Project Ocean Animation

In this task everyone created a sea creature and then animated them to move on a blue background. This session helped and reminded us how to use Adobe Illustrator, import files from Illustrator to Adobe After Effects and then use After effects for animation.

This was my chosen sea creature a clown fish which I created in Illustrator. At first I had problems matching the shape of the creature when using the standard shape tools, especially the tail. Another problem I ran into was applying multiple colours to one shape like the fish's body which is orange and white. However after some research online and watching tutorials I came across the "divide objects below" tool which allowed me to cut shapes into segments and depending on which shapes I overlapped allowed me to change the shape at one end to create a completely new shape. This discovery fixed all of my problems and helped me finish my clown fish.


The Clownfish from Sam Hepworth on Vimeo.

After importing my clown fish in to After Effects I had to move all the layers of the fish back in to position again like a jig saw puzzle because after importing the layers are piled on top of each other in the centre of the composition. Next I created a path running from the right of my screen to the left, this is what the clown fish will follow when it started moving. At the end of the path I moved the last 2 points on the timeline much closer together so the clown fish would speed up and zip off the screen, I did this because i wanted to capture the realism of the fish being scared. Next I rotated the fins making them sway from left to right which made the fish look like it was swimming. The tail of fish needed to move in towards the screen and then back away from the screen and the angle I found couldn't be captured with the positioning and rotation transitioning tools. Instead I used the puppet tool, I put a pin right at the edge of the tail in the middle and then one at the opposite end of the tail where the tail connected to the body. Now I could move the tail in a 360 degrees angle allowing me now to make the tail sway in and out of the screen. Finally I put tiny circles along the background which act like bubbles. I made them appear from the clown fishes mouth as it swims by and then for the rest of the animation they float to the top and fade away. To make the bubbles float to the top I started the point on the timeline where the bubbles would appear in front of the fish and then the other point at the end of the timeline where the circle will be at the top of the screen. When the animation is played the bubbles will now float slowly to the top. To make the bubbles fade away away I used the same points on the timeline that makes the bubbles float to the top. The first point I changed the opacity to 100% and then the on the last point I changed it to 0% so when the animation plays the bubbles disappear slowly.

Overall the session went great. I am most proud of the clown fish itself which I created in Illustrator because I learnt a new tool and strategy when it comes to creating characters and abnormal shapes. I didn't really have any other problems than creating the clown fish, importing and making the animation I found quiet easy. In the future I can imagine my characters for an animation will look much better as I now know where to start and what to do when creating them.