For me, this project was a way to bring to life the joy and freedom my choice in music brought to me. While I did come up with three ideas, ultimately I chose the theme song from How to Train Your Dragon. From the music I was able to put together a whimsical piece My third organic, free moving shapes and twirling lines that reminded me of childhood and my favorite animation, How to Train Your Dragon.
Three Sounds and Storyboards- Step One:
I created three storyboards, my first based upon Once Upon a December (instrumental) from Anastasia. I attempted to use shapes that reminded me of dancing. The second was based on Test Drive from How to Train Your Dragon. I wanted to use shapes/lines that felt like they were flying freely across the page. My final story board was based upon a piano piece, that I represented with various appearing/disappearing circular shapes to the time of the music.
First Attempt- Step Two
My first attempt at the project involved swirling lines of blues and purples coming in and out of the screen to the time of the music.
I learned how to created moving lines using the pen tool and timeframes, along with altering how the lines come in.
Evidently making a single group move to the music resulted in off timing because of the multitude of instruments.
Revision- Step Three:
Because I was not able to change the time frames on my first attempt, I chose to redo the project.
In an attempt to create a well-timed, colorful project with a less abrupt ending, I used two sets of shapes. One set was based on the more fluid sounds, and one on beats.
While maintaining some of the dark blues and greens from the original cover, I took inspiration from the artwork depicting Universal’s Isle of Berk for more colors.
Ultimately, I tried to create a colorful piece of free-flowing shapes.
Bibliography
“Expanding Shapes Tutorial in Adobe After Effects.” Noble Desktop. December 6, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6tDDpVxrNw&themeRefresh=1.
I used this tutorial to learn to expand my shapes to fill the screen.
“How to change the duration in After Effects.” Bhupinder Tube. April 20, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS6sF_b083w
I used this tutorial to expand the duration of my piece past the set 30 seconds.
“Universal Epic Universe concept art- How to Train Your Dragon- Isle of Berk.” Universal Orlando Resort. March 28, 2024. https://www.wdwmagic.com/wdwmagic-plus/universal-orlando-resort/news/28mar2024-universal-orlando-resort-reveals-new-details-about-how-to-train-your-dragon—isle-of-berk.htm
I used the artwork as inspiration for a more colorful piece.
“After Effects- How to Make Transparent Gradients.” Craig Kunce. February 14th, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jfFWUs0m80
I used this tutorial for inspiration on how to incorporate color in my piece.
“How to Train Your Dragon.” Dreamworks. March 21, 2010. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0892769/
I used the coloring from the movie poster of How to Train Your Dragon as inspiration for my original piece.
