In order to gain a better understanding of how After Effects works, I chose to create my own looping animation. 

I began by hitting the "drawing board", my sketchbook. I already knew that I wanted to animate a french bulldog puppy doing something playful, so I used my sketches to get a better understanding of what exactly the puppy would look like, and what he would be doing. I also created a very rough storyboard. These can be pictured here:

I then took my sketches into Adobe Illustrator and began creating the basic shapes of the bulldog. I had to spend a lot of time here making sure that every different part that would be moving in animation, was kept on it's own separate layers. This is why storyboarding is a necessary first step. Here was my preliminary first draft in adobe illustrator:

Finally I got everything designed in Illustrator. Here are some screenshots of what the design looks like altogether, and when each moving piece is separated. 

Next I moved into Adobe After Effects to start animating my design. Before anything else, I made some pre-compositions of elements that I knew I wanted to be moving together. These consisted of: one for both of the ears, one for the nose, and one for the bum/tail. I then went through and animated each of these parts to wiggle, twitch, wag etc. Next, I animated the legs to move to the sides, and the body/head to move downwards in order to make it look like the puppy was getting into pounce position. When the puppy moves downward, I had to make the bum/tail come up and into view. The hardest part was figuring out how to make them stay out of view the entire time the puppy was standing up. After many trial and errors, I figured out the I could create a shape the same color as the background to cover the bottom half of the screen, and I would have everything in front of this shape except for the bum and tail. That way, those elements were hidden behind that shape until they came up into view. Finally, I made the whole animation loop for 30 seconds, and I was finished. 

I am proud of this project because I accomplished what I set out to: to gain a better understanding of how to work AfterEffects. And also, my french bulldog puppy turned out pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself.