I was invited to collaborate with TED-Ed to create an animation to introduce the novella Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott. Teaming up animators and educators is a fantastic idea. It was a fantastic opportunity and a great project to be involved with!
This project had a quick turnaround time with all design and animation coming from myself so it was imperative to begin constructing concepts right away. I would do a full production pipeline even though I would be the only one using it. This project proved to test all my skills - especially time management.
I knew the video would move between 2d and 3d, which would be accomplished by using After Effects and 3ds Max. I worked to keep as much done in After Effects, but moved to 3ds Max when the portion of the project called for it. In the end, all characters were animated in 3d as it allowed the most flexibility and control.
Everything was rendered with the default scanline renderer which is often a forgotten treasure in specific scenarios. It has an excellent anti-aliasing algorithm which I needed for the grid lines and when rendering near 8,000 full HD frames on the same workstation that you are creating the assets on, every minute counts.
It is pretty amazing to look at the progress from sketch, to styleframe, to animatic, to final render. If you have any questions about my process or want more information - email and say hello! Thanks for your time. :)
It is pretty amazing to look at the progress from sketch, to styleframe, to animatic, to final render. If you have any questions about my process or want more information - email and say hello! Thanks for your time. :)
The storyboard and animatic was the first thing I began creating once I received the necessary assets from the client. I wanted to develop a linear narrative that the viewer could follow to go through the second and third dimension, and allow them to ponder what the fourth dimension might look like.
