Here Goes Nothing

I do not intend on attempting this.

I don't know anything about animation, but I do know that I like it and I'm excited to learn about it. Movies, shorts, title sequences, whatever it is I'm always amazed at how animated pieces are put together. I enjoy watching animated movies and then going back and learning from the 'behind-the-scenes' videos or 'the making of' videos. I have no previous experience with this stuff except for maybe the drawing classes I took when I was 10 (does that count?). I started using photoshop over winter break to learn about masking, layering, and some other basic techniques, but After Effects is on a whole other level.

But that's okay. I went to Cinemapolis with some friends a few nights ago and saw Anomalisa--now that looked like it was very, very difficult to make. In other words, I'm thankful that a lot of stuff we're going to be doing will be on a computer with a least a few presets, and that we're not creating sculptures that have to be manipulated to create every single frame of a film.

I know that I need to work on my drawing skills this semester. Before I create good 3D animation, I have to be proficient in 2D animation, which means I have to get better at drawing. I plan on getting my colored pencils this weekend and then starting from there. Arturo showed my Fiction Field 2 class last semester a video where this comic book artist talks about drawing as a skill, not a talent: something that anyone, with enough practice, can get good at. Of course I can't find the video now, but maybe he'll show us in class next week. I'm not exactly sure what to look for as I collect source material for my name animation, but I presume I'll figure that out shortly. 

And The Survey Says... After Effects!!!

So in my random search amongst YouTube, I happened to stumble upon a really cool YouTube Channel of a foreign studio who has made videos of different movie clips. So the one that I watched the most recently was a Fast and Furious RC Car chase.

The use of After Effects in this video was quite clear and quite obvious. But the cool thing is, it's subtle enough to not know that it was an RC car race, besides knowing or clearly seeing that they were RC cars.

The use of smoke for the burning rubber in the very beginning was really cool, but I have to say that the two coolest FX that were in the video were being able to see the heat coming from the tailpipes when the cars were lined up at the line waiting for the green light. And also the fire at the very end of the clip.

The entire video featured After Effects to help enhance that feeling of being able to trick the mind into thinking you were watching a real car chase. I know that I have learned enough to be able to do some of these effects, but I hope to strengthen my knowledge of After Effects to be able to know much much more.