Typography & Motion Graphics After Effects Tutorial

This is a basic tutorial on typography that I thought is really easy to follow along. Typography is such a fascinating use of animation, you can create and do just about anything with it. The way it all flows together is almost like creating its own story, its so interesting! There is so many examples of it on YouTube that I definitely recommend checking out.

Becky and Joe - From Tame Impala to Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

Tame Impala is a band well known among college students, and probably their most well-known song is Feels Like We Only Go Backwards. Aside from having that classic indie music sound and lyrics that are easy to sing along to, Feels Like We Only Go Backwards has an amazing, colorful, engaging and trippy music video. It wasn’t until recently, however, that I found out that the makers of the music video are the same people behind the popular YouTube videos “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared”.

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is a five part video series that falls into the “WTF” category of YouTube videos. It’s nothing special in terms of animation, and is mostly just known for the dialogue/music in the videos. It was very surprising to me then that these same people were the brilliant animators behind the popular Tame Impala music video. Their website has this caption accompanying their upload of the music video: “Becky and Joe directed the new video for Tame Impala’s latest single ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’. The film is made up from over 100 separate plasticine collages all individually made by hand”. That’s what makes the music video so amazing - the fact that it wasn’t computer generated. They actually took the time to design all of this will plasticine clay - a process that is much more precise and time consuming than the computer-based alternative. Knowing what the animators at Becky and Joe are capable of makes me really wonder what made them decide to stick with the Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared videos…

Stop Motion Animation

For my final project, I was weighing on what exactly to do and then I saw this video and was instantly inspired. I think stop motion is so fascinating and doesn't nearly get enough credit on just how difficult it is to create this type of animation. This particular video was so unique and I loved the sound effects, it's definitely worth checking out!

Weird Internet Animations

asdfmovie is by far, one of my favorite weird internet animated videos of all time. Simple, completely out of context, and hilarious. Animation and comedy seem to go hand in hand every time.

The asdfmovies were written by Thomas "TomSka" Ridgewell, a British comedy writer. His comedy is typically dark and random. The asdfmovies are comprised of short animated sketches. Tom gained a large following after the popularization of his first asdfmovie (2008) and has released a total of nine to date (the most recent one was released August 7, 2015).

Tom releases other types of videos on his channel as well, yet most of them are comedic sketches and animated shorts. Another one of my favorites from his channel is Rock Bottom (uploaded in 2012), a short sketch about two guys living in a house that falls off a cliff and sinks to the bottom of the ocean. The short video pokes fun at the comedy used in many sitcoms. If you want a good laugh, I recommend watching this one. It's only one minute long.

Tutorial on City Fly-Through

For my original idea of remaking an opening credit sequence, I was going to go through a city for the opening, however, I had no idea how to do that. After searching for a couple of tutorials I came across this one and I thought it did an incredible job of teaching you. It was extremely easy to follow along and for that I was grateful. I went on to watch a couple more of his videos and I thought they were really interesting and I learned a lot. I would definitely recommend watching some of his tutorials to help you out. He covers a lot, from basic techniques to more complex, but he does it in a really easy to follow sort of way.

Salad Fingers

Salad Fingers

I'm pretty sure I haven't posted about this series on the blog yet. This horrifying collection of animations forms the entity known as Salad Fingers. Salad Fingers, which was a bit of an internet sensation in 2005, was created by animator David Firth in 2004. The dark/psychological comedy  focuses on the life of a creepy green man(?) in what looks to be a post apocalyptic setting. Like Joe Zombie, I first watched this series years ago and I was horrified and--to be honest--it's still a little hard to watch!

What's really interesting about this animation is how dark and abstract it gets. There's been a lot of speculation done by fans of the show in regards to Salad Finger's identity and his relationship to the world around him.

Liquify

For one of my animation projects I needed to melt different objects. I did some research and found this interesting tutorial on how to liquify objects in after effects. It's very helpful and I plan to use this tutorial for my project. The animator does a good job of displaying the steps and in the end, the liquify effect seems to work perfectly. Check it out!

After Effects Tutorial: Particle Text Effect

I've been looking for a lot of After Effects tutorials that would give me cool text effects and give me lots of options for customization. This is a nice one that I found by Morocco that uses a particle effect--but I found that it could be altered to fit any other type of aesthetic.



I really like the style of this tutorial--it feels very modern and fresh but extremely customizeable. It's a good resource, especially since we've been dealing with a lot of text. Morocco's channel also has a lot more tutorials that deal with particles and logos and such.



If you want to explore more, definitely check out his Youtube channel--he has Photoshop tutorials as well as After Effects that are just as good.

Charlie the Unicorn

Charlie the Unicorn is an animated series that started back in 2005 and has since become an internet phenomenon. After a few years of inactivity they have announced that they are planning to make a half hour final episode.  The video above pitches the project and links people to their kickstarter. Below is a link to the series thus far.

Content may be questionable, but techniques are undeniable.

For those of you who don't know, there's a whole unwritten subcategory on Youtube called Youtube Poop videos.  These videos consist of various nonsensical topics that just take random subjects and distort them with audio or video techniques, and some Youtubers go as far to make their own stories with the distorted content.  While some are incredibly easy to make, others take some very advanced techniques, like some of the techniques we're learning in class right now.

One of my favorite kinds of Youtube poop videos involves Michael Rosen, a children's story author who has videos of himself telling the stories.  What makes him great material for Youtube poop videos is that he makes so many funny noises and faces, so some amazing imagery can be concocted.  Some of them are absolutely hilarious, and this one in particular utilizes some notable editing techniques like keying, motion tracking, and even some forms of 3D animation.  Sure the story can be strange and offbeat, but the editing is actually really well done.  There was plenty of effort put into this, unlike a lot of other Youtube Poops on the web.

The Michael Rosen Venture

Puppet Tool

For the next project I had the idea of doing a type of puppet effect using video/ picture files of myself and some friends. At first I started looking up different options of animating my own face, body etc. and ended up getting the idea from this video tutorial on youtube and it takes you through the process step by step so its easier for people who are less experienced with graphic design like myself. Granted the guy that narrates the tutorial is annoying as hell so I had to mute it and follow along but it wasn't that difficult. He's got a bunch of other video tutorials that work with animating the body to do many things.

Typography : Suit & Tie

I have yet to post about an animation that involves typography. Recently in the music industry, lyric videos have become more and more popular. At times the lyric videos seem more like music videos than lyric videos, but they still capture the idea of typography. The example of typography that I chose is Justin Timberlake's lyric video for Suit & Tie. The video displays the lyrics cleverly by sneaking in the words into different parts of the video. It's an example of a very creative lyric video that is pleasing to the eye. I hope that lyric videos continue to display lyrics in a creative way as the music industry continues to evolve.

The Efforts of Claymation

When was the last time you guys say claymation? Well I gave it a quick youtube search and it produced a whole assortment of videos, from amateur animators to a Wallace and Gromit ad. Like stop motion a lot goes into making a claymation and claymation characters feel and act as if they were real people. There're many different aspects that go into creating a claymation character, like the basic design and the execution of sculpting them. The precise motion that happens within each frame is both time consuming and necessary for the animator to get completely right. Below is both the amateur animation that I found (which is charming and short and kind of funny) as well as the Wallace and Gromit ad that aired sometime in the 2000’s.   For how time consuming claymation is, the efforts really do pay off in the end.

How To Make a Cartoon | For Beginners - After Effects Tutorial

For my name project and main project I needed to make characters for my plot and I wasn't exactly sure how to go about it, and this tutorial really helped me understand how to do it! This YouTuber has a lot of great tutorials on after effects that you guys should check out if need any help with certain aspects of After Effects! 

Tutorial : Underwater

For one of my animation projects I wanted the setting to be underwater. I went on youtube to see if I could find any good tutorials and I came across this one. It’s a very helpful tutorial that captures the essence of being underwater. It goes as far as to create the light from the sun shining in through the water and shows you how to make realistic looking bubbles. I definitely recommend this tutorial if you are trying to create this scene. 

Stop-motion Tetris Chalk Animation

One of my favorite channels on Youtube, called AWE me (Amaze, Wow and Educate), is home to a collection of videos based around creating various kinds of art, props and actual forged weaponry. While the channel's most popular video series revolves around the channel's owner's blacksmithing business, there are some pretty cool videos involving chalk art. This video in particular, which depicts a stop-motion simulation of the game Tetris on a large chalkboard surface, is really impressive.

At the end of the video, you can see how the chalkboard surface actually curves onto the floor from the wall, which makes it look like the Tetris screen is actually standing straight up on a surface instead of just being plastered onto a wall. I assume that similar techniques with the angles of surface onto which images are displayed can be used on green screens to project more realistic simulations, rather than just having them be flat.

Pixlpit

This is Youtuber and animator Pixl Pit.       

https://www.youtube.com/user/pixlpit/

I've stumbled upon a few of this guy's animations on Youtube before and I really like them.

Most of the animations I've seen from him have been where he takes the audio from another Youtuber's video and uses it to shape what he makes, while also often adding in some of his own audio to fill gaps. All of his animations on youtube are 3D and made in Maya. In addition to that, he also renders in RedShift and uses After Effects for compositing.

How I Made: Smoke, Space, and Snow! - Pixlpit Tutorials

At 0:43 seconds he zooms out, and you can see that the landscape he's working is actually a "bunch of pancakes." As someone not very familiar with Maya or 3D animation, I found it very fascinating that he was able to construct this environment from a few of simple forms. Furthermore, I liked that he was able to manipulate how it was viewed by changing the zoom and angle of the "camera" (I don't know how this is done specifically in Maya, but in After Effects there are cameras that achieve this). I don't know how helpful the tutorial actually is, but it's cool to watch his process and see how he makes these things.


Here's another video he did using the sound from another Youtuber's video.

Camera Movement Tutorial

This video might be very useful to a lot of people in the class.  I know it is something I want to incorporate in to my projects. This is a relatively short tutorial on how to have a "camera" movement incorporated into After Effects. So you can have pans, tilts, and zooms like a normal camera but all animated through after effects. It's a great  tutorial and its easy to follow.

The Pixel Art Path

Recently I have become really fascinated with pixel art, and how people animate it this unique style.  For my name project in class, I wanted to go in a more retro direction, and make something that looks like a classic NES game, such as The Legend of Zelda, or Metroid.  While searching for tutorials, I found that making pixel art is a relatively simple process, yet it could end up taking a long time to master.  It requires quite a bit of patience, and a lot of creativity.
One video that really struck me was a speed-art video done by a youtuber by the name of, "Binof trash."  In the video, she draws a cute rpg style girl, and shows her animation process, resulting in the adorable short clip below:

This artist has a number of videos showing her skills in animating pixel art, and they're all very fun to watch.  I hope that one day I could end up making animations as beautiful as hers!

Animated Bloopers

I've decided to dedicate my first post to something I love but don't entirely understand. In my internet travels, I've come across bloopers for things I watched as a kid; things like The Lion King, Toy Story, and Monster's Inc along with many others have bloopers on YouTube. I understand that some of the bloopers come from the voice actors messing up their lines while rolling, or accidentally making other strange noises during a take. But, there are some things that I have to question, like are some of these thing just funny things the animators just envisioned? I love that it is something that we have, even though it is kind of confusing, because bloopers are just fun. Anyway, here are a few that I love to watch anyway.