Skyline to Max ("Ramon")
My next step was to animate the smoke that was to be blown into the air by the character, which proved to be quite a problem. Initially there weren't any problems, and I actually found drawing the smoke to be quite entertaining as I wasn't necessarily focusing on making it "look perfect". I tested the sequence I had so far but it appeared to be moving too quickly. To solve this issue, I went back to the original file to add in more key frames to ultimately slow down the movement of the smoke. This is when problems arose. I had to make the canvas size very big so that when it was scaled down in the composition in After Effects it wouldn't appear pixelated, and because of this when I tried reopening the file the program was struggling. It was even worse when I tried to add in key frames. I did the best that I could to extend the sequence, but in the end Photoshop wouldn't let me do anything else as the file was too large. I managed to export the image sequence, and thankfully the new sequence worked a lot better and I didn't need to alter it. This is something I shall have to revise for the future, as if I had needed more content I would have been stuck. Perhaps I shall have to use a different method/program to animate sequences that are potentially going to be large files.
Initial Smoke Test
Once I had completed this scene, I was able to begin working on the next which was the girl character, Tina, taking photographs from her car. To get to this scene smoothly, I had the camera in the composition follow the smoke upwards, and continue to move in the same direction until the car was in the shot. From here I could position all my components where I wanted them, and animate the camera moving through the space, just like I had done with the first two scenes. Again this was fairly straight-forward and only took my a couple of attempts to get the camera moving how I wanted it to, and it was only until I got to animating the camera shutter did I have problems. Just like everything else so far, I had created the components I was going to need in Photoshop and imported them to AE to animate. I wanted the camera shutter blades to move into the center of the display and then retract, mimicking a photograph being taken. I tried to do this by key framing the first and last position of the blades, but I couldn't make them rotate in the way I wanted them to as they moved outwards, and I also couldn't find a way to replicate the motion path with the other components. In the end I tried to animate each blade individually.
Shutter Test One (Speed or composition length not yet adjusted)
I think the first attempt wasn't so bad, but it wasn't moving as smoothly as I would have hoped, and I was starting to get confused with where the shapes were moving to. I decided to try and start again, so I saved the project in case I had to come back to it. I racked my brains on how I could duplicate the motion path and set it for each of the shapes, and in the end I couldn't figure out how to do it. I googled how to do it and found the solution to my problem in minutes. I created a null layer and attached it to my shape, which allowed me to duplicate and rotate the motion path I had animated.
Shutter Test Two
Thinking back, I don't know why I didn't google my issue when I first encountered it. I would have saved a lot of time and I wouldn't have got so worked up and stressed out. This is definitely something I should remember for the future as it will definitely help me to learn new skills in a much quicker time.
Once I had got the movement sorted, I was able to include this composition into my current project. I wanted the shutter to close and open revealing the name of an actor in the film. In order for me to do this I had to create the text in Photoshop like I had everything else. I wanted to use the same font as I had used for my title test, as this closely resembled the cover of the book, but I was unsure of the style and the colour of the text, so decided to experiment slightly.
Initial Tests
I started by typing out the actor's name and adding a red pattern over the top of the text, similar to the background I used in the Target Title I produced earlier in the project. I liked how it looked, but I thought it didn't quite follow the style I had with the animation. I tried again but changed the technique slightly. This time I allowed for the background pattern to make up the shape of the text. I very much preferred this method as it was much more visually pleasing and more suited for the animation. I created the rest of the text I was going to need and implemented them into the title sequence.
Completed Text
Once I had finished these three scenes, I realized I only had about 10 seconds left. My Target Title was around 8 seconds long, which meant if I wanted to include it at the length it stood at, I wasn't going to have enough time left to animate the third scene I was hoping to include. I very much liked the title animation as it was and figured this was more important to include, so I just scrapped the next scene (Tina tied up to a chair) and imported the title sequence to see how it would look at the end of my project. The animation seemed to run smoothly with this addition, so I think I had made the right choice, but if I had made an animatic at the beginning of the project or carried out further planning, I may have realised that I wouldn't have had enough time to include everything. I don't think it's too much of an issue this time around, as I have still been able to set the scene for the movie without giving away too many details, but this could have been a big problem had I have been working on a linear story. I shall definitely have to remember to carry out this planning in the future so I don't miss out any important scenes.
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