“Cyberchase”: abstract animation
The concept for “Cyberchase” came from my imagining of what the journey of a computer virus might look like. I desired to create a contrast between the opening scene’s dull colors of gray, brown, and black and the virus’s journey visualized by a color palette of vibrant and neon colors I decided on from glitch art inspiration.
I was able to accomplish the virus having a more erratic path and fastened pace over time by manipulating the position marker with several zig zag lines in short intervals for the start and end times. I intentionally tried to make this movement more clear as the music progressed over time and developed a more urgent sound to it. For the conclusion, I sought to imagine what happens when the virus takes over a computer, and I tried to create “glitch” graphics that reminds one of when a TV has lost signal. I sought to make each frame match up with the pulsing of sound, particularly to correspond to the radio static and broken words being spoken, which I hoped would facilitate the idea of the virus taking over. I also intentionally did not fade the music into the radio noise because I thought the sharp transitions facilitated the feeling of urgency and high energy. Another choice I made to contribute to the effect of glitching and imagery of cyberspace was to give the multi-colored square layers representing traveling “into” the computer’s system differing degrees of wiggle paths on their outline. This visual decision allowed for an effect of controlled chaos.
With more time, I would have liked to figure out why the Adobe Media Encoder did not process my choice for the opening scene’s background, which was not originally black. Overall though, I think this was my favorite project to create so far; I greatly enjoyed bringing a story to life through animation of simple shapes.
References
Animate along a Path. Accessed November 5, 2021. https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/how-to/animate-along-path.html.
While I did not explicitly animate along a path in the way this support page outlines, I used its principles to figure out how to create more dynamic paths/movement for the virus beyond just a straight line to/from two endpoints. Manipulating the virus’s position over time with keyframes allowed me to make the virus zig-zag, do loops, and more while traversing between endpoints.
How to Create Blinking Layers – Adobe After Effects Tutorial. Accessed November 5, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ20-6l4v5Q.
I wanted the virus to blink and disappear in a section of the static audio at the end of the piece. To accomplish this, I followed this tutorial that allowed me to make the blinking effect sharp and not faded over time, which better fit the energy and notes of the audio.
How to Use Wiggle Tools with Shape Layers – Adobe After Effects Tutorial. Accessed November 5, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3hjscokb-M.
For the tunnel of squares the virus navigates, I felt that the shape layers were too rigid. Adding varying types of wiggle paths to the outlines of the shape layers allowed for the feeling of greater movement and perhaps “controlled chaos” simulated by the virus running through the computer’s system.
Short, Josh. βQuickly Change Transparency and Fade In or Out Layer in After Effects.β Edit Video Faster (blog), January 9, 2021. https://www.editvideofaster.com/change-transparency-after-effects/.
Transforming layer components like opacity and scale allowed me to create more fluid transitions between “scenes” within the animation.
Unsplash. β500+ Glitch Pictures [HQ] | Download Free Images on Unsplash.β Accessed November 5, 2021. https://unsplash.com/s/photos/glitch.
I used many reference images of “glitch art” as inspiration for my color palette for this project. Given that the “subject” of the project is a computer virus, I wanted to utilize bright neon colors contrasted with dark or dull backgrounds to help tell the story.
