Applied Animation: Finished Animation

I decided to go with a segment of the song Devastation and Revenge by Kevin MacLeod (Free Music Archive) as I liked this particular snippet as it built up in tension, just what I was looking for. As I was unsure where to start the sound clip, I aligned the end of the animation with the part in the song where the music cuts out, then trimmed the start of the song down to the beginning of the animation. Then I added in the sound of a gun shot that I had downloaded from a royalty free music/sound effects website, and aligned it so that it would play just after the music cuts out. Once I was happy with the timing and positioning of my clips, I adjusted the volume levels so that they were loud enough to be heard. I also made it that the music faded in and out. It already did to some extent, but I wanted it to be more obvious.

First Attempt at Sound

I then tried adding in a camera shutter sound just to see what it would be like. At first I thought the sound effects would retract from the sound track, but when I tried it out it seemed to go hand in hand. So in the end I decided to keep them, but I lowered the volume of the clips so that they sat better in the animation.

Second Attempt at Sound

When I exported the video the second time around, I don't think my settings were correct as the visuals had white strips in them. To overcome this I simply exported the file again with different settings and this seemed to work. 

Final Animation

I'm really please with how my animation has turned out, and I'm surprised I had managed to get it completed with quite a bit of time to spare, especially as this is the first time I have properly explored After Effects. I'm glad I decided to work digitally as it has opened my eyes to the things I can do with the programs, and I have found it to not be quite as difficult as I was expecting. This is definitely going to benefit my future projects, as I know now that some processes are much easier in After Effects, such as camera panning. so I will be able to work much quicker without as much hassle.