Blog 7. Final idea

Design

Technical


On paper a glowing orb is a simple concept, digitally, not so much.  The movement of both the orb and particle system was a simple task. I simply used keyframes to move the camera and composition along the X,Y and Z axis.

Creating the orb and streaks was hard and required multiple tutorials. However with enough willpower i gained a result Im quite proud of. The orbs are in fact 2 solid layers with different opacity's and feather lengths to create a glow effect.

The streaks of purple colour were created using the pen tool, polarised and then linked to a singular Null object so they could be manipulated.

Narrative

Two very important aspects need to be visualised at this point of the animation (1 min 31 seconds).

First of all when the Techno synth comes in at 1.31, part of the animation needs to visually match the beat.
I tried very hard to use Trapcode soundkeyes at this point to animate the streaks of purple colour, however this required a considerable amount of ram to provide enough keyframes, required for the segment of audio i wished to relate to the animation. So i kept the streaks animated how i started them, by simply rotating and emitting them around the singular orb to create a visually exciting array of colour and light.

My way around this was to use a particle system moving at a velocity and direction that suited the progression and tempo of the audio, which I think it does quite well.

Secondly, this is the point where the artist has compiled all of his/her thoughts and settled on a final idea. So being an 'artist' the animation needed a good use of color, lighting and movement. Now again reprsenting an idea is hard when it isnt a visual entity, however keeping with the lighbulb theme i created a singular glowing orb with streaks of color radiating from the centre.

This is also where the narrative starts to switch. Up till this point the narrative has been of a positive theme, but this is where it begins to turn negative. I wanted this part to represent an idea being stolen/ destroyed or even forgotten about because this is when the audio begins to break down. This is  why the 'idea'( glowing orb) and  the artists ' motivation/enthusiasm' (Particle system) move in different directions to show that the relationship between them is being lost and simply to utilize all of the domes space.