OVERCOMING ONE OF THE GREATEST FEARS OF HUMANITY
This project was an opportunity to learn how to work simultaneously with Adobe Illustrator and Adobe After Effects. The objective was to create an asset pack of motion graphics for a news story head talk video. I shot the video, then I used Adobe Illustrator to design the graphics, and later I animated each asset in Adobe After Effects. I decided to use the TED Talk video “The Power of Vulnerability” by Brené Brown as a reference. I focused on designing and animating lower thirds, a title page, a data visualization, and a lower third with the cited sources.
SKETCHES AND STORY BOARDS
Once I knew the topic I wanted for the video, I started working on the assets. Since I was going to provide tips to overcome vulnerability, I designed a lightbulb for the lower thirds to show ideas and tips. I chose a data visualization about drinking as an example, so I design beer glasses that show approximately how many drinks men and women have when involved in high alcohol consumption. I also designed a sticky note to represent the sources at the end of the video. The story boards were helpful to understand how I wanted things to animate in and out, as well as the position the assets would have in the video frame.
VECTOR ASSETS
The assets for this animation were created in Adobe Illustrator. I was intentional with the color I wanted for each of the assets because I wanted to have enough contrast between the assets and the blocks that contain the information. I created each asset individually and used layers to easily manage the assets in After Effects. I designed the lightbulb, and the sticky notes for the lower thirds, and the ashamed and confused person for the title page. For the data visualization, I created the beer glasses and the symbols for women and men to make it more interactive and clear.
MOTION GRAPHICS - DRAFT
The first draft of the motion graphics assets pack included the lower third at the beginning to indicate the topic of the video. Then, I used the title page to show how vulnerability is generally seen as something bad and overwhelming for people. My animation for the title page had a person in the middle who feels confused. Instead of feeling peace (represented by the color white), starts to fill with shame, fear, and thoughts of inadequacy (represented by the color dark green). All those words were animated to be pointing at the person in the middle of the screen.
The data visualization was divided into two. The first one showed how many drinks per week women tend to have when involved in high alcohol consumption. It was animated to show seven glasses of beer from left to right, showing the increase of drinks. Then it transitions to show male drinking consumption. Instead of seven glasses of beer, I animated fourteen glasses of beer that appeared again from left to right showing the trend going up.
The last animation I did was for the sources. I animated the sticky note to enter the screen with the blocks that had the information about the the TED talk and it’s author which I used as a reference.
THE FINAL RESULT
After receiving feedback, adding more information, and adjusting things, I finished and refined the motion graphics asset pack and here is the result.
There were three main points of feedback that I received. The first one was to divide the lightbulb that turned off from the lightbulb that was turned on so the wiggle expression would not be distracting and it would look better. The second point was to add some waves to the person when it was filling with the green color to make it more interactive. And the last one was to add a little more information in the middle of the video.
For my final video I apply the feedback I received, and I used more compositions to have more control over the assets. I divided the lightbulbs into different compositions and added an exit animation for each of the lower thirds. I added the wave effect to the null object that was moving with the filling, which made it more interesting and interactive. I used the "wiggle expression" for both the lightbulb and the sticky notes to give some motion to the assets. While the blocks of information seem to be static, I focused on adjusting the scale, position, and rotation of the blocks to show their in and out animation throughout the video.
I decided to add two more lower thirds. One of them had the positive things that come from vulnerability, and each word appears while I am naming them in the video. The second lower thirds that I added contained the four tips. I added the last piece of information intentionally because I wanted the audience to remember the tips by listening to them and seeing them.
