WEAR A HELMET - STOP MOTION/AFTER EFFECTS PERFORMANCE

Well, Hi there neighbour! 

Last time I was nattering on about some animation I was doing about a bike and a forest or something..?

Well here it be!

Give it a watch, and a like and tell all your friends IF YOU WANT TO!

This was a project for university where we had to incorporate After Effects into a 10-15 second stop motion performance.

So in true Sean fashion, I DID 35 SECONDS! WAHOO

To make this lil animation, I first animated it in the studio, Here's a little image of my set up: 

The first thing to do was erase all the rigs that can be seen holding my character up throughout the animation. 

This is a frame from the original animation, rigs n' all.

So here's how I went about it… IN PICTURES!

 Once all the colour correction and masks were done, it was on to keying out the green/blue screen and then sticking the animation in a forest.

So in order to have a forest, one must make a forest.

HERES WHAT I DIGITALLY PAINTED IN PHOTOSHOP, 

This consists of 9 layers going in order of:

 Blurry Bush

Blurry Tree

Ground and Red Bush

TREES

Dark red bush

Mist

Blurry Green Bush

TREES

TREES

Sky

The layers were then imported into After Effects and made into a very long digitally made 3D set.

Once that was done, I went on to animating movement in the original bike footage, so it wasn't just in one static place.

I then went on to adding the effects for the animation such as the flames, smoke, dust and dirt. 

Starting with the the jet's flame, using the 'CC Particle World' simulation preset that after effects provides.

HERE'S WHAT I DONE.

I found that the jet looked cooler with a blue flame squirting out the back, so I fiddled with the options and came out with this lil guy below, HE LOOKS LIKE A CUTE LITTLE WISP.

The lil wisp was then animated following the bike... 

Then I animated the camera. After that, the dust dirt and explosions, kindly donated by Mr. James Carlisle and his friend in the VFX Course of USW. (Who's name I do not know, but THANKS A BUNCH!)

Then I had the final animation ready and done! It took 6 hrs to export! WAHOO! 

Glad I got a RAM update over the summer!

In other news, a film I made back in school has been nominated for an award on Monday at Cardiff Millennium Centre. Which is strange, as I made it in 2010 and it's pretty basic! hah

Oh well! Can't complain!