Self Project. Animation at the bottom of the page after explaniation.
I wanted to improve on my After Effect skills so wanted to create an animated environment. I also wanted to aim to merge real life with my illustrations using photographs for the background elements.
After completely the illustration of the soldier, I imported the Adobe Illustrator file into After Effects. Using some stock image, I started to create my composition adding extra elements such as the trees and grass to add extra depth to the image.
The sky was created using an image of some storm clouds and using the Motion Tile effect to make it move across the screen. I then layered this multiple times and had different opacities throughout to give it a rolling, dynamic look. I then added in the lightning using a lightning effect and made sure to replicate the motion and change in shape of the lightning and then created solid white layers that only showed up for a short period of time to create the flash effects. To also make sure this look realistic, I changed the Levels of each element in the composition to lighten and darken around the flashes/lightning.
Then It was just a case of just using a Slant effect on the grass and using a Wiggle expression to make them sway randomly.ย After that, I rendered it and uploaded the completed animation to my Instagram.
