Reading & Writing
The start of Liz Blazer’s Animated Storytelling confirms for me what I’ve always felt about animation, motion graphics, and title sequences. That is to say, “Animation and motion graphics have been kept apart, and yet these two forms have much in common and so very much to learn from one another.”
From the Pre-production chapter, I learned this process is the foundation for good animations, motion graphics, title sequences, logo animations etc. I’m reminded of the truthful quote from Ben Franklin “By Failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Whether it’s a an animated short, a scenario-based gamified learning, or a big budget film, one thing holds true: You need to plan out as much detail as possible up front. Going into a project and creating without preparation can waste a lot of resource hours.
The other piece I took away was the various components of the pre-production phase. For instance, writing your big idea, creative brief, the six-word story, tagline, and an elevator pitch. Once these are mastered, they can help the creation portion of the project run smoother. Probably my favorite part of the chapter was the idea of the “Yes and…” rule. Another interesting aspect was that when Blazer references these different techniques, she states you should not use a computer. Let your brain and fingers work together old school style. Very interesting approach!
“By failing to prepare, your are preparing to fail” – Benjamin Franklin
Research to Inform
GIF #1: God Talking to King Arthur
This gif found on gify.com reminds me of the talented animator Terry Gilliam of Monty Python. This one comes from a scene in my favorite movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The creators were among the first to intersect lavish nonsensical animation with live action. It was and still is brilliant. The use of these types of animations were used for cut scenes in the movie as well as interludes on their ever popular Monty Python and the Flying Circus TV series.
GIF #2: Revin’ Up Your Engine
Another reminder of my childhood. This gif reminds me of Speed Racer, the cartoon I’d always watched as a kid. Here is Speed putting the famed Mach 5 in gear to beat out the Snake Oil brothers and other crooked racers. Ah, to have a car like the Mach 5 with all that technology was something I dreamed of as a child. Now, while I don’t have the homing pigeon, jumping jacks, or saw blades out the front, my EV has a ton of technology I couldn’t have imaged back then.
GIF #3: Not Getting Anywhere
This gif can say a lot. You can use it to indicate your stuck in a rut or maybe you’ve tried everything and can’t get anywhere. Scooby Doo always would move his legs but not go anywhere then he finally got traction and got out of danger. This is much like life for me. My mind or my body want to go somewhere, but physically I don’t. At least that’s how it feels when rush projects come along or scope changes unexpectedly. Once I take a breath, I can move again.
GIF #4: Sit Back and Relax
As Liz Blazer states “Yes and…” is one of the tools I need to use more often. I think back how Disney animators hand drew each character or set with meticulous detail. While it may have been tedious, in the end the animation was believable because of the detail and small movements. Today it’s a bit easier but still tedious because you have to make sure not to do too large of a movement or it won’t be believable. Another reminder is how the use of sound effects and music played into animation. Games, cartoons, and eLearning animations all make use of this. Those that do it well can see their audience engaged.
GIF#5: Just…Pure Power
GIFs can be just about anything now. The idea that this incredible human being had such power in a compact frame. This just speaks to me as a martial artist. Bruce Lee, while human, achieved superhuman status and I (along with probably millions of others) tried to emulate his techniques growing up. As for the GIF, it doesn’t flow smoothly from one to the next, but this is one where I don’t think it needs to. The GIF makes a distinct point between a one and six inch punch and then starts over. Only one word…WOW!
Create
GIF #1: Fisker Ocean Driver Display
For my first GIF, I decided to recreate the driver display in my new Fisker Ocean Electrical Vehicle (EV). This was my first time creating a GIF and using Photoshop to animate it. Once I was able to decide how I wanted the animation sequence to move, I started production and used both SnagIt and Photoshop to create the GIF.
SnagIt
First, I used the digital version of my owners manual to “snag” the image with all the telltales (icons or information messages). Then I “snagged” several of the telltales that I wanted to include. Since there were 16 callouts with lines, I needed to create a blank canvas. So, I covered the image with a blank black box. From there I copied all the telltales from earlier and created a general driver display. I saved the driver display, telltale blockers, and telltales as png files. Next, onto Photoshop for the magic!
Photoshop
In Photoshop I opened the driver display, telltale blocker and telltale png files. On the driver display image I copied each of the telltale blockers and telltale icons to their own layers. With the driver display image layer locked, I used Windows>Timeline to place the current layers on the timeline. From there, I adjusted each telltale icon I wanted animated until I got the sequencing you see below. For the blue information message telltale, I used a blocker (black box) to turn the layer on and off to appear as if it were blinking.
GIF #2: Fisker Ocean Cinemograph Ad
For my second GIF, I continue my path using my new Fisker Ocean as the focal point. This GIF proved to be the most time consuming and challenging for me. Adding motion to a still image seems easy but you really have to pay attention and experiment with what feels good as a creative professional. I actually created two versions. The first version played with perspective and different messaging than the second. I employed several techniques along with several applications. I downloaded a beach video from Envato Elements to use for the motion and still portion of the cinemograph.
Premiere Pro
First, after downloading the video from Envato Elements, the file size was too big (27MB). Therefore, I brought the video into Premiere Pro to help reduce the size. First, I trimmed the video down to 6 seconds. Then, when I exported the video, I saved it to the H.264 format and downsized the video from a 4K dimension size and saved the file out to a 7MB MP4 file. Resizing the file made it much easier to work with in Photoshop.
Photoshop
After getting the video size right, I pulled all my assets into Photoshop and began the layering process. Once I had the beach scene working, I then added the image of my Fisker Ocean. From there I added a gradient fill and clipping mask to the Fisker Ocean image. Then, I applied a Linear Burn to match the scene as best I could. Next was adding the text. I used Galley font and applied a drop shadow to each of the 5 text layers. For the 100lbs text, I applied an Overlay effect to allow the motion to bleed through.
GIF #3: 16 Desires of Motivation – Onion Skin
For my third GIF, I chose to use the onion-skin method for a graphic I created in the Fall Semester. The content was originally created using Illustrator. While I labeled my layers, my first attempt to import into Adobe Animate didn’t go so well as the text was throwing errors. After removing the text from the Illustrator file, I was able to import the file and begin my animation by using onion skinning and manual manipulation frame by frame. Because there were a lot of elements on the screen, it took a few hours to create a 3 second clip. While it should meet the requirements, I know there’s definitely room for refinement. However, for a first-try at onion skinning and using Animate, I thought it came out okay. I can say I still need a LOT of practice using Animate to become proficient, but I know when I do it will add so much more to my learner’s journey when I can custom create something for them to interact with to help get a concept or task across.
