Concept:
For the Lion taping, I wanted to try a couple of different things. I had seen a really cool tape project that made use of shadows, and made the tape look like it was popping off the wall. If you're interested, you can check that out here.
Process:
To create this, I decided to create the entire composition using After Effects and just use Madmapper as a video player. In AE, it's not very difficult to create lights and manipulate them. This composition consists of 3 very basic AE assets. The background, the foreground (in this case the Lion with a transparent background), and a spot light. After I had created these 3 assets, I added a bit of code to the light to make it move around randomly within set parameters, and animated the background color to change randomly. As you can see in the image below, there's a bit more complexity to it than that, but those are the pieces that make it work.
original video
Lion - Panels
Concept:
I got this idea from the example Scott gave in class with the very simple panels lighting up. Each individual panel lit up at a random time and looked really elegant. I wanted to see if I could duplicate this with a bit more color and speed. (The projectors are capable of color after all, why not use it?)
Process:
This process was a bit more involved than the shadows. I began by taking the reference image for the Lion into photoshop and getting to work. My method to light each individual panel required each panel to be on its own layer. (It took forever)
After I had finished that fun task, the hard part could begin. I imported the psd into AE and added the same color randomizer I used on the background in the first comp to each panel. (No, I didn't apply each one individually. You can copy/paste effects) This made the panels flicker independently of each other, which created a pretty cool effect.
Next came the challenge of making the panels light up without having to do incredibly tedious manual animation. By using all the forums, I learned how to write the code to make it work. Once I understood how to make it work, it was pretty simple. I created 2 null objects (essentially invisible assets that have the same properties of any other asset) and animated them to randomly move up and down in a certain range. Then I wrote an if statement and used the "checkbox" effect to tell the panels to turn on if they were between the nulls. (If you're interested in trying this yourself, the code is shown in the screenshot below. Shoot me an email if you need help with it)
Lantern - Text and Flicker
Concept:
The lantern was an interesting challenge. I wanted to combine both of the processes that I had used for the lion in this one. I wanted the main part of the composition to make the flat tape look like there was an actual candle lit in the middle, casting shadows on the wall. I also wanted to incorporate an idea with this one, include a theme. While I was brainstorming, the main question I was asking was what do you think of when you see a lamp? That's right. Psalm 119. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path"
Process:
To create this complex composition, I began by taking the reference photo into PS and breaking it down into individual layers. After that nightmare was over, I pulled the file into after effects and applied a random opacity to the various pieces. This made them kind of flicker as if they were in candle light. I wasn't worried about color yet because I was going to take care of that with the light. I did the same to the candle, but added a color randomizer with parameters so it would stay orange/yellow.
For the build, I created a simple box out of solid layers for the lantern to sit in. I then moved everything in 3D space to where it needed to be and added lights. I animated the lights a bit to add a candle like flicker to the scene and focused them on the proper areas. The pieces closer to the candle are brighter than those further away.
For the intro, I created a text layer with the verse and put a light in front of it so it would cast a shadow, and then turned off the actual text. This create a really cool blurred text effect that kind of shifted around a bit.
To blend the 2 comps together, I created a quick animation of just the outlines being lit up, and then faded to black so the candle could be lit. I also added a sound effect of a match being lit to heighten the effect.
original video
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