a collection of the work I have done in my After Effects class

1. The first process of creating our ideas was Discovery, in this
section we explored themes we were passionate about in the
world and within ourselves. We looked into elements from our
culture and past, what is happening now in our lives and where
we are in the future.
From this we researched visuals that were inspirational to us,
though we also touched on sounds and visual effects, as we
came to learn these were also very important factors in creating
a story!

2. DISCOVERY STYLEGUIDEMermaid out of Water
A mermaid at heart, Leukothea feels she has to find roots on land
though she knows she belongs in the sea. She travels the earth to find a
home and becomes friends with nature. Each time the land
(personified) leads her to the
the ocean, and by the sea she builds a home = the best of both worlds.

3. The Mythology of Leukothea is a Sea Goddess who aids sailors in
distress.
In the story she represents human instinct to help.
The hand that guides the blind through hardship.
Yet her fingers tingle with the need to create.
Now She is in-between homes, neither here nor there.
There is a feeling of ambiguity that the audience can relate with.
It asks the question of who guides Leukothea? …. Nature
Her Culture is of French heritage with English Roots.
An English Rose who is trying to connect with her home land.
Reflects that everyone has a cultural background though not often connected to
it so strongly.

4. In the future there is a sense of resolution
Her heart and Nature keep leading her back
to the sea.
Realization that she does not need to fit in,
she can create her own mold!
She is able to see the beauty of both worlds,
rather than making a choice.
Realization she can have both, she does not
have to leave either behind.
She knows she needs to create her own
home not to fit into another.
Reconnection with the elements of the
world.

5. COLOUR – Sea
 Dark blue tones
 Showing waterfalls – how she can have water on the land!
 Her place of peace
 Dark but feeling of security
 Cool – the moon
 Refer to Blue Environment – Gradients of tones

6. COLOUR – Land
 Bright warm tones
 Oranges / reds
 Earth tones / greens
 New vibrant colors
 Presents uncertainty
 Negativity
 Powerful – the sun

7. PURPLE – Resolution
 The combination of red/orange with Blue
 A balance
 Symbolism of being a mixture of things
 The moment of resolution / purple storm – when the two collide
 Mystical

8. CHARACTER: Leukothea
 Purple carries though to the color of Leukothea
 Clothing that presents the flowing elements of her nature
 Lucid - Vulnerable
 Flowing
 Translucent – effected by other colours
 Absorbs other colours / mimics them to try and fit in

9. CHARACTER : Nature Personified
 The leaves whispering
 The Grass waving
 The looming sun she fears
 The cool calm moon – as her guide
 The dancing stars
 The sea – as comforting
 BLUE (SEA) AND ORANGE (LAND)

10. ENVIROMENT
 The mysterious elements of the land
 Desert and Forest
 From Open space (scary)
 Through a sandstorm into clarity
 Covered Shelter (Beauty)
 Nature becomes alluring

11. ENVIROMENT
 The comfort of the sea
 Calming
 Cool
 The Moon / Night time

12. LIGHTING
 Natural Light and dramatic light
 Dramatic Changes to show changes in emotion
 Reflects stages of her life / decision making
 Mood lighting
 Opaque / translucent to show layers and brightness / shadows
 Bright/ fresh / dark and unnatural

13. VISUAL EFFECTS
 Seeing through her eyes
 Like a child seeing the world
 Low down angles to show her
vulnerable perspective
 Hazy Layers/ Atmospheric
Perspective (getting lighter at the
back, detail in the foreground)
 Linear perspective/ vanishing point
 scale

14. FRONTS / TYPOLOGY
 Like a child learning to write
 Diary style
 As it comes out of her head onto the
paper-
 Flowing
 Naïve / perfect form
 Introducing bold water marks for new ideas
 When a new event occurs
 The colors of her mind exploding on the screen

15. MUSIC REFERENCE
Classical Music – represents the mythology, her calm state and
the motion of the water
Music with reference or using water as sounds effects
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEEZ5jB5pWk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=110Jl_JK9VE
Fast tempo (AC/DC, Disclosure – the meaning in the lyrics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8fZeaUHsjw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q72v8_QBxHE&index=9&list=PLZl6dMgPPhG_YbFU36WSwP8wpSt
K-nKun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSDssvF67Mw&list=PLZl6dMgPPhG_YbFU36WSwP8wpStK-
nKun&index=1

16. FILM REFERENCE
 The Little Mermaid,
 Disney films ( the use of colors, the feelings from childhood, the
idea of a happy ever after
 Avatar – the extreme beauty of nature, how the land could be
shown as a whole new world in itself.

17. ILLUSTRATION
Fantasy
Hyper reality
Stimulates the senses

18. After discovery I
began to plan the
visual structure of
the story, and
how I would
present the ideas
from my
mythology
elements into a
story.

19. From our story oard we created our animatic, the first basis of our film in
motion, we imported out files into Adobe Premier and could then see the time
frames and the shots in order in a more similar way to the end product.

20. My tracing document for keeping track of the different shots and shot
descriptions, also knowing what sound and visual effects were being placed
where

21. We created a color script to highlight
the different changes in tone and
mood. Since Discovery the idea
behind my story had been simplified,
and instead of the meeting of colors
through the story there would be a
reveal of color at the end, to show the
feelings of resolution and an
uncovering of new emotions and
feelings, these would match with the
music within the story.

23. The color became a very important factor in conveying the message
of our ideas, and even from what I was inspired by I was able to see
this.
We created an Ident or bumper based on the themes within our
mythologies and also using the After Effects skills we had just
learnt.
First we created a story board of the frames and the different
elements of the shots.

24. INDENT / BUMPER
STORY BOARD
 Reflects the 3 colours:
 Blue, Red/Orange and Purple
 Shows the transition from one
to the other to reflect on
Leukothea’s transition in the
story
1 1

26. SKILL
Making objects and text
move by use a path,
starting to grasp how key
frames work and how to
create smooth transitions
for the object.
Also learning how to
create backgrounds and
solids as simple way to
create a scene within
After Effects.

27. SKILL
Merging paths together to
mask out different parts of a
shape. The different elements
can be reversed so that the
two shapes can be merged in
different ways.

28. SKILL
Creating a precomposition
using the motion tile effect and
using effects to make shapes
move, also using key frames
with these effects.

29. SKILL
Using the wiggle effect to
create movement in an
object, again the path of the
effect can be created to
predetermine where the
object moves to.
We introduced a 3D camera
into our After Effects, and
made our layers 3
dimensional so we could
move them on x y and z
axis.

30. For one of my shots I had to create and octagon out of different images, that
were in effect a 360 degree shot of a landscape, I then had a camera attached
to a null object to rotate within the octagon to capture the turn.

31. Keying out the background of
the green screen to put two
files together to create anew
scene

32. Roto scoping to follow movement, here there is a mask following the figure.