Morphing Blobs

I had heard of the benefits of using Flash (now named Adobe Animate) would be quite beneficial to use for this style of animation. However, because I was already comfortable with using Photoshop, it was only an application of learning how to utilise the timeline and layers to animate, rather than learning an entirely new interface to me personally. TVPaint is also another software I hear often when listening to companies within the industry animate in 2D. Using the AnimDessin Photoshop plugin to animate made it much simpler to navigate the workflows of Photoshop when animating as well.

I was curious to the other possibilities I could use to help the fluidity of the animation. I began looking into After Effects as an option and found a tutorial on YouTube, that goes through the motions of using After Effects to create and simulate cel animation using a variety of effects and modes. I sat through the tutorial and was able to create these tests.

 

I started off by using the pen tool in After Effects to create a path on a black solid. Using a third party plugin called “3D Stroke”, I was able to manipulate the start and end points of the path created to give it the effect of a living particle flying in a loop in the composition. By then adding other effects such as “Turbulent Displace” and “Roughen Edges” I can create the jagged and watery effect that you see as the path is traveled. Manipulating the “Evolution” of the Turbulent Displace effect, determines how much the path will oscillate as it travels on its path. The more turns on the evolution handle, the more violent the shape oscillates. You can also see in the examples that two of the paths have a different in tone on them as they travel the path created by the pen tool. I was able to do this by duplicating the original shape, and using an “Alpha Matte” on one of the duplicates. I would then slightly move the path of the shape with the alpha matte, and if two colours have already been decided on for each path, we will be able to see both colours on the shapes as they travel. The alpha matte however makes it so that they occupy the same “space”. I thought of it as one hand being covered by the other hand, but we are able to still see fingers from both hands. Because of the alpha matte, the slightly darker colour creates 3D effect, as the shape now looks as though there is depth.

The 3D stroke plugin was provided by a company called Red Giant who had an entire pack dedicated to various After Effects plugins. The website advertises that they provide plugins and software for hardcore filmmakers and motion graphic artists.

 

The final step to achieving that wet and fluid look, was to add another effect from Trapcode pack called “particular”. With this effect, I can emit particles in the composition, but I can also parent them to another layer in after effects. As you can see, I manipulated the amount of particles emitted per second, as well as changed the Emitter Type to “Layer”. Because it is now a layer emitter, I can open up the layer emitter tab underneath the particular effect, and tell after effects which layer I want the particles to spread out on. It is tell after effects to only spread particles on the “Cel_Animation_Test” test layer, which was the layer created to make the fluid shape. Having this effect makes it so the particles follow behind after the path, in a way that makes it seem like the actual shape is moving that fast, little parts of its  fluid body are being left behind in the process to catch up.

It was through these effects that I was able to create both the small shapes flying around, and the explosion of colour as well. I found both of these to be very interesting and incredible ways to create the fluid like effects I would be looking to achieve as the 2D graphical elements of the animation.

Back in Photoshop, I tried animating certain sections of the morph on 1’s rather than on 2’s or more. The morphing sections specifically I would make sure to animate with as little frames as possible, to remain fluid and wild in its movements as it morphed into different shapes.  Having that wild nature to it made it much easier to try and predict how I should have the morphs behave once in between morphing into each other.

Although I was not animating a snake for this project, I found looking at images of Kaa’s body from the Jungle Book very helpful for the morphing. This because his body has an interesting way of twisting and conforming whilst moving. I thought this was very interesting, and made it a source to look at for reference. We can see that Kaa’s body will have really extreme bends accompanied by straight straights afterward. It is what helps to move his body around due to its own weight, but also an appealing nature to his own character and reminiscient to the way an actual snake would move. All very important

 

Here are the transitional morphs I was able to create, including a derpy looking foot, and quadruped jumping off of a cliff:

 

 

After filling with colour in Photoshop, I exported the video layer into After Effects, and decided to try out using the both of the techniques I had learned so far regarding this transitional cel animation style of movement together. This was the original intent after all, to accompany each other with their individual techniques.

 

I created a path that ran alongside the Photoshop morph I did, and tried to make it look like the two were working together as a natural force.  For me, I believe it stood out that they were not the same source way too much, so I decided to not use this idea. In the end, I have more creative freedom with what the shapes look like if I just draw them free-hand in photoshop, and could use After Effects as just a tool that enhances the effect in different ways.