Landscape Animation

Conclusion Questions:
1. In detail Describe your step by step animation workflow, including tools and techniques used in Ai and Ae. 

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To begin this project I started on the Adobe Illustrator software to create my landscape. I began with setting up the background, brainstorming how I can incorporate certain items to create special effects with.  I used the Pen Curve tool to make a flowy almost gradient background on both sides. I then worked on my foreground, I got the idea to make a desert theme landscape so I found mountain silhouettes on Google that I liked and imported them onto Illustrator. One I got them repositioned onto my liking I selected "Ungroup">"Expand" to separate each mountain and went on the Fill & Stroke to add color. I repeated the same process with every mountain, changing each one a different color to add definition, ensuring each one had its own layer. It was a similar process to create the buildings though I did create smaller building and copy and pasted onto one another to add some shadows and look more realistic. To complete the background I found cactus, camels and plant silhouettes to give my project some atmosphere and life. I repositioned each item to where I liked. Throughout this whole process I added tons of effects such as "Outer Glows" "Drop Shadows" and "Gaussian Blurs" to give it definition and overall a better look. I ultimately wanted to add a sun and clouds to top it off. With my clouds I used the ellipse and shape-builder tool and just made circles scattered over the sky. I filled it with a white color and lowered the opacity to 40-60% for a transparency effect. I used the same tools for my sun, beginning with the circle ellipse tool as the base then creating my own gradient with an orange/red array for color. Once I was satisfied with the final product I exported it onto my desktop so I can then go onto part 2, Adobe After Effects. 

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I opened the AE software program and uploaded my completed landscape. I began with simple animations just to ease into the program. To start this I located and selected the layer I wanted to move around then moved the time indicator where I wanted the layer to begin and clicked on the stopwatch then moved the time indicator to the final position that I wanted it to end at, scrubbing to the new position by clicking and dragging the coordinates and held the "Shift" key to 2x the speed. I was able to use this motion to shift my clouds over to the left and bring my sun to rise. I then went on the composition layer to create a zoom in transition, using the same steps as the previous effects, expect I used the scale coordinates and started really close in and moved the keyframe to the final scale. I used motion blur effect and applied easy ease for smoother animations. I had the idea to have my camels walk around. For this I previously separated the legs from the body on AI and with each keyframe I shifted one by one, overlapping them to show the effect. I found a desert theme free audio download and saved it onto my files. After I located the file I went onto "Files" "Audio" and cropped the length into my satisfaction. 

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2. Reflect on your technical skills in both Ai and Ae. Which aspects were easiest for you, and which were most challenging? How did you overcome any difficulties?

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I found creating the actual landscape on illustrator to be the easiest portion in this project. With the experience and knowledge I had from previous times in using the software using shapes, special effects, and combining layers was simple to navigate through. I struggled most on creating even straightforward animations on after effects. Getting the keyframes, proportions and right timing was a challenge and faced these by watching multiple videos on YouTube and visiting websites that offered tutorials on similar animations I was attempting.