Animation Development — Creative Networks — OUGD603

Already knowing the direction we needed to be heading in was a great head start for us. Naturally coming to this conclusion through means of research and feedback meant that the contextual value of the outcome was solid.

We begun by experimenting with different ways in which this signature can be used:

By tracing his signature from one of his works using the pen tool in illustrator allowed us to think of ways in which this could be applied to the final outcomes, as this can be blown up as big as needed. It then occurred to us that this would look great in the form of an animation, as if the signature was being written by Mike himself.

This involved creating mask layers within After Effects, essentially covering up the existing continuous stroke with one that can be revealed and hidden on command:

Each of these masks correspond with its continuous line, if the pen were to be taken off the paper, then a new mask must be created in order to ensure the animation has a consistent speed.

This (very) rough storyboard represents the different scenes with the animation:

Here it is in action, with the exception to music, which would be being played in the background, rather than sending myself and those that watch the video more than once insane, I held off on that aspect for now:

(Poor quality is thanks to bloggers excellent video compression)