Motion Graphics and Compositing/Project 3
29/10/2025-15/11/2025
Cai Zihan / 0378043
Motion Graphics and Compositing / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Project 3 – Channel Ident/Identity
TABLE OF CONTENT
INSTRUCTIONS
LECTURES
Project 3 – Channel Ident/Identity
FEEDBACK
REFLECTION
LECTURES
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LECTURES
Week 9
I. The Foundation: The Role of Pre-Production
The methodology presented is built upon the principle that a thorough and well-organized pre-production phase directly informs and streamlines the final production. This foundational stage is described as essential for creating high-quality work and ensuring all creative and narrative elements are aligned before animation begins.
The Pre-Production Stages:The process is outlined as a clear progression of creative development:
1. Ideation & Mood Board: Begins with a collection of ideas, audience considerations, and creative direction, which are consolidated into a mood board. This artifact gathers colors, shapes, and other visual inspirations that will drive the aesthetic.
2. Style Frames: The inspiration from the mood board is refined into style frames, which define the unique, specific look of the piece.
3. Visual Script: A "skeleton of the piece" is developed to outline the story beats, shot types, action, and any narration. This defines what will happen chronologically and narratively.
4. Storyboard: The visual script and style frames are combined to create the storyboard, which presents the visual narrative of what will be seen in each shot. The storyboard in the example is noted as being close to the final look, though it is acknowledged that they can often be simple black-and-white sketches.
The web application MilaNote is identified as the tool used to organize this entire pre-production process, enabling team collaboration, image sharing, and the building of various boards.
"good pre-production is essential to creating excellent work..."
II. Bridging the Gap: From Static Storyboard to Animatic
The first step in transitioning from static pre-production assets to motion involves creating a rough structural timeline, or a "loose animatic." This serves as a guide for timing, pacing, and the overall flow of the scene before any detailed animation is undertaken.
Initial Setup in After Effects:
• Import & Sequence: The five individual artboards comprising the example scene (Scene 3) are imported into an After Effects composition. They are sequenced with a slight overlap, creating an initial "slideshow" effect.
• Rationale: This approach is favored over starting with a blank canvas, as it provides an immediate visual and temporal structure to build upon.
• Establishing Timing: The duration of each shot is determined primarily by "feel" and editing knowledge. The animator visualizes the action and decides how long each frame needs to be held to convey the intended emotion and narrative beat. For Scene 3, the goal of "increasing tension" dictates that the shots become progressively shorter.
• Blocking Broad Motion: The most basic, overarching movements are established first. In the example, a simple "push in" motion is applied to the shots to create a sense of forward momentum and to set up a future match cut. This is achieved with simple scale keyframes.
"you want to make your big decisions and then start layering on detail as you go."
III. The Core Strategy: Deconstruction and Isolation
The central tenet of the animation workflow is to deconstruct a complex scene into manageable parts. This involves analyzing the storyboard to determine how to group or isolate elements for efficient and focused animation.
The Process of Chunking:
1. Analysis: The animator must analyze the storyboard and decide which elements can be grouped together and which must be isolated. This involves considering the flow between shots and potential technical interferences.
2. Pre-composing: In After Effects, this strategy is implemented by "pre-composing" individual shots. In the example, eac
Week 10
Foundational Concepts and Preparation
The primary objective of this technique is to integrate 2D elements (videos, graphics, text) into a 3D scene by making them appear physically attached to surfaces within the video footage. This is achieved by analyzing and replicating the camera's motion relative to the scene.
Ideal Footage Characteristics
The success of the 3D Camera Tracker is highly dependent on the source footage. The ideal clip exhibits the following properties:
• 3D Camera Motion: The camera should be actively "moving through space and time" and "looking around," not static. This movement provides the necessary parallax and perspective data for the tracker to analyze.
• Defined Planes: The scene should contain "nice walls and ground planes that are clearly defined" for the software to identify and track.
The Core Tracking Workflow
The process begins with analyzing the footage and creating a placeholder element that is locked to a surface in the video.
1. Initiating the Camera Track
The central tool for this workflow is the Tracker panel.
• Accessing the Tool: The Tracker panel can be opened via the main menu: Window > Tracker.
• Executing the Track: With the video clip selected on the timeline, click the "Track Camera" button in the Tracker panel.
• Analysis Phase: After Effects will then analyze the footage frame-by-frame, creating a series of colored tracking points on surfaces it identifies. The time required for this analysis is proportional to the clip's length (e.g., a 268-frame clip "shouldn't take too long").
2. Defining the Target Plane
Once the analysis is complete, the tracking points become interactive visual aids for selecting a surface.
• The Target Preview: As the cursor moves over the colored points, a red "target" icon appears. This target provides a real-time preview of the perspective and plane that can be created at that location.
• Plane Triangulation: Clicking between several points will cause the tracker to triangulate a position, averaging the plane among them. Alternatively, selecting a single point will lock the plane to that specific tracked feature.
3. Creating a Placeholder Solid
After identifying the desired surface using the red target, a placeholder object is created.
• Creation Command: Right-click on the red target and select "Create Solid and Camera" from the context menu.
• Result: This action generates two new layers in the composition:
◦ A 3D Camera layer that replicates the motion of the original camera.
◦ A colored "Track Solid" layer that is locked to the selected plane on the wall or ground. This solid serves as a temporary placeholder and visual guide.
Content Integration via Pre-composition
To replace the placeholder solid with custom content, a pre-composition workflow is essential. This isolates the content in its own editable timeline while maintaining the tracking data in the main composition.
1. Pre-composing the Solid
The tracked solid layer must be converted into its own nested composition.
• Right-click on the "Track Solid" layer in the timeline panel.
• Select "Pre-compose" from the menu and confirm the action.
2. Editing the Pre-composition
This nested composition is where the final content will be placed.
• Double-click the new pre-composition layer to open it in a new timeline tab.
• Inside this pre-comp, the original colored placeholder solid can be deleted.
3. Adjusting Composition Settings
Before adding new content, it is crucial to match the pre-comp's dimensions to the media that will be inserted.
• Navigate to Composition > Composition Settings.
• Adjust the Width and Height to match the resolution of the video or grap
Project 3 – Channel Ident/Identity
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| Fig 1.1 Emotional Version |
Storyboard Link：
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| Fig 1.2 Introduction |
I saw a collage-style camera online, and I wanted to start this project with the effect of seeing a cat and taking a picture of it.
I found some materials online and cut them out using Photoshop. I also learned how to enlarge images online to create the effect of a camera taking a picture.
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| Fig 1.3 Text animation |
To introduce the different lipstick models, I used three different elements. The animation then continues, with the camera gradually zooming in to one element in the middle, then shrinking to another layout, and finally revealing the other lipsticks.
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| Fig 1.4 Item drop |
Teaching video：
I found teaching videos about item drops online and learned how to make and apply them to my Project 3.
These three scenes were made with similar effects. After the materials were dropped, one of the materials was enlarged and introduced.
1. Open AE New Composition, and go through Layers - New - Import Item image materials.
2. Press the P key to bring up the position property, move the timeline to the starting frame, click the stopwatch before the position to enter the first keyframe. At this time, the item is at the starting position at the top of the screen. Then move the timeline to the target frame and drag the item to the drop end point (such as at the bottom of the screen), and AE will automatically generate a second keyframe.
3. Select two keyframes and add a buffer to make the drop movement more natural. To achieve a rebound effect, you can add a keyframe after the end point and slightly move the position of the item upwards.
4. If you need the item to rotate when it drops, press Shift+R to bring up the rotation property. Add a rotation keyframe at the corresponding time point during the drop process and set the rotation Angle (such as 180°) to simulate the flipping posture during the drop.
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Fig 1.5 Streamers Falling |
When creating bulk falling objects or requiring collision effects, plugins can significantly enhance realism. I used the Particular plugin, selected the corresponding texture assets, adjusted gravity and wind direction parameters, then placed the emitter at the top of the scene to achieve a natural effect of objects falling in a staggered formation.
Final
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Feedback
Experience
In this video project, I continued to focus on the beauty brand "FLORTTE." The brand is known for its whimsical, cute, and slightly feminine aesthetic, particularly evident in its "Kitten" collection, which offers a wealth of visual elements. I built my content around this collection, aiming to highlight the products' playful packaging and soft color palettes through dynamic editing and close-ups. Working with a brand that is distinctive and youthful made it easier for me to construct a coherent story, as I could fully utilize its existing design language to create visually appealing scenes.
Observations
This project made me realize that video production is far more complex than I initially anticipated. Due to my limited technical knowledge—especially in advanced editing techniques and pacing—I relied heavily on tutorial videos to refine my workflow, from color grading to transitions. Finding high-quality product footage and creating matching graphics also consumed a significant amount of my time, as I wanted every element to be exquisite and perfectly aligned with the brand's image.
Findings
Through this process, I realized that video production requires patience, repeated practice, and attention to detail—countless edits, pacing adjustments, and polishing of footage are needed to achieve the final result. While repeatedly revising shots and adjusting timing was challenging, it also enhanced my technical skills and creative problem-solving abilities. In short, this project reinforced my belief that successful video production is the result of a combination of technical competence, brand fit, and rapid response to feedback.
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