This is a continuance of our last skills workshop, where we made self-portraits in After Effects using simple shapes. Our aims for this lesson were to finalise the portrait and begin adding elements of animation. I was really looking forward to this because my portrait was almost begging for some movement! The simple shapes and bold, flat colours are ideal to spice up and animate, which is why we created our portraits in After Effects.
First, as a quick warmup, we were asked to get as high a score as possible on The Colour Game which was surprisingly challenging. The game refreshed my memory on colour combinations and reminded me of how important it is to a design. I was also pretty pleased with my score!
– Task –
Animate your self-portrait. This could involve adding some simple movement such as nodding, hair waving or a shimmer on the glasses. You could also create extra assets and build a mini scene for some fun animation to take place (make it interesting!)
I knew what I wanted to do after seeing some examples of other portraits and also receiving suggestions from friends. I decided to animate my cockatiel, Bijou, flying around in the frame somehow, and landing on my shoulder. I thought this would be a nice way to tell the viewer a bit more about me and also add some interest to the portrait, instead of just my hair blowing or my arm moving. As always, I had to begin by gathering references and inspirations, because there are a lot of ways you can go about creating a cockatiel in After Effects, mainly in terms of style and detail.
These two images were my chosen references since I liked the simplistic style and felt that it would be good to replicate using simple shapes. Furthermore, consistency was necessary if I wanted both me and Bijou to look part of the same world, which meant that I couldn’t go overboard with the design when my portrait is relatively minimal. I love how the first one is so squished and cute, but still recognisable as a cockatiel thanks to the colours and shapes. I used it mainly for the head and body of Bijou and the second image for the wings and tail, since I wanted them quite big, to draw attention to him flying.
When I started building the asset, I used the same file as my portrait, since it would be easier to add in that way. I simply created a new solid layer for a background and added new layers on top, so that I could clearly see what I was doing. All of the shapes were created in the same way as my portrait, on separate layers using the pen tool. Using the pen enabled me to have greater control over each aspect of the design because I could edit the handles even after placing the anchor points down. The body and head were simple enough, but I did this quite a bit for the wings and tail, where there are a lot more points, sharp crevices and curves. I didn’t focus too much on the smaller details though, since Bijou would be smaller in the actual animation, and moving about as well. The bigger design and how it looked as a whole was more important. Throughout, the references were quite useful and I often referred to them whilst I was making each element, such as the tail. Also, like before, I didn’t bother with any colour as of yet, since I was focused on building the basics and getting all of the shapes how I wanted them, without the distractions of colour.
One part that I really struggled with was the feet. My first reference (the cuter one) had very peculiar feet for the bird – small, round and with great resemblance to popcorn. Yet, they were still recognisable as the feet of the bird. I wasn’t having such luck, and no matter how I edited the handles, or even when I deleted the entire shape and tried again, I couldn’t get them to look like feet. I think that this is because my design is a mix of the two references I used, whereas the first one was fully cutified. Because of this, the squishy feet don’t work and just look bizarre on the rest of the body. I couldn’t use the second image for reference either, since the cockatiel there is flying at a different angle. I was also quite conscientious of the time limit since I had to give myself a good chunk at the end for animating the actual portrait therefore I decided to skip out on the feet altogether. The design looked pretty good without them and clearly carried across as a parrot, so I felt that it was okay to not add feet.
After completing all of the main body parts, I moved on to the facial features, details and colour. I wanted Bijou to look super cute, so I didn’t try to be realistic, instead opting to copy the shapes used in my first reference picture with some added highlights to the eyes to make them pop more. I loved the use of the gradient, which is pretty accurate for cockatiels, so I also added that grey-to-white graduation to the entire head, which was much easier and faster than fussing with a second shape on top for the yellow patch. To embellish the wings and tail, I also added secondary feathers, which were done by duplicating the initial shapes, then resizing and moving some of the points around to fit the area. The rest was simple! I added the rest of the colours and final touches, which I didn’t need my images for, since I know how my bird looks like, and what looks appealing in terms of colour (darker/lighter contrast). Before animating, I made sure to precompose certain elements, such as the secondary feathers to the main ones, and then the tail, body and head together, before finally grouping everything in a pre-comp to make Bijou one.
Animating everything didn’t take too long, as the movements were relatively simple and easy to make. I clicked the stopwatch for Bijou’s position, making him appear from off the screen and glide to my shoulder, before going into the pre-comp to add animation to the wings. Since all they needed to do was flap, I simply animated their rotation and position at the end, where they fold down. Because I wanted them to be tucked in, it meant that I couldn’t use the ‘loopout’ expression but this wasn’t a big problem since I only needed to copy and paste the keyframe group two times and it covered the area that Bijou was flying in. I wasn’t completely satisfied with just my pet moving though since it looked a bit unnatural that I didn’t react at all, and there was no movement whatsoever from my hair or face. At the very least, when he is flying, some wind is produced, which should move my loose hair strands, which is what I made sure to do first. Using upper pins, I made the strands bend/sway slightly in time with when he lands. I had some time left over for an extra animation which is why I also added puppet pins to my mouth to make me smile a bit more towards the end. These things may seem small, but when combined give so much more life to the portrait and make me look far less stiff than before when only Bijou was moving.
In my opinion, the final animation looks pretty cool! I think it reflects my appearance and some minor likes quite well and is also fun to watch with Bijou flying in. From start to finish, I was quite surprised at how easy it is to create something like this. Although there were certain challenges that slowed me down, overall the process was quite easy, from building a portrait using simple shapes to making them move with very minimal After Effects skills. I enjoyed making an animated self-portrait and am happy to add this to my collection of work knowing similar results can be achieved with basic skills in just one program. If I had more time, I would have applied the edge boil effect, to make the animation more cartoony and fun.
Although this isn’t an effect that I used during this lesson, I’d like to include the method for future reference.
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Apply the Boil:
Open the shape layers and add the effect ‘roughen edges’.
Effects -> Stylize -> Roughen Edges
Animate the evolution and play around with the border and scale.
This effect creates a cosy hand-drawn animated look by giving the stroke a slight animation/movement.