Photoshop and After Effects Animation

I was working on a project to submit to the RSA with a few other collaborators. It dealt with how we could use curiosity in various ways to create concepts and solutions to problems. We all drafted ideas about where the animation could go, and in what style of animation. I created a concept for a drop sequence that appeared during our film. I opened up Photoshop and began creating some backgrounds.

Using different tools in Photoshop, I created this concept. I have three versions of the concept. One in its original form, one with a motion blur added to the composition, and another with the entire scene drawn over with the a crayon brush I downloaded for variation in style. This was a part of the experimental stage for the type of background we would pursue for the final film. I then took this background into After Effects and experimented with it to see how I could manipulate it to visualise how the character may fall down in the scene.

 

I then developed the background I created so that it may be used for the final film.

I duplicated the concept and repeated it vertically so that it became a longer file. I then used a cloud texture brush, to paint in a ‘brain-like’ texture on the far background because the drop sequence occurs inside of our characters head.

After this, I used some effects to enhance the quality of the background and make it more appealing.  Using the “Outer Glow” effect, I was able to put a white glow on my brush. I did this to highlight the brain material and distinguish different parts of the lobes on the brain. I think it came out looking pretty well and could do so much for the scene when animated in.

 

Here are also some assets I created for the background that were animated individually within after effects, so I did not involve them in the foreground of the background layer. It is the umbrella that our character grabs onto but shatters and later the vine the she also grabs onto but snaps. I made them in separate layers so they could be animated easier if need be by the animator for this scene.

 

Once my background was done, I began drawing up designs for the characters. My job was to create a look for the final version of what Iris looks like in the real world, as well as the psychiatrist in the office she is in. This was a fun task as I do enjoy creating looks for characters as evident in earlier sections of the blog. The ‘brain’ version of Iris was already created by another member of the group so I just needed to create a version of her that exists in the real world. Here are my ideas:

 

The specific art style we were always looking to create involved using border-less characters with simplistic designs. I used an artist we found online called Tiffany Ford to help create an ideal look for Iris. Here are some images I used for help:

I opened up Photoshop and used the pen tool and brushes to block out patterns and designs for the colour scheme and the characters. The characters are arranged in this way – with the limbs sticking out and opacity low – so that is it easier for my colleague to see the joints of the character when he was ready to rig them in After Effects. The front view design of the Psychiatrist was not needed however because for the majority of my scene he faces the side. I can use other processes to make it seem as though he is looking at Iris as the scene plays through.

I chose this colour scheme for Iris because her age range is within that of a young adult woman. She is also quite a mature person in terms of personality, so I gave her mature colour schemes. Staying away from any bright, vibrant colours and clothes choices. The Psychiatrists wears a labcoat and a pair of glasses. He also has one strand of hair that sticks out of the top of his head(this done for appeal). I also did not want his colour scheme to blend too much into his background so I made the final colour of is lab coat grey, and the colour of his shirt purple to contrast the yellow of the carpet in his office.

The characters were to be rigged in After Effects by our rigger using the DUIK rigging plugin. After the characters were rigged, I was able to do some test animation for the motions of the character.

 

Iris moves too slowly whilst trying to get up from the chair. After recording some live footage in our group, it became easier to visualise how quick the action of getting up, shaking the psychiatrist’s hand and then proceeding to the door and out of the room would be. The entire action should take around 7 to 8 seconds. I have to stretch this a little bit because there isn’t any major actions within my 14 seconds of animation to take up more time and fill up the remaining time of the film. I also needed time for the camera to pan out from her face once I add the cameras. I did however, hasten the jump up from the chair. Iris seems to slouch quite badly as well which does not look like a standing pose which is what I was originally trying to create. Using the pelvis and chest controls, I was able to straighten her legs which now makes the pose look more comfortable.

 

Here is some footage of her view whilst straight on, walking towards the camera. Because it is a 2D character with a limited rig and space, I can only move the rigs in certain ways without making a movement that destroys the rig. I tried to set the poses up in a way that looks like Iris is walking towards us:

 

The motion is quite slow and mechanic. After some tweaking of the position keyframes I was able to put a bit more life in the character. I also put some follow through in the arms and used the Liquify tool in After Effects to distort the clothes on the arms and body to make it look like the clothes were flapping just like clothes would in actual life :

 

Here is the full animation of our Iris character from sitting on the chair to her forward facing walk. I added in some slight changes to give her human nature and stop her from look so mechanic, such as: blinking, follow through of the wrists and a shadow. Here is what I was able to produce:

 

I used the Liquify tool to distort some of the clothing on separate keyframes every few seconds so that the clothes would have a realistic nature to them. Clothes do not generally sit still, especially when somebody is walking, so I felt that I should add some “personality” to the clothes themself. To do this, I just searched for the Liquify tool in the Effects and Presets tab of After Effects. I then keyframed the “Distortion Mesh” section under the Effects for the Liquify tool. I was then able to key a frame for every change I made on the clothes throughout the film. The rotation in the wrists was done by simply rotating the wrists on every key frame the body moves down. I rotated the wrists in these places because a body has weight, which will allow the body to undergo changes when it moves. Because there is a slight follow through on the arms after the foot makes contact with the ground, the wrists slightly rotate to show the change in direction of the arm. I felt with this added change, the character feels more “alive”. Finally, when Iris turns to face the camera, I added a Directional Blur to the keyframes in between the last frame of the side view position of Iris, and the front facing view of Iris. Because the rigs have a certain degree of mobility, this directional blur makes it slightly obvious without the animation looking too clunky that Iris has turned to face the camera. To do this, I searched for the Direction Blur effect in the effects and presets tab and dragged it onto both the side view and front view of Iris. I then key framed the “Direction” and “Blur Length”. After making adjustments to the direction so that the blur occurs in a certain direction, it was just a matter of placing the blur key frames where I wanted them to be.

Here is the full animation for the Psychiatrist character. His motions were not as complex as Iris’ were, so it did not take very long to block out his animation. I used Liquify tool to distort his beard at the end of the animation so that I could make it look like the Psychiatrist is turning his head towards the screen. This was an easy process as all I needed to do was change the position keys of the glasses and hair to make the head turn look more real. I also did this for Iris’ animation just to add some personality to both characters:

 

A full render of the scene with the camera added too in the setting. The camera dolly’s back from Iris’ eye and to a point where we can see the poster that says “Life Line” which was tagged on the rope that pulled the brain version of Iris up earlier in the animation. The camera dolly’s back further with Iris as she walks and stops, allowing the door to come into shot, and making it obvious that Iris is walking out of the Psychiatrist’s office.

 

After making changes to the animation due to preference, such as a shadow, a grainy film effect and blinks in other places, I rendered out this scene which is now ready to go into the final film together.

 

Here is the final film together!

Quadruped Morphing 

I did some quadruped animation of a jungle cat (which can be found under the 3D animation tab on my blog), and used that as a base to then morph the character on the screen using Photoshop and and After Effects.

I came across a talented artist on Instagram called Jeremy Fenske, and saw him using the shape tool in Photoshop to create digital environments. I loved it, and thought that the jagged and sharp backgrounds with contrast that of the fluid morphing. I emulated the style, and created some backgrounds of my own to:

After creating the backgrounds themselves, I did some hand drawn animation in Photoshop around the 3D animation, in order to create this character that runs onto the screen and dances around the screen using its morphing capabilities. I did this for all three backgrounds. Here is the culmination of my illustrative piece.