Motion Graphics & Compositing - Practical/Tutorial
Aug 29th, 2022 - Dec 11th, 2022 (Week 1 - Week 14)
Rusydina Fazlin Athirah Binti Fauzi
Motion Graphics & Compositing
Week 2 [September 5th, 2022]
Practical
INSTRUCTIONS
Practical
Week 2 - Collage Composition
Physical collage exercise
September 5th, 2022
Let's dive into the first practice that we worked on in the second week of motion graphics and composition. In the past week, Mr. Fauzi had us prepare materials for this upcoming exercise, the requirements were:
- elements, graphics (from, magazines, old books, etc.)
- scissors
- glue
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| Preperation_proof_Sept 5th_2022 |
-with all the materials set and ready, I worked into my first physical collage. When it comes to making collages which is something I tried and tried again to get myself into but after a whole while I'd get a little bored of it, I'd see many kinds of collages and compositions on the internet and even on Pinterest which sets into a mood that I push myself into liking.
But again like I mentioned the way that collages work set in with composition, which I didn't know was important at the time, I definitely learned a thing or two during this exercise.
There were about 3 compositions that I worked around until the 3rd one was one of a composition that was up to its display, at least in my opinion.
Composition Attempt #1
It definitely started off slow, I genuinely had no direction of how I wanted this composition to work out, or what it needed and should display. It was a mess and it definitely looked 'busy'.
But after seeking Mr. Fauzi's opinion and thoughts on my first attempt at this exercise, I slowly started to understand in a simpler way and important points to highlight, when making a composition, I needed to make sure I have:
- a focus point (one or two elements)
- build your way into a direction on the canvas (focus point creates movement into another composition or a transition into another element)
- don't be scared to make it as simple as it can be
- small details
Composition Attempt #2
My second attempt still had its difficulty in the focal point, which is something I struggle with in general, so when applied to the collage of this whole exercise really says a lot about my mind. Mr. Fauzi mentioned how this somewhat ties a little to how our mindsets are, which is why I find this exercise really interesting and overall new to try out.
But going back to the point, this second composition had its potential, especially after more comments and assistance given by Mr. Fauzi.
Composition Final Attempt #3
Final composition attempt and this one I had a little help from Mr. Fauzi, the focal point is now much more visible which is the peacock. I got a lot more confident in adding more elements that stay within the theme of a peacock that seemed as if it had its tail wide open, but I'm aware there could have been a lot more interesting changes and sequences of elements to put onto the canvas.
Something that Mr. Fauzi mentioned is how "You should never love your work", and in a way, I understand what that saying could mean, it's not wrong to love your work, you should be proud with what you put out but also stepping out of your comfort zone to make room for change and improvement is something that we should try to love or even take pride of.
-and with this exercise, there were many things to keep in mind, it had me on my toes but it was still super fun.
Tutorial
After completing all things physically we move into attempting this exercise digitally;
Tasks for week 2 (tutorial):
- Follow instructions on the Tutorial demo during an online class.
- Refer to this tutorial video to create a composition:
- Create your own composition based on the requirements below:
- Download all of the design elements from this link:
- Using Photoshop, create an A4 size canvas. Trace and crop the images using the Pen tool. Use blending modes to create double exposure effects.
- Create 3 different compositions (using the same design elements)
- Submission on E-PORTFOLIO blog
My attempts at working out and designing each composition digital with the elements provided by Mr. Fauzi can be seen below:
Composition #1
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Composition #2
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Composition #3
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For each of the compositions above, I used a golden ratio template as a reference to make sure I don't stray away from the principles of design. Also, make sure that everything looks neat and aligned and is not messy.
Week 3 - Week 5 - Collage Composition (digital)
Digital collage exercise | Animation
September 12th/19th/26th, 2022
Going into the 3rd week of our practice and tutorial, the digital compositions that were prepared and completed last week are now meant to be animated through Adobe after effects, a way to practice, explore and experiment with the movements and alterations that can be applied to each of the compositions seen above.
Another thing as well is that this practical/tutorial on digital composition animation is a way to assist and prepare for the first project in motion graphics and compositing.
This exercise had a span of 3 weeks, from the third week all the way into the 5th week (where the submission lies).
Throughout the 3rd week, I experimented and explored as well as played around with the presets in After Effects there wasn't as much of an animation that was going on but I did what I could to attempt a simple motion to the competition I picked, which was the first composition I had a design.
Progression #1 (Week 3)
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| Visual image_progress 1 |
As seen in the image above was the first part of my progression of the exercise, I worked my way through the composition since it was just a poster and had to be translated to animation, I didn't alter the positions of the elements. I feared straying away from the initial design, so I didn't change as much, but only added motion to the elements that are:
- the paper airplanes
- Fencer
- Fencer shadow
- mountain
-and I added in a masking effect for the plant that's behind the fencer.
So, with what I managed to work out in the 3rd week of this exercise, I waited and sought feedback from Mr. Fauzi in the continuous week.
(Week 4) - Progression #2
Further, into the 4th week, I started to understand a lot more about the freedom that I had at hand to play around more with the positions of elements in the composition.
The feedback given by Mr. Fauzi was helpful and reassuring enough to know that as long as similar elements are within that animation composition it won't stray away from the poster that was designed (since it is just a still image), the animation or motion graphics in this exercise, helps tell a story to the poster which is what the exercise is aiming for.
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| Visual image_progress 2 |
Other than the general feedback and assistance in the reassurance that Mr. Fauzi gave, he also suggested working within compositions of a composition or in other words working on separate parts of the elements in composition in another composition.
It helps organizes the layers and it won't be as confusing to scroll through the multiple layers of elements. As seen above, I'm working on the paper airplanes in a separate composition to later merge and compile them with the other elements in a separate composition.
It may sound a little complicated but once I actually attempted it, it was such a convenient process. The use of null object layers within this composition is also something I want to point out as well, it acts as a double transform edition to the elements without facing any type of transformation within the original layer of the paper airplane layers.
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| Visual image_progress 3 |
In a separate composition to the airplanes, as seen above which consists of the fencer, mountain, and the plants I played around more with filling up the negative space that was there before by substituting it with the plant. Filling the canvas much more.
-the 5th week would be the submission of this exercise, where we practice and understand advanced layers, keyframing, basic animation & rotoscoping.
-the 5th week would be the submission of this exercise, where we practice and understand advanced layers, keyframing, basic animation & rotoscoping.
All these practices will hopefully help in our upcoming projects.
As seen above, it is the timeline to these two separate edited compositions but placed into one composition as a layer, that still plays out the animation to the composition.
(Week 5) - Progression #2
The fifth week into the exercise and I was finally content with what I was able to work on within this composition animation exercise. Just like how I have a separate composition I placed these two separate compositions into one composition.
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| Visual image_progress 4 |
As seen above, it is the timeline to these two separate edited compositions but placed into one composition as a layer, that still plays out the animation to the composition.
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| Visual image_progress 4 |
-and finally, the last few changes that I did to the composition were to just adjust the plant according to scale which has a much more balanced and unity-look to the composition.
Once completed, I rendered the composition and upload it to youtube for easier submission of the video.
Below can be seen the outcome of the following exercise completed:
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