Space Animation Test

OutcastJiob · Post by **OutcastJiob** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 6:17 am

Yes, yes, I know it's fairly lame to post "hey i just made this cause i was bored teh lolz". . . . but I'm going to do it anyway. This is an animation I slapped together today. Everything was drawn or otherwise created in Photoshop and was then animated in After Effects. No 3D software used.

http://www.deadsignalfilms.com/space.mov

I realize it's nothing amazing. Any serious problems with it, though? Something I could improve?

a2e · Post by **a2e** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 7:17 am

For being totaly 2D I think that looks great! I love the little zoom you have in there, makes it feel firefly/serenity-ish. I only have three sugestions:

1. see if you can't tweak your sun a little bit. I would make it's halo a little less defined as not to wash out the entire frame. Also I would add a bit of a lens flair to it for the added effect.

2. if you are going for the firefly handeld look I would add a bit of randomness to the camera motion. If you are using AE look into using "the jiggler."

3. During your little zoom I would add a slight rack focus effect as if the auto-focus can't keep up.

Other then that I think you are good. I hope this helps.

S_Dragon · Post by **S_Dragon** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 7:56 am

A couple jumpy movements, but i liked the erie effect of the sun...nicely done!

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 10:04 am

I don't have the right codec to watch it.

aaronv2 · Post by **aaronv2** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 12:48 pm

so you made the image... then took it into AE and keyframed (badly) a zoom... Oh and lets not forget the lens flare!

its pretty crappy maybe you could have done something a little more creative in space using the camera and 3d layer tools oh and learn to curve your keyframes so they ramp up and down naturally

OutcastJiob · Post by **OutcastJiob** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 5:44 pm

Noted, aaron, I'll look into what you said. I didn't even think about 3D layers but you're absolutely right. Thanks for the crit.

a2e, I'll mess with jiggler and see what kind of results I can get. The more rapid zoom was there because I screwed up my keyframing, but I decided to leave it after I did it cause I liked the "Firefly" look like you said. I'll blur and then refocus as you suggested. And I'll adjust the sun / lens flare.

S_Dragon, thanks!

Epsilon, that's odd; if you have the latest version of QuickTime everything should be fine; it's just the H.264 codec.

Jimbobsquarepants · Post by **Jimbobsquarepants** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 5:49 pm

did u draw the planet? if so its very good. if not then send me the picture

OutcastJiob · Post by **OutcastJiob** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 6:09 pm

I did draw the planet, yes. Here's ahigh-res (1280x1024) version of it.

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 6:16 am

Ah yes, you were right. I did not have the latest version!

Jimbobsquarepants · Post by **Jimbobsquarepants** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 5:11 pm

wow how did u do the planet?

Magic-Man · Post by **Magic-Man** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 5:16 pm

pretty good, except i think the movements should me more smoother, as they seem a little sudden. Real good for 2d though.

OutcastJiob · Post by **OutcastJiob** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 6:27 pm

I made the planet with some techniques I'd learned from various tutorials (though I didn't follow a tutorial to make this one). If you've got Photoshop, planets are actually quite easy to make, have a look here: http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tuts ... lanet.html

Thanks, Magic-Man!

UFProductions · Post by **UFProductions** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 6:49 pm

Looked, not bad...-ish. It did look pretty flat, and I though the zoom was just to harsh. If you watch Firefly when they use a "human error" style zoom it usually goes in, then back out with a momentary loss of focus. As a side note, the pic you posted of the planet is now my desktop background, hope you don't mind!