For this project, I was required to create a simple animation making a graphic I made in Adobe Illustrator move in Adobe After Effects. After learning the basics of the program, I took to creating my own animation to greater increase my skillset and knowledge in Adobe After Effects.

I first started out with a concept and sketched out a story board to figure out what animation I wanted to create for each scene and frame. It was pretty rough, but the idea was there. I also drew a more detailed version of the scene and then the elements in more detail so I could jump into Illustrator. 

Above is a quick view of a few variations I came up with for the Illustration part of this project. I want to focus on the animation section of this case, so I won't cover this design process in depth. I started with the left image and made tweaks until I ended with the one on the far right.

These are the different assets from the Illustrator file that I pulled into Adobe After Effects. I ended up adding circles for the background within After Effects and made the cat tail out of a stroke within the program as well. 

My first idea with this design was to have the illustration slowly turn to night and have the gil switch on the lamp. The scene would then slowly turn back to day and she would turn off the light. I really liked this concept, but I couldn't get the hand transition right and I didn't want an unperfected final product, so I went back to the drawing board. I decided I wanted the animation to give off a more cozy vibe, making the viewer feel like they are chilling, reading a book, relaxing on a Sunday afternoon. 

There are about 30 variations of this animation with meticulous tweaks separating each draft, but I won't put you through showing you each of those. Basically, after moving away from the day-to-night transition idea, I just wanted the animation to be simple and relaxing. I wanted the head to bob, making it feel like she was content reading as long as she could. I also wanted the background to give off a "transe" feeling, to seem relaxing. I also wanted the plant and the cat tail to slightly more to make it feel more organic.

For my final, I tweaked the cat's tail to make it feel more realistic and changed the background to not be as distracting. I felt like the circles were more "relaxing" than the uneven blobs I have before. These growing and shrinking circles made it feel more lo-fi esc rather than a big distraction in the background. I also made them move slower as to not take away from the other motions that are smaller in the composition. 

All-in-all, I am happy with how this animation came together. It gives off the feel I was going for and fulfills the requirement sof the assignment. I still want to go back to my first concept and figure out how to get the hand moving from the book to turn on the light to not look awkward, but I knew I wouldn't have been able to do that with the time I was alloted for this project. It is important to be honest with yourself and with your client on the scope, time, and talent necessary to complete a project. I will continue trying to create that first idea though! But I am happy with how this came out! Now go have a relaxing afternoon and curl up with a good book!

Here is a YouTube link to the animation if the embeded files don't load.

https://youtube.com/shorts/rnF_9HxKxyU?feature=share