james polits

One of the problem with learning programs like Adobe’s After Effects is that it takes way to much time to put together a substantial product. I’ve noticed that the videos that I have been making have been really short and leaves you feeling like there should have been something more to it.

I think that is especially the case with the project I did last night. Can you spot the thing that really makes it leave you unsatisfied? Watch it and see if you get it.

You don’t know? The elipses. It’s kinda like you thought I was going to say something else about bubbles, right?

Anyway, about the video: There were two things I learned from this project.

• I learned how to better manipulate and create particles using the CC Particle World plugin.
• I had to come up with a way to reveal the word “Bubbles” only using the tools in After Effects. No stock footage was used to make the water-like reveal effect.

In conclusion, I think my 365 Project is turning into a 52 Week Project with After Effects. And I’m okay with that.

Let me know if you have any suggestions are ideas of things I should try. I’m always having a hard time knowing where to start.

I’ve been on an After Effects kick lately, so motion graphics seem to be what I am creating. Unfortunately, they take way more time then designing a little fish. For the video projects, it generally takes me one day to create the basic project and another couple days of refining when I have time.

Day 24’s project, though, was done in one sitting. The goal was to learn a little about particle creation using the CC Particle World plugin for After Effects. I would say I accomplished the learning part, but not really the attractive project part. Oh well…

Side note: The “Fire in the Disco” line was inspired by the Electric Six song Danger! High Voltage.

The last week has been a blur and I really haven’t created anything for the most part. I know… When you tell the world that you are going to do something everyday, you need to follow through.

The thing about this project, though, is that it is about me growing and investing in myself. What that means is that I need to be resilient and keep coming back when I fail. And that’s what I’m doing today.

Today’s project was a little reminder about what it is all about being a Christian in an After Effects project. It’s short and worth watching, so I’m not going to tell you any more.

I’m not really thrilled with the type treatment, but I needed to be done for the night. My goal was to start with something simple and go from there. The mark started with three straight lines. It took me a while to figure out what to do with them. The first attempt was this braided thing, but I couldn’t get the proportions of the thing right. Next time, I’ll try to save a shot of my missteps for you to see.

P.S. Here is an update of the video that I did posted last week. For video, I figure one per week equals is about the equivalent of one design a day.

Day 12 is a little special. I decided to do a little learning an creating with motion graphics work. I set out to try some of the fly through text stuff that you often see and I definitely accomplished  that goal.

The downside to the project is that it was technical-skill and procedure-oriented rather than creativity-oriented. I had a blast and learned a bit, but I want to make sure I keep the creativity as a main staple for my 365 project. Oh yeah… and the end product is also work oriented.

UPDATED: I decided to keep working on this a little more instead of making something new on 1/14. Below is the updated video.

Today, I got a little lesson of thinking outside the box. On vector.tuts, there was a tutorial about using a typeface for all the shapes of a character. I never think of using a typeface for anything other than words. My brain just never goes there.

Using Helvetica, I set out to create a little monster in a similar fashion to the one in the tutorial.

Well, just a week in and I already missed a day. Just one. Day 7 was not worth posting because of how ugly it was. And day 8 fell by the wayside because of a rather large work project.

I guess it’s about moving forward and getting better, not checking something off the list. If you are wondering what this is all about, check our my project for 2010.

Day 9: Presentation Background

I had to do a presentation on day 10, so creating a background became the project. I gotta say, I did not come up with it on my own. I recreated one template that I saw for sale at graphicriver.net.

Day 10: Not Nemo

The caption totally explains how I felt about this one. However, I just started drawing and this is what I ended up with. I reiterate—it’s about working on being creative and stuff… Ok, I know, I’m just making excuses for not spending more time to grow and get better.