A Koi Pond Animation
As the semester is coming to a close, I was grateful to be working on a project that was much more relaxing. I have had very little experience in After Effects back in 2017, so these past few weeks I truly have been learning a new program.
I wanted to create something cute and relaxing that could easily be transported as a GIF. I really enjoyed the fish stickers, so what better way to share a message of relaxation that a tranquil fish pond?
Original Design
I really enjoy drawing fish and I recently did a sticker project of three different types of fish. I actually didn’t draw these out, I just made simple shapes on Adobe that could be easily animated. At first, I just used one of my fish stickers for a simple animation so it wasn’t difficult.
Draft
I felt I didn’t make the scene as cute or relaxing as it could be, so this draft prompted me to take a different approach. Again, I created simple fish on illustrator and created a new set of assets that would lead to my final draft.
I am however very proud of the orange fish in the back which inspired me for what would be my final animation.
Final
I played a lot with the puppet pins! I found that .ae files are extremely easy to break, so I was grateful that I made multiple copies. Translating my file to GIFs was a little odd and didn’t do it the way I expected. I also think that there is a lot of blank time which means room for creativity. Over the summer I want to take the time to keep learning After Effects so my skills don’t get rusty by the time fall rolls around.
I learned that I really like animations! I need to be really clear and careful with using After Effects, but there is so much I can create with a simple design. This definitely will be my summer project!
