Opening Scene

Overview

Now that we have created all of our backgrounds in Illustrator, we will animate them with our characters as we create a video version of our stories for the elementary kids to play at chapel next year. They will really enjoy these and it is a great way to give back while making kids laugh, smile, and learn valuable character lessons.

Follow the directions to organize and set up your files and then complete the directions below. Over the past week the assignments of adding text have been easy and light. Now we will spend time in After Effects. If you need to review AE, view the notes you took or look over the videos you completed.

Some students find it easy and interesting while others can find it challenging because you have to really think and use the logical left side of your brain while creating the designs was the right side of your brain.

Animation

Create a new After Effects composition with the settings below. You Name it BG1. Most students start with about 20 seconds for their animation and then adjust later. Read the text out lout to yourself at a pace that is not too slow but not too fast while pausing for dramatical effects. This will help you determine how long your background actually should be but you should add about five seconds to this time as a buffer.

Feel free to watch the sunrise tutorial again, which reviews how to import your AI files and animate them but first, open your AI story file and hide the text since we will be narrating the video instead. Remember that only the objects that are moving need to be on separate layers and you need to label the layers that will be moving.

You can either resize and input the background from its current project file in AI or you can create a new AI file that is the same size as the AE file and resize the design to fit the new dimensions, which are made for video. In Illustrator press cmd + k to open up the AI settings and make sure to check mark the box that says Scale Strokes & Effects. Then when you resize your designs in AI, the brush strokes will adjust to the new sizes.

Animations

For the scene you only need a minimum of two object groups in the background to be animated. The main characters do not count for this background requirement. Remember to use a variety of TRAPS (transparency, rotation, anchor, opacity, scale) and the puppet tool in your animation. Groups means, don't just animate one cloud, animate all the clouds. If you only have one flag waving in the background then just animate the one flag. This assignment BG1 is a completion grade but here are some examples of what you will later be graded on:

• Use of After Effects and creativity when you animate your backgrounds and characters
• Use of TRAPS and the puppet tool
• Animations follow the actions of the story line and narration
• Narration quality and sound effects
• Following directions