Full video coming here very soon!
Welcome to the big book of Bolton Special Effects! This is the all you need to know guide to studying. Which route is right for you? With such variety, you’re sure to thing something to suit your personality.
This project was for Bolton University and involved creating a 45-60 second advert for the Special Effects Development course. So I needed to demonstrate not only just the University but the course. The criteria meant it had to be a motion graphics avert with other media thrown in.
Process
Research
The first step of research was into other University adverts. I had an idea of the style I wanted, so there wasn’t too much inspiration to gain. However, it gave me an idea of the structure, information provided, how long it was provided for and the general pace. It was clear how the adverts targeted the student audience.
The second step of research was about the actual Bolton University itself. The most notable thing was its colour scheme (a soft yellow and blue). With some new information, I contacted students on the course to provide their works to be placed in the advert. I figured the best way to demonstrate the capabilities of the SFX course was to demonstrate student portfolios.
Concept
My concept was to have a ‘big book of special effects’, which is an essential guide to all you need to know about the course like an instruction manual. It begins looking at a student desk, where the camera moves into the book and content reveals itself with attractive motion graphic animations. Within the book are stills and videos of students work. Because the course splits into two (physical & digital), the advert will divide and break the two sections down separately. To come full circle, the camera zooms back out of the book to reveal the contact details.
Figure I: Concept mood board snippet
Technically, it would begin as a 3D scene. Due to the short time of the project, the textured models would be acquired from free sources (Turbo Squid). Within the scene the camera animates into the book. The same movement was reversed for animating out the book. This is where the motion graphics begins. The motion graphics are styled around the theme (book/manual diagrams) and animate in various eye pleasing ways.
Motion Graphics
You’d spend your whole day reading the breakdown for this project, so I’ll keep it relatively simple. Here’s a big After Effects screen shot.
Figure II: After Effects composition screen shot
So as with nearly everything in After Effects, precompositions are your best friends. Get a good understanding of these and you can do just about anything. Precompositions allow you to essentially flatten many layers into one flat layer. This layer can be opened up and still edited, so is none destructive. Think of it as a fancy group. This might not seem that amazing, but it opens up the possibility for many things.
With so many layers and compositions it’s important to keep organised. Everything named correctly, in the right order and easy to understand. Null objects are useful in breaking up the layers. See the image above, I’ve named my nulls ‘______’ and placed them in positions that separate layers by type.
Most of the animations were applied to position, rotation and scale. The dotted line was animated with a path applied to the ‘write on’ effect. The line was used to give the viewer something to follow and some direction.
The most technical part was having different shots blend together. I broke the physical, digital and introduction into separate files. Within the files, sections were broken down into compositions. These compositions were placed within 3D space and a camera animated across a large area. The same camera zoomed in and out at the start and finish, roughly the same speed as other compositions. With motion blur turned it, the shots seamlessly blend together.
That’s all there was to it. Leave me a comment below if you have any questions or comments.
Still Renders
Figure III & IV: Renders from the digital section
Figure V & VI: Renders from the physical section
- Credit
- Liam Major 3D Animation & Motion graphics;
- Bolton Uni SFX Students portfolio works
- Turbo Squid Free textured models
- Software
- Autodesk 3Ds Max 3D modelling, texturing & animation
- Adobe After Effects Motion graphics
- Client
- Bolton University Video Effects Production assignment
- Duration
- 4 Weeks (during 2 other projects)