a Microphone.
Everything will be uploaded to After Effects ready to animate.
I used around 50 layers to use as a template for when I animate the final film, here is an exmple of a few of the layers I have made, some are to be played more than one at a time, layered on top of each other at different speeds and tone to give a depth of field.
I created all the sound effects by myself, most of them by using my own voice to introduce and transition planets.
Other sounds for background music I made using an app called 'Garageband' to create a deep space sonding atmosphere.
Here is an animatic I made so I have a better idea on the timing I need for animating and where to place the sound files.
I will also be able to see what looks bad and what I should change for the final thing.
Watching this myself, I think some parts are too long, such as the asteroid belt scene and the very last scene with Earth.
I will go back to change this when animating the final piece.
After making an animatic, I realise I havn't got enough time to complete the full animation which I estimated to be about one and a half minutes long.
Instead, I am going to choose a segment of my story which looks challenging aswell as interesting at the same time, and animate that instead, I am hoping to animate at least 10 seconds.
Here is the segment I animated for my final film, the planet movements and sound effects worked really well in my opinion.
I used motion blur for the asteroid belt at the beginning but struggled to make the path smooth like I did with the tracking on the hurricane segment.
I would definately research more into smoothing and easing techniques within After Effects if I could restart the project, other than that, I am happy with how most of the animation turned out.
