Development: Alumni Project

From the moment I heard the Alumni brief I decided I wanted to make good use of the opportunity. I chose to do a project that would allow me to learn and develop my skills using a software that I knew pretty much nothing about (After Effects). I wanted to take the chance to use these three weeks to test myself and hopefully gain an understanding with a software package that I'd like to use to help me in forthcoming weeks with my client project.

I started out by trying to create some 3D text which you can see a little further down the blog (Alumni text against a white background).

I then found out that we would struggle to obtain what I would describe as solid relevant footage for this project so I decided I would forget the Idea of using video at all in this and really challenge myself by creating something from scratch purely by using After Effects, Photoshop and Premiere.

I took the Images that were provided from Alumni and decided to cut them up into layers. The layers were cut in accordance to depth of Image. Items or people in the foreground would be separated from those behind and then walls or backdrops would be another separate layer. I created a plain back drop and floor in After Effects. I Discarded the back layer (walls) and began layering the remaining layers in a a style that I felt would work. I always felt as though the transitions from one Image to the next would need linking and tying together so I started working on creating a bouncing ball that would move between layers before eventually integrating itself into the Alumni text at the end of the sequence. The ball was ok but it needed a bit of work so I worked on making the ball squash and reform as it made contact with the floor on every bounce I then added in a shadow to try and bring the ball to life a little. Later I decided it was best if the ball was best to finish its movement off by doting the 'I' in Alumni instead of some my other ideas like bouncing out of shot filling the screen in the process or smashing through the text. I chose the doting of the I as it was a more tidy finish and something which wouldn't deliver a message that could be misconstrued like smashing up the word Alumni could of done.

The track used in this sequence is a unreleased track from a local unsigned band called 'Patterns in Static'. This is a band that I have a link to and was able to use there track as part of a deal that we struck between ourselves which involved them receiving a new band logo.

The screen shot below was taken from one of first drafts which involved the word future dropping down and swinging into position from the E in the word ShapE positioned above. This text was all joined together and rose out of the ground through the bottom layer being led by 'pick whip' from the word Helping.

The following Images show some of the development as it took place including the keyframing of different layers, positioning of layers and the movement of layers within the timeline. The blurry shot (three images down) was taken from the footage I collected while trying to record the sound effect for the bouncing ball which features at the beginning.