Intro — Illustrated Animations for Virtual Reality
Using Adobe After Effects & Autodesk Sketchbook
For this blog series, we cover the workflow setup that the Little Kidogo team follow as we go through the process of making a VR hand drawn illustrated animation. The blog will be updated as the project flows — from story boarding to uploading the final video.
The Brief
Our main objectives for this project are to create a cost efficient yet totally compelling piece of VR.
The Tech
Team members Carla Inez Espost Productions will be using Adobe After Effects to create the 3d environment (to put the camera in, doing animations and adding lighting and, and, and…). Then @StuDoodle, will be creating awesome graphics for characters, furniture, objects and even text add ins.
@StuDoodle uses Autodesk’s Sketchbook, he works off of his mobile, to maximize productivity, as well as communication efficiency (specifically the quick sharing abilities that is possible via the mobile app). These illustrations will be exported to PSD files, layers will be used to be in control of all separate elements of the characters in order to manipulate them for animation purposes later on in After Effects.
So in terms important factors that influences the cost efficiency of the project and our choice of workflow set up, we have to think about 2 main things:
- Team communication
- Cross platform efficiency
1) Team Communication
For this the possible pain point lies at the intersection between the two programs — and then also more specific details such as how many iterations a illustration goes through before it will be decided to be a final version to be used within the final After Effects composition (aka sent to the animator). This is important to consider, because the faster the iterations can be given feedback about and worked on and given feedback about and so on, the less time needs to be spent working on the project overall, which inevitably means the less money spent on talent hours. For example on mobile you can use, email, Wi-Fi Direct, or other file transfer method available on your Android Share Sheet. This allows Stuart to draw all the time, any time. Even though he might only draw for 5 minutes at a time, this allows him the flexibility to do other things throughout the day too, ’cause hey, we all know the more we get our minds on and off an image the better our judgment can be refreshed and hence the better we can add/subtract to the WIP — which ultimately leads to better drawings.
2) Cross Platform Efficiency
This will be quite important, as Stuart will have to send through the final drawings with specific elements of each final drawing as separated layers. This is the main point that we are grappling with and would only be able to say whats best after we have tested it. See below for our current technical workflow decisions of how to best use Autodesk Sketchbook for Mobile and After Effects to create a cost effective illustrated VR animation.
*See here for the next blog in this series: Part 1_Sketchbook Setup
See here for the full list of blogs in this series:
Illustrated Animations for Virtual Reality using Adobe After Effects & Autodesk Sketchbook
-Intro — Illustrated Animations for Virtual Reality
-Project Phase_Workflow planning:
