FINAL PROJECT

Create a  30 second commercial for either an imaginary product or a cause of your choice. Your product can be anything from a bowling ball to a cloud making machine or a rocket ship. Your cause can be a real-life organization/issue or anything along the lines of voting rights for puppies... Anything goes as long as you make your point clear.

Part 1: Storyboard
Due: December 2
Using Illustrator or Photoshop, create 5 to 10 frames illustrating a 30 second animation peace based on the content described below.

Part 2: 30 Second Animation
Due: December 16

Requirements:
IMPORTANT: All content must be created by you. 
VERY IMPORTANT: Keep your After Effects files well-organized and backed up. I will ask you to bring them to the last class and open them for me to inspect.

• Logo or title (which you can animate in any style you wish as long as it's not a simple fade-on)
• At least 5 lines of animated text
• At least 20 images (multiple images can appear in the frame at the same time)
• Music of your choice 
• 3d layers and cameras
• Pre-comps
  

Specifications: 

• length: EXACTLY 30 seconds (not a frame more or less)
• frame rate: 29.97 fps
  
• size: NTSC DV
• format: Quicktime movie with h264 compression

Extra credit: Use at least 2 quicktimes you yourself have created (with any camera equipment available to you.

Class Exercise: 11.18.10

* This exercise is not graded but I will mark it as "Submitted" or "Not Submitted". To get credit for it, please place your render (NTSC DV/quicktime h264) into my drop box by next class (December 2, 2010).

• Find a logo (preferably a vector file), simple enough to divide into three to five elements. You can use a logo you've designed for another class or download a free logo from a site like http://www.brandsoftheworld.com/ (logos are free but registration is required).
• Divide the logo in either Illustrator or Photoshop so that each element is on a separate, clearly named layer. 
• Import the file into After Effects as a "composition with cropped layers." Note: If you left your logo elements as sub-layers in illustrator they will not import as separate layers in After Effects.
• If you imported the file correctly,  you should see a folder with all your layers and a composition with all the layers in appropriate positions.
• Change the composition size to NTSC DV (Composition > Composition Settings)
• Turn your layers into 3d layer.
• Use 3d space to deconstruct your logo and bring it back together in the final frame. (The animation will begin with an empty screen or a simple geometric element and turn into the final logo).

I uploaded a quick example I made in class. My animation is very short – feel free to stick to the same timing: http://www.vimeo.com/17130661

Class Notes: 11.11.2010 [Week 11]

• Continue working with camera
• transform options
• camera options: zoom, depth of field, focus distance, aperture, blur level.
• Lighting
• Depth and parallax discussion
• Turning 2d images into 3d layers with camera animation

Class Notes: 11.04.2010 [Week 10]

• Review using Cloud/smoke footage as masks
• build custom cloud mask transitions
• create a new comp of layered cloud footage
• make sure the footage builds up from an empty screen to full white
• fade on a white solid to compensate for any non-white areas
• use comp as luma matte to bring on assets in main comp
• Fake ink dissolve
• create a mask expanding
• apply "roughen edges" (Effects>Stylize)
• animate "scale" and/or "revolutions"
• apply/adjust blur at will
• Intro to 3d layer
• using x y z coordinates
• using multiple views and viewing directions
• positioning layers in z space
• using a camera
• camera keys and tools
• animating a camera vs animating layers

Project #6: Ransom Note

Due dates:
rough: November 4, 2010
final: November 11, 2010

Description:
Create a 30 second animation of a ransom note.

Use text created either in After Effects or Photoshop/Illustrator. Combine
text with images and/or quicktimes. Use any of the animation techniques
and
effects we have covered so far. Add music/sound effects of your choice.

IMPORTANT: All images and quicktimes you use must be created by you. You
are allowed to download royalty and copyright free textures from a website
like  HYPERLINK "http://www.mayang.com/textures" www.mayang.com/textures, but only if you use them in an unrecognizable
manner (by using blending modes, applying effects, altering in photoshop, etc).

Specifications:
* You must submit your quicklime using the following specs. Points will be
deducted if your size, frame-rate or compression are different. If you are
not sure what I mean, shoot me an email.

dimentions:

• NTSC DV (720 x 480)
• frame rate: 29.97 fps
• format: Quicktime movie - h264 compression

Class Notes: 10.28.10 [Week 9]

• Review stroke effect
• Blending Modes
• moving textures
• parallax in textures using different speeds
• blending modes in nested comps: continuous rasterization
• Alpha/Luma matte review
• Cloud/smoke footage as masks
• make footage black/white (make sure you have perfect blacks/whites where necessary)
• Hue Sat; Levels or Curves
• use as luma mask
• use blending modes to create a multiple footage compilation

Project #5: Ordinary to Extraordinary – Animation

Create a 30 second animation based on your styleframes.
*Please see "Ordinary to Extraordinary – Styleframes" project for directions.

Class Notes: 10.21.10 [Week 8]

Guest speaker: Robert Paynter (www.robertpaynter.com) Contact: robert@robertpaynter.com

• industry discussion
• shape layers

In-class exercise: Create abstract background animation using shape layers.

Class Notes: 10.14.10 [Week 7]

• Style frames discussion
• Effects (continued):
• Distort fx (continued)
• Time Effects fx
• Generate fx
• Perspective fx (drop shadow)

Project #4: Ordinary to Extraordinary – Style Frames

Select a number of images or footage to represent one type of environment (forest, apartment, city neighborhood, etc).

Your 30 sec animation will show a transition from the ordinary, everyday environment you created to the same environment made "extraordinary" using effects we went over in class (or any others you want to explore).

Your first frame will represent your "regular" world. The second frame will be the transition between two states and the third frame will represent the "extraordinary" state.

When creating your frames, begin brainstorming about the kinds of effects you might want to use. Explore AE's effects list for ideas. Make sure to keep you design simple enough to be completed in 1 -2 weeks.