My Final Piece

This is the final piece!



Done mostly on After Effects, I added in key frames to make the image spin at the right speed; I also had to incorporate the text individually and add in key frames for each phrase.
I did this because I originally made the whole image on Photoshop, with text included, so I would only have to add key frames to one image. However, when I imported it into After Effects and zoomed in on the picture (so that it spins out of frame) the text became pixilated and almost unable to read.

Despite this, I think the motion graphic works well, because it's informative, it spins at a good pace, and is easy to follow.
To bring it to life, I could add audio to the background; not anything too outrageous, just simple piano music or something soothing to listen to, which could help it flow better.

Further Testing...

I completed another experiment, where I changed the timing of the rotation, to allow a pause in between each transaction so information can be processed by viewers...

Looking at the difference between my first and second tests, I can already see the difference in the spacing of the keyframes:

Test 1

Test 2

It's a lot easier to get a symmetrical rotation if your pivot point is on the very edge of the page. As you can see, the second test's lines all meet at the edge of the page, so you can see where the image is rotating from; whereas the first test the lines don't actually meet on the page, so I had to guess where the meeting point was to place my centre of rotation.

I definitely think this one runs a lot smoother then my first, and having the pauses definitely helps make it less blurred/speedy.
I need to create a better composition on Photoshop, with appropriate text and images that won't pixilate when I enlarge/zoom in on them.
Doing these tests made me realise that once you know what you're doing, it doesn't take very long to rotate the image... This being said, it will allow me more time to complete the final composition, and even add in small animated parts!

Animation Test...

When I came to start my final piece, I realised using "The Golden Age of Cartoons" was a lot of information to fit into a 30 second timeline... So I'm going back to my original idea of using the first pieces of technology that became the roots to developing animation as a technique. This is because the information is simple to portray, easy to follow as a chronology, and a simpler task for someone who hasn't made a motion graphic before...

I decided before going any further into making my final animation, I should do a test run first. This will allow me chance to experiment with Photoshop and After Effects to try and produce what I want, since I've never made anything like this before.

These are the steps I took to make my timeline on Photoshop...
I firstly drew an ellipse, which helped me to keep my lines evenly spaced and the same length all the way around.
Once I had drawn all the lines I need, I removed the ellipse, and was left with the third image down. After this I was able to rotate the whole page around, so I could align my images the right way around, ready to be rotated.
In order to be able to rotate my image across a timeline in After Effects, I created a video timeline on Photoshop, then elongated the length of every frame to 30 seconds. When exported into a film, this will open well in After Effects; allowing me to put in a centre rotation point, and add in key points to work out the speed of rotation.


















Once I exported it and moved it to After Effects, I was able to change the scale, position, anchor point (rotation point), and put in key frames every 3 seconds to make my image rotate around the centre point.
I could either elongate the space between every key frame, making it move slower in a continuous motion, or I could make it rotate faster and pause at every piece of information.

After watching it back I realise I need to think about the composition and actual images used, so they all stay on the page and don't become blurry when zoomed in. 

I also believe that I need to pause the timeline every time it reaches a new piece of information, since that will make it easier for viewers to read and see the information.

This is my first test of rotating the image:

I will experiment further to see which speed works best, improve the composition in Photoshop, and see about adding some kind of title.