After Effects PSA Heroes
Looking back on the world during the height of the pandemic, spreading awareness to keep each other healthy, and giving thanks to the doctors and nurses on the front lines who are fighting to save the lives of millions.
We’ve Got the Power
Like our stop motion projects of the class this semester, I was looking forward to diving into After Effects and putting together our public service announcement. I have worked with After Effects briefly in the past; let me tell you, it's just as complex now as it was then! I love all the remarkable tools it has to offer users, but it is without a doubt takes more than one project to be able to learn and master all of them properly, and unfortunately, I couldn't quite grasp some of the effects I wanted to make my PSA the best that it could be, such as the masking effect that goes over type to make it look like someone is writing it out it real time. I would've loved to have been able to use that in my letter panel to give it a more "authentic" feel, but I figured I should focus on nailing the basics of animation: timing and spacing.
It's crazy to think that everything was normal almost a year ago. We were all so excited to see what the "roaring '20s" would have in store for us. Colorful lights were flashing, confetti was raining down, people were popping champagne, and we had a grand celebration in the new decade. Before long, everything turned upside down, and nothing seemed to be going right anymore. It was indeed a dark, challenging year for all of us. When we got started with this module, our professor recommended that we base our PSAs around "heroes" inspired by this year's events. Immediately I gravitated towards a PSA that would give viewers hope and something to smile about in the darkness and give thanks to first responders for their dedicated work. Many more lives would have been lost during the pandemic had it not been for them. I dare say that they are even better than comic book heroes from Marvel and DC.
Once again, I decided to start from square one and figure out exactly how I wanted to get my message out to the public not only textually but graphically as well; what colors I wanted to use in my presentation and the visuals I could draw to give it some life and personality. It was then that I decided to start to make my mood board for this project.
I gravitated toward images that depicted doctors and nurses as actual heroes and images with eye-catching colors and adorable "chibi" drawings for my mood board. If you want to see the pictures that caught my attention during my research, please look at my Pinterest! You can even see some heartwarming messages to first responders and essential workers!
With a better understanding of where I wanted to go with my project, I decided to move forward with my storyboard, a crucial step whenever you're working on animation. Creating the storyboards allowed me to funnel my ideas into easy-to-read "slides" that get right to the point regarding their shared information. Having everything mapped out also helps develop a flow or cadence from one panel to the next, making sure each slide properly fits next to the other. After all, animation is just another form of storytelling!
You may recognize these graphics in the final version of my project! A little "behind the scenes" for you, these graphics were all put into Photoshop so I could draw over the sketch lines and add color to them, adding a few minor lighting effects here and there for a little extra flair.
Believe it or not, all of this setup is the easy part of the project! From here, I moved everything into After Effects...and immediately began following along with the beginner tutorial it offers new users to refresh my knowledge of the program. Admittedly, even the tutorial had me in awe of the things it could do, and all it taught me was how to make a logo fade in over a span of two seconds of frames, blur the background, and mirror the environment to create a trippy illusion. I digress. With my knowledge of programs like Photoshop, I was aware of how layers worked so that I could get some of the cool effects that I did in my animation, such as particular pieces rising from behind others (the fireworks and the New Year's Eve Ball) and the transitions I was able to create with my drawings. Unfortunately, I still need to play around with the transitions tool After Effects offers before I can start implementing them into my work.
Pictured are a few stills from my final project workspace in After Effects to give an example of how my timeline operates and all the tools at your disposal when you open up the program! Don't be intimidated by all the info you see on the screen! You got this!
Overall, I would say that my PSA came out all right. There are undoubtedly many things that I could fix with it to make it better, such as working on the timing of each slide and cleaning up some of my graphics. Unfortunately, their quality got lost when importing them in After Effects and upscaling them to fit in the frame. I would love to give After Effects another try soon and learn more about the program. Additionally, I loved this project! I hope that my PSA can inspire others to do good deeds and help others smile when they need it most! Have a wonderful and safe New Year, everyone. Here's hoping for a beautiful and bright future ahead of us!