Illustration & Visual Narrative Task 4 / Final Project - Motion Comic

08/07/2022 - 12/07/2022 (Week 15 - Week 16)

WONG JUN ZHE / 0353613

Illustration & Visual Narrative / B' Creative Media / Taylor's University

Task 4 / Final Project - Motion Comic

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INSTRUCTIONS

MIB: 

Week 15 - 16 Animation in After Effects

Before heading into after effects to animate my motion comic, I made sure to rearrange all the comic panels into the correct size for the final video export (720*1280 px) in illustrator. This is so that I won't have to do this in AE, which I am not very familiar of. 

Fig. x Rearranging panels

Then, I made sure to save individual dartboards into different .ai files for the ease of animating in AE. 

Moving on to AE, first thing I do is to drop my saved .ai files of the artboards in. 

Fig. x Drop in .ai files into AE

Then I dragged and dropped all the different files into my timeline. Once the layers are in, I selected all layers and made them into shapes, as AE cannot detect them right from the .ai file. 

Fig. x Create shapes from vector layer

Next, I go through each of the panels and decide on which panels should have animations and which should not. This is because I think I shall only animate the panels/moments that I want to emphasise, which is mostly the fighting scenes in Act 2: Revenge. 

As for the titles panels, I gave them a subtle fade in and fade out transition so that they do not appear out of a sudden after each other. 

Titles Transitions

Scenes Transitions

*This scene is just to add some humour into the serious storyline.

Believe e when I say this, the process of animating is extremely hectic! Look at Fig. x below and you'll understand why XD. 

Fig. x Ginormous amounts of layers

There are countless number of groups and I had to go through them to find the correct ones. After that, there are a couple more drop downs that I had to click on to do the transformations. Basically, I used the position, scale, and rotation key frame method to animate. Timing is important too: too long, and it won't have the action movie kind of kick; too short, the viewers will not be able to see it properly. 

After I am fairly happy with the video, it wsas time to add in audio. I searched for non-copyright music that suits each of the phases of my motion comic and imported them into AE. 

Fig. x Adding audio

For Act 1, the atmosphere was very sad, seeing how a child's father being taken away from him. So I decided that a piano music mixed with some Guzheng (Chinese instrument) that fits well into the setting. 

Act 1 music link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCpVw08WBK0

For Act 2, it is all about action, rage, and vengeance. So, I thought the music should be intense with a to of drums. This will help build up the feeling of the scene. 

Act 2 music link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKt3fjGD-Wg

Lastly for Act 3, the main character felt sad, guilty, and regretful after seeing his enemy has to take care of his sick child. So, I think soft, slow-paced piano music is the way to go. 

Act 3 music link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IvqwPTQ0V0

After hours of doing this, the animation is finally complete, though I think there is still space for improvement. 

Final Outcome - Motion Comic

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REFLECTION

As expected, animating in After Effect is very challenging. To me, animation is a very tedious process. However, it is very rewarding when I see the final outcome at the end. 

Throughout the entire animation process in AE, I had to be very aware on which panels I should give more movement. I came to the conclusion that only the important ones that I want to emphasise that I should animate. 

I'd say that animation is certainly not for me... The process is just too much for me to handle. Nevertheless, it is a great experience that help me try out new things. I also understand that it's a job for me as a student. Who knows? Perhaps future me would suddenly be interested in animation?