"O" BIRD ANIMATION

THE BEGINNING SPARK

Black Bird

For the past year or so, I have gained an interest in birds for no apparent reason, specifically black birds, ravens, and crows. But after gaining more exposure and interest to these creatures, I have found their color and nature relatable to my inner self.

All of Coldplay's Albums (2000-2014)

Coldplay, an influence of mine, wrote two songs about birds that stood out to me. The first one being "Up With The Birds", on their album, Mylo Xyloto; the second one being "O", on their latest album,"Ghost Stories".

The idea to make an animation involving black birds and Coldplay came to me one day while listening to "Up With The Birds". My ideas for it then were still very abstract, but came clearer to me when I listened to "O", which motivated me to get rolling on my animation. Because "O" brought the most vivid images to me, I chose that song for the animation.

ROUGH DRAFT

During spring break, I made rough sketches of what I visioned for the animation. Each part of the song has its own unique scene and drawing perspective. I even wrote notes on the margins of each scene as a reference for what movement needs to be done in After Effects.

Worm's Eye View Flying Birds

Birds Forming Together to make a Heart

Night Sky

Man Watching Birds From A Distance

Sunset

Back View of Flying Birds

Birds On Pole

Birds Leaving Pole

ANIMATION SKETCHES

Bird Animation Loops 1

Bird Animation Loops 2

The birds will be animated sequentially since animating them mechanically with key frames would take away their natural wing movement. Various sketches have been made with their own wing cycle at different time rates.






Most of the animation cycles will be repeated in order to save time for other parts of the project. Their modifications will be made with After Effects such as scaling and rotation.




I am pleased on my current standing for the "O" Bird Animation. With the beginning stages set, I can now turn my animation recipe from scratch to a wonderful masterpiece. More updates on my project will come as my project progresses.

Animation Title Cover

TEN APPLES UP ON TOP SELF REFLECTION

Finishing my Ten Apples Up on Top animation made me feel like I had to balance ten apples up on me while working. I ran into major conflicts along the process of making this animation. Let's just say my "simple" animation turned out to be very "complex".

In my last post, I mentioned how coloring took lots of time. This apparently turned out to be the case for everything else; the drawings, setting key frames in After Effects, backgrounds.











Staying after school almost everyday for long periods of time was the only way to get ahead. That also meant sacrificing homework and studying time, eventually dropping my grades. I was not on track, and knew that a new plan was necessary for me.

With this cut that had to be made, I finished up as much as possible and rendered the first third of the animation, the part that was fully completed without any rough sketches.







Although I did not finish my project, I learned a valuable lesson. Don't go too far and beyond on projects. For my future projects, I will look for shortcuts to use and avoid complicated ways to animate. Here is my final product of what I had for the animation.

Ten Apples Up On Top Final Entry