Motion Graphics and Compositing - Project 2
30.10.2024 - 4.12.2024 (Week 6 - Week 11)
Vanessa Kei Kurniadi /
0360525
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Motion Graphics
and Compositing - Project 2
INSTRUCTIONS
Project 2: Channel Bumper
In this task, we will synthesise the knowledge gained in Task 1 for
application in Task 2.
we are to demonstrate the ability to explore and generate an abstract
channel bumper in any creative approach with consideration of good audio
tempo and visually compelling video.
I have spent some time thinking about what I should make. After some time
I just remembered that I wanted to make some nice edits on Valorant
through my DPI class, so wanted to try to make it now.
However, after choosing the theme, I still needed to figure out what I
wanted to make and how exactly am I going to make it. I had random ideas
that I couldn't make out for so long, but since I had to present something
in class I made this very messy sketch at least to give context.
fig 1.1 My first channel bumper sketch
Upon consultation, Mr Fauzi told me that first, this is a motion graphic
class so don't bother too much on trying to make everything by hand.
Taking things from the internet is more than enough. He also mentioned to
keep in mind that since this is a motion graphics class I shouldn't focus
on making animation.
Lastly, he noted that it is better to have assets that I can reuse for the
channel ident later, so I shouldn't need to go through the trouble of
making new assets every time.
I took a bit more time to think about what to do, scrolling through some
music to see if I could get some inspiration, and after so many songs I
managed to get an idea that I could use with the music "Die for You Instrumental"
fig 1.2 Die for You Instrumental
I tried to follow the colour theme that is used in Valorant, or in
specific, Valorant Champion since I am using the Valorant Champion theme
song. After some thought, I decided to use black and gold as my main colour
palette. Though I don't plan to change anything colour-wise for the agents
or the symbols, I would most likely use it for texts and backgrounds.
fig 1.3 Channel Bumper Storyboard
This is the storyboard animatics I made to give a clearer picture of my
plan, as suggested by Mr Fauzi
fig 1.4 Storyboard Animatics
After Effect
fig 2.1 Opening Scene
I started with a nice and cool display of gold rings that rotated and
then turned into a 3D ring (of some sort) by using the 3D feature. I put
the Champion logo in the middle, and I have to turn it into a 3D object
as well and it makes the object be surrounded by the ring.
fig 2.2 Gold text
Following a smooth transition, I gave a big text that appears softly
through opacity change, saying "Are you ready?" and the O from the text
zoomed in and disappeared.
fig 2.3 Spasm effect
Following that is the agent showcase, where I had this random idea
to spice it up a bit by making a beat/spasm effect. I did this by
duplicating all the agents' assets and then scaling them up for less
than a second and resetting them, as well as making the opacity
50ish. It created a nice, flawless, spasm(?) effect.
While this looks cool, it took me a long time to slowly make sure
everything was working correctly, not to mention there are so many
agents in one frame, so I have to make sure everything is aligned.
fig 2.4 Agent Speed show(?)
I initially wanted to make a more advanced by rotating the agents
a bit and making it as if they are standing on a small globe. But
it turned out to be much more difficult to do plus I'm dealing
with a lot of agents at once.
After trial and error and hours of doing this part, I finally
managed to make a decent show by dragging the camera to the front
slowly, and on certain distances (it's not measured cuz I'm too
lazy) I put a black screen with the opacity going lower the
further it is to the back. When the camera reached that screen, I
pull it up. The purpose of this screen is to show a portion of the
agents at a time to not overcrowd the screen, especially since
they're all the same grey colour and thus easily blend in with
each other's silhouettes. The agents in the front row are being
swiped to the side one by one until all of them are gone.
The nice thing about this is the unexpected result of this
experiment. The screen that got pulled up created this faint
horizontal glitch making it look like the old TV show, which is a
nice unexpected outcome.
fig 2.5 Closing scene
Lastly, I made a red flashing light to simulate a sudden
gunshot, followed by the bullet hole which leads to the closing
scene where the valorant logo is being traced.
This tracing method is from the tutorial I found on YouTube,
which is a nice, not-too-flashy animation that is a nice way to
close the video.
fig 2.6 VALORANT Logo Animation in After Effects - After Effects
Tutorial - No paid plugins by Freak Motions
While I don't completely understand each part (logic and
technique-wise), I managed to follow the tutorial exactly except
for the colour and then made my own Valorant tracing animation.
Final Result
fig 3.1
Channel Bumper Final Result
Slides
fig 3.2 Channel Bumper Slides
REFLECTION
Experience
Trying to figure out how to do things on my own with Adobe After Effects was nerve-wracking. I try not to make too many mistakes to avoid making fatal ones, but not only once did I have to delete most of my keyframes because the result was not what I expected and I'm not sure how to fix it.
On the other hand, I'm learning a lot as I figure out how to do what and what to look out for. It was a slow process for me but I managed to learn a lot through trial and error.
It was not as easy as making simple animation and calling it a day. I wanted to try my best and make the best result possible with my current capability. It stressed me out when I didn't know how to do things but also very satisfying when I managed to solve it too.
Observation
During consultation, I noticed some people had difficulties in conveying their ideas, while the others flawlessly finished their work. But all our ideas and methods are different so it's an interesting thing to see
Findings
I think I'm starting to figure out how to do the basics in After Effects. I know the logics and thus if I do it slowly I think I can figure stuff out, but also since I'm doing it alone I find myself trying to be extra careful in each step to make sure I don't mess anything too bad in the process. But I trust I will improve as I work on more projects.
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