Sketching & Animatics

I started by sketching a storyboard for each deliverable that reflected how I wanted to incorporate motion. I put my sketches into After Effects to create a video using my frames to visualize my early ideation. Having this early guide as to how I planned to animate each design allowed me to better digitize my illustrations with the intention of adding motion.

Digitizing Illustrations

Using Illustrator, I created a digital illustration to animate. When doing so, I made sure to consider how my designs would be animated, this way I could create my illustrations most efficiently. For example, I tried to consider points of rotation and ensured that moving elements had a “joint” or rotation point that would allow for a seamless animation. In exporting my file, I made sure that all moving components were on their own layer, this way I could easily import the file into After Effects.

Animating

Using outlines created from the Illustrator file that I imported into my workspace, I animated my illustrations in After Effects. I frequently added expressions to loop movements, and I had to position all objects identically at the end of the 3-second composition as they were at the start to ensure that it looped seamlessly.