An Attempt at Animation

Motion graphics. They’re exactly what they seem:

Motion Graphics: pieces of digital footage or animation which create the illusion of motion or rotation, and are usually combined with audio for use in multimedia projects.

Though I’ve long been a fan of motion graphics, as a True Procrastinator™, I’ve never gone anywhere near its realm, always putting off its exploration for “later” or “next semester”. I told myself I’d try last year after we finished building the yearbook, but, instead, I spent the time whittling my editor application to perfection (which paid off, but this also means I’ve still never touched animation).

My lack of experience in the field of animation would have continued on for who knows how long had I not been forced to learn in just under 13 hours. As the Graphics and Design head for TEDxYouth@Austin, I’m in charge of creating speaker bumpers (animated intros) to precede each speaker. Because I’d never worked with Ae (Adobe AfterEffects, the animation software), I went ahead and distributed the task to the rest of my team and moved onto creating program cards, shirts, and signage. Unfortunately, my team fell through, and I was left with a 13 hour timeline to learn and apply my newfound Ae skills to create a bumper.

It sucked. I was up at 4 AM scrubbing through increments of time, plugging in start and stop values to launch and erase the animation. I finished with a few crusty bits of animation (the “t” in “out” is a little rough, but I was so tired and drained that I let it be), but I’m satisfied with the overall product, given that I only spent 5 hours working on the entire thing!

The bumpers were displayed at the final event and met with success and celebration, as the entire team was unsure if it we would even have bumpers due to its last-minute creation. Will I animate anything else anytime soon? Maybe next semester. :)))