The Sketch

 My storyboard sketch is comprised of six panels, describing the main transitions of the motion graphic. Heavily inspired by Apple’s Intention ad, I wanted to create something visually captivating while using very simple lines, shapes, and text. The motion graphic would begin and end with one simple circle/dot/ball, and in-between, changing and morphing into other shapes and/or text. Also inspired by the mandala effects used to showcase the powers of Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange, I wanted shapes to overlap, rotate, and/or expand outside the constraints of the screen’s frames. I drew from the words that I wrote in the intro page of my website: think, create, and inspire, as I believe those are some of the key steps in the ideation and manifestation processes in both design and life. And finally, I wanted one of the final frames to end with the simple word: you, which I felt created emphasis on the individual watching the animation unfold. This would naturally allow me to transform the word YOU into ASU.

Illustrator Assets

 I composed some simple geometric shapes in Adobe Illustrator to both pre-vis certain scenes, and to create shapes that I knew I wanted to animate and pre-construct so that it would be easier to manipulate in place such as the geometric pieces that formed a large square. This helped me define certain shapes into place, importing them from their own layer, and animating them as needed in Adobe After Effects.

Animation and Post Production

 In the majority of scenes, I created basic solid shapes, outlines, and lines directly in Adobe After Effects. Using a mixture of key framing scale, rotation, position, opacity, shape, I was able to create the animations I wanted during specific times in the timeline. I also used a blend of effects, masking, and path trimming to create a variety of different movements and transitions. Some things that might go unnoticed is the transitions between the words and their respective animations.

I made the word THINK transition into the word CREATE by using a radial wipe that mimicked a clock because of the space and time needed between the actual thinking of ideas until manifesting those ideas into physical and tangible form. The word INSPIRE comes together as a small circle gets bigger and bolder, and then finally creating a large square composed of smaller squares and other shapes. Essentially this was a metaphor for stimulating or influencing others, even those that might be outside of your own realm, to come together in union. Some of the text and corresponding animations were a bit on the nose such as “elevate yourself” with the rising of the circles, and maybe even the “invest in…” with the circles connecting like a line graph highlighting growth.

Utilizing the animation graph to manipulate the curves using the Bézier handles was important to create believable animations that eased in, out, or gained momentum. This was important to convey speed, gravity, or a certain bounciness that was important. In most cases, I played around with different timing to refine certain scenes.

In the post production phase, I slowed the timing of the overall animation, increasing it by one or two seconds to sync correctly with the music I was using. I also added a variety of sound effects from knocking for the bouncing circle, to layers of synth and robotic sounds for the puzzle box sequence. For the soundtrack, I licensed “Hidden Worlds” by Angelika Conrad at artlist.io. By editing the one minute and thirty second song down to 27 seconds and syncing together specific animated elements with sound, I was able to create, overall, a captivating motion graphic video.

<Portfolio