I animated this project as a homework assignment for Advanced Motion Methods, a course from School of Motion. My role was motion design and animation. The illustrations were created by Lucas Brooking and Gareth O’Brien.
The Animation Brief
In this fictional brief, the Blend Conference wanted an animated spot to promote their next event. For the motion design, I tried to tell a story about the conference’s mission to bring people together to share and create transformation. In the animation, the colorful shapes—representing people and ideas—come together, morph, and transform. For the motion, I focused on smooth movements and interesting transitions.
When I planned the motion for this piece, here’s the story I envisioned:
Shot 1: Attendees arrive at the conference. (The shapes fly into the scene and land on the surface of the rotating planet.)
Shot 2: Attendees connect with each other and become inspired by the event and the sharing of ideas. (The playful, dancing shapes are excited to mingle and learn. The shapes are now multi-colored instead of solid colors to show that they are affected by the experience of attending the conference.)
Shot 3: Attendees are transformed as they “blend” together. (The multi-colored shapes collapse into moving lines, representing the forward motion of motivation and excitement.)
Shot 4: Attendees’ brains are filled up with new knowledge and shared connections. (The lines transition into geometric shapes, and they glide through the two hemispheres of the brain.)
Shot 5: Attendees are sparked by their new knowledge to come up with fresh ideas and inspiration. (More geometric shapes fall into the scene, and they build up into a vertical stack, culminating in a light bulb with an exclamation point.)
Shot 6: Attendees are uplifted by the conference. (The rocket is a metaphor. Its launch represents how the conference pushes attendees toward new horizons.)
The Styleframes
For this assignment, we were given a series of styleframes illustrated by Lucas Brooking and Gareth O’Brien. I planned the transitions and all the movement, and then I executed my vision using After Effects.
