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Week 6 introduced the experimentation of 2D text within After Effects, exploring visual styles accompanied by animations and time synchronisation.

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For my composition experimentations, (with permission) I used a short sequence of my close friend performing a cover of 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now' by The Smiths. I timed different sections of the selected lyrics to show on screen throughout my different compositions.

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I experimented with typefaces, leading, kerning and colour variation within the text to create emphasis within words. For my first experiment, I settled on Niagra in italics, with a thin weight.

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I experimented with some effects available within the program, particularly looking throughout the 'Animate In' section. I went in with the slide in animations, for ease of understanding the lyrics, and some dynamic movement. The first section, I used the 'Slide Up by Character' for the introduction, followed by 'Slide In by Words', followed by 'Fade In by Word', finally ending with, another 'Slide In by Words' for the individual texts to complete the animation.

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I experimented with some other still effects to add interest to the animation, to which I used the 'Flicker Out' animation, to give the composition an interesting finish along with the spooky context, told through the typeface appearance.

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'Fade In by Word' was the first time during the experimentation which I had to change the range selector to align with the sound synchronisation. At first, I found it somewhat confusing as I was required to understand the delay within each selector to the actual animation as it is different for all animations, but once I had a grasp on what I was after, I was easily able to manipulate the range selector to work to my needs.

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There were many times throughout both the 2D and 3D creating process where I took to the reddit page r/AfterEffects for specific queries to see if another user had posed a question with a similar situation to my own, particularly to help with processing and crashing problems.

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Precomposing fixes a multitude of problems - won’t help you get a date though

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After Effects help and inspiration the Reddit way.

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For my second composition, I wanted to experiment with more ways to frame the lyrics, and different animations to join each section. I remained with the same first section, but edited the timeline so the words will sync as the audio plays

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I ended up moving the text to face across from one another and have the entire portion show on screen by the end. I used the same typeface, though contradicted the attitude portrayed by altering the colours and flair, much like the first composition. I also changed the label group colour to help differentiate the timeline whilst editing.

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I also used the 'Bounce' effect on the first 'job' to offer experimentation with some more in-place animations. I was much more satisfied with the outcome of this composition in comparison to the first.

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For my third composition, I used this section to experiment with paths and more practice with the range selector. I experimented with the scale adjustment, effect intensity, as well as the opacity, to see how this impacted the effects that were placed on each section of text.

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I found myself to lack confidence in this process, as my personal device was not handling the program very well by this point. Nonetheless, I continued to apply these methods to later compositions and settled on this outcome. I was glad to have experimented with it so early, as my later outcomes were much more resolved and confident within the results.

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My fourth composition I wanted to focus again on the range selector, to challenge myself to accurately time the text appearance as the lyrics were sung. This was a more simple composition as I spaced out the lyrics with each section more than I had prior. I used the markers in the timeline more deliberately for this project, as I was looking for specific words to time the animation with, and this continued to prove useful for later projects too.

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I used each varied text to portray a different intention in the language, the brighter, full caps top text which harshly falls onto the page as it appears feels very demanding and powerful, intended to feel like a loud, internal voice which interrupts. The bottom, softer text carried throughout the whole animation through the typing animation is more human and natural, portraying the external feelings.

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Composition six explored more combinations of effects, this time specifically focusing on a new stationary animation, specifically 'Wheatfield', altering it slightly to be less extreme and flow with the lyrics, with the slightly more intense 'Joost' typeface.

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Composition five was intended to explore more crossover animations, and how I can combine them to create a different look. I utilised the 'Wave Warp' animation within each body of text to make an interesting flow, but had to minorly adjust the settings to ensure it was readable while the audio played.

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For the second body, I had to adjust the 'card wipe' effect to ensure it showed on the composition in time as the lyrics played, as the original animation is much more convoluted. I also edited the amount of pieces that showed, as it was very large and slow initially, slowing down the animation.

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I enjoyed this portion as I hadn't delved into specific adjustments of animations yet, and knew this would come in handy at a later point for the 3D text, as there would be many adjustments involved. By this point, I was also exploring beyond the 'text' folder of the animations, bringing the 'card wipe' animation from the 'transitions - dissolves' folder. I knew exploring these would come in handy for the 3D animations as well.

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For my seventh composition, I wanted to challenge myself to spreading out the text far more than before, ensuring that each word is readable within the time constraints and still offers visual interest. Each individual word had its own layer, with synchronised optical timing with the lyrics.

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I added an animation on each prolonged word, these being 'job' (Explode animation) and 'now' (Slide Down by Word) to add visual interest, and having to slightly alter the intensity and range selection to assure it fit in within the time constraints. I left this composition quite simple, as I wanted to focus on individual pieces of text within a timeframe to assure optical understanding.

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For my eighth composition, I wanted to practice using a path as I was not very familiar or comfortable by this point. When I could not work out the process myself, I took to YouTube where I followed the tutorial by Graphican of how to make objects move along a path.

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How to make object move along path in After Effects | Graphican

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How to make object move along path in After Effects

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I went through a lot of trial and error, as I came across the issue of the text automatically switching horizontally when attached to a path, rather than raising up like I intended. I still needed to experiment with timing to assure that the timing of the text was readable and wasn't too fast to reveal. I then realised that a simpler process is to assign movement to the range selection, which I had been practicing the use of with my prior projects. Despite this, I had now learned how to make the addition of object paths for later projects.

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For my ninth and final composition, I wanted to challenge myself to including a little bit of everything I had gained from my previous compositions. This involved sound synchronisation with effect timing, layering text with opacity, altering effects to suit the time restraints, object path animation, and altering the range selection.

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For the first segment, I wanted to try two different effects which can smoothly transition into each other, but effects I can still alter to fit into my vision for the outcome. I went with 'Florescent Light' for the first section, altering the frequency and intensity of the flickering, 'Chaotic in' for the transition to the second section of text, altering the intensity, and 'Slide Down by Character' for the exit, altering the speed.

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I combined the last two sections of text to overlap while each part plays, bringing in the background text as it is spoken. The 'heaven knows' section was my first finalised use of a text path, using the effect 'double spiral', which needed some minor adjustments in widening to ensure the text was readable once fully visible. The background text is the remaining 3 words which fill the background, forming a heavy presence, though not overlapping or creating an overstimulating presence with the swirled text in front. This was achieved by assigning movement to the range selector for the different words, which I learned while creating composition 8.

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While at first I found the learning process to be overstimulating and confusing, as it was a completely new software to me, I found that the more I utilised learned methods across compositions and experimented with combinations, the more proficient I quickly became and remembered processes much easier. I feel that while some of my compositions are much simpler than others, these helped me create a finalised piece while practicing methods to creating something larger, still being able to see an outcome after rendering. I feel much more confident in my skills with 2D text, and I feel there is still much more to explore and achieve with time.

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Week 7 introduced the experimentation of 3D text within After Effects, exploring many of the concepts found in the 2D lessons and expanding on them with lighting and camera angles aimed to create a final, rendered piece.

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My first composition embodied following video tutorials on the basics of 3D text within After Effects, as I was completely new to it and was rather intimidated. Using a simple voice recording of myself saying nonsense, I began with a simple extrusion on a bold oblique Helvetica typeface, with some contrasting colours to keep visual interest. I experimented with the bevel styles to add flair and explore the opportunities for customisation which After Effects offers, and decided to use 'convex', as I wanted to try something with smooth, yet noticeable edges to test reflection and lighting.

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At first, I ran into the issue of 3D effects not working on my selected text, and simply causing it to disappear after applying the animation. I tried researching the cause of this, though I could not find any results that matched my exact situation. I decided to adapt for the moment and try a different animation to experiment on my first project with, and decided to come back to this problem later.

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Once I added my first light source, I decided to change the colours of each section of text to see what the results on contrasting colours would look like. By this point, I had not explored things like the material settings, or some of the geometric opportunities within the settings for the text, so it seemed like a minimal impact at first, with a slight shadow alteration.

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Once I explored some more camera angles and could see the difference in the lighting, i slightly moved the text around to create a more drastic 3D look.

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Following this, I began my experimentation with the addition of a camera and realised how much the lighting could do to the text, so I played around with the intensity settings and the location. I was loving the dramatics that the camera angle was bringing, and decided to add some movement within the range selection to the camera like I experimented with in the 2D text section.

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Another camera angle after the addition of movement, adjusted lighting, and the camera itself.

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At first, I was struggling to find a balance with the moving camera and where I wanted it to end, though with the help of an online tutorial by MOBOX Graphics, I was able to settle on the subtle camera movement with it looking smooth and intentional. After this, I added a dark background with a vignette effect for a more finalised, dynamic 3D look.

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Beginner Camera Movement - After Effects Tutorial | MOBOX Graphics

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Beginner Camera Movement - After Effects Tutorial

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I was feeling unsatisfied with the final product, so I decided to explore the adjustment layers and added a glass effect, which gave it a more rounded, shiny look, which I was initially not aiming for. However, I feel the outcome has much more visual interest with the added effects, and after playing with the material settings to create something that stands out compared to the initial product.

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Composition two was posed as a challenge to myself, as I wanted to see how much I could create from memory, while also differentiating it from the first product. While I began with the same product of the same synchronised text in two different colours, I changed up the typeface to Baskerville with a concave bevel, to finalise the piece with the sharp, shadowed edges I wanted to explore in the first composition. I also wanted to try some simultaneous movement, so I timed the text to show after one another.

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I adjusted the movement and timing first, to ensure that each section showed as the audio played and it was not paced too differently. Following this, I played around with some animations for visual interest, and ended up using 'Worm' for each text, altering the movement and intensity for each.

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The camera proved to be a challenge, as the growing text would often cut offscreen to the point where it felt awkward, as the part of the text being spoken would quickly disappear or move too quickly. I decided to resize the text now that I had a planned frame, and then adjusted the camera to appropriately accommodate the borders, ensuring that the spoken section was always readable and disappeared once it had been through.

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I also added a green background with a moving lens flair, to accomodate for the moving camera which was less noticable, as the text moved around while the camera did so.

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During my experimentation, I realised that the more sharp, clean edges and surfaces a text has, the less realistic or rendered the outcome is going to feel. The rendered outcome felt very cell chaded and blocky in comparison to the first piece which had intense light reflection. While this is not necessarily a bad observation, it is important to consider for later projects when deciding the theme or aesthetic when building upon. Sharper shadows feel more realistic, while less feel very geometric, despite curves serifs within the typeface.

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Composition three was my favourite to experiment with, as I was feeling much more confident in my abilities with the software and I was excited to experiment more and test the limits. I began my text in a similar way, though this time, having each text box be a separate layer to work on individually. I separated each section with colour grouping.

I was excited to see what the 'Broadway' effect would look like in a 3D format, so I applied this to the bottom layer of text.

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I decided to create individual movement for each text box come from offscreen, as I struggled with the offscreen transition effects working with the 2D text initially, though I knew with a camera tool that I could frame the section to properly shoot from offscreen.

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I was quick to transform it into 3D, as I was anticipating using the camera tool to frame the text around its movement, and ensure that everything is readable as it appears. The benefit to having the text appear onscreen with layers here was that I did not have to use the range selection to time the animation as it happened, and I was able to assign the 'Spin by Word' effect to the beginning of each layer, and simply adjust the start time to ensure it was onscreen when I desired. I needed to adjust some movement and location once the camera had been applied, though it was eventually framed to my liking.

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I found trouble within the editing of the camera movement, as it was disagreeing with my choices of where the camera should end up in relation to the text, and was struggling to keep it in frame completely, despite my range selectors changing as I played the video. I ended up creating two paths for the camera to follow as each piece flew in, offering the interest of two different angles changing as text came in. While this was not the initial plan, I think this alternative offers a unique look to the animation, and has taught me some more about camera movement and the limits of the range selector.

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I added two adjustment layers at the end, one adjusting the overall tone to create a warm purple which I feel flowed with the chosen colour palette, and a glow layer, to add some more interest particularly to the bottom layer of text. This was another project which I feel used minimal reflection and created a cell-shaded look to the final piece, though feels less flat compared to composition two.

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For my final 3D composition, I wanted to experiment further with the text essentially interacting with the camera, like composition two but with a cleaner intention in its movement. I went with a clean typeface, using Arial bold with an angular bevel for both texts.

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I jumped straight into the 3D editing after I created a movement path for the text and worked on the framing of the camera, as that is what I struggled with most during the other composition productions. I wanted it to seem like the text was coming from beside the viewer's eyes and passing across the front of them, meaning I needed to get close to the text box without clipping or cutting.

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This seemed easy enough at first after adding my simple lighting for depth perception and interest, until I ran into the problem of the camera not aligning with the view radar, and text appearing in the middle of the screen despite moving it. I feel the camera tool was an enemy of mine for quite some time, as I sometimes still struggle to understand where the framing constraints and exceptions are, which can only be seen by exploring through different angles.

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Eventually, I was able to frame them the way I wanted, which each text moving in opposing directions as the audio synced with the words. I was skeptical of the text playing backwards at first, though after some timing adjustments so each individual word appeared as the audio played, the simple words ensured it was cohesive. In this time, I also adjusted some of the material settings to create an almost iridescent look to the text colour, backed by the contrasting original colour framed by the bevel.

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I find it interesting that despite being the exact same typeface design, a slight movement of both the camera and angle of the text can completely alter the look after rendering.

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Despite finding difficulty in the beginning with 3D text, understanding the basics and experimenting with tools, after going back in and experimenting further with the 2D text, I quite enjoyed watching the outcomes of the 3D text on the active camera in comparison to the composing screens. I still find it somewhat challenging at times, like some effects not outputting what I expected, or camera angles contradicting what I initially assigned them to do, I still have much to learn and I am satisfied with the outcomes of my experiments, with much to take from this and use in future projects involving 3D media.

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While I found many of the tasks found in assessment 2 intimidating at first, I was able to bring my knowledge from the previous experimentation and apply the logic to many of the new concepts within the software. I enjoyed the focus on After Effects, as it was entirely new to me prior to this unit and I have learned the basics from the ground up with the help of the provided resources, and external help from online sources.

The 2D text was causing me issues at the beginning with the software slowing and crashing at times, though I continued to work with my constraints to my best ability, following along with the provided tutorials for my first composition, then pursued external sources and experimented with learned knowledge for my later compositions. I found it to be relatively simple once I understood the basics and continued to experiment with the focus on practicing elements which I struggled with initially, like the range selection and path animations. I feel that focusing on these specific elements helped me become more confident in my intentional choices for later projects, the last of the 2D compositions being my most challenging and favourite of the collection. In the future, I would like to experiment with more typefaces and drastic changes between text, and work on some smoother, seamless transitions between text or animation. I have always enjoyed creating animations and feel the use of 2D text being involved would not only be a benefit to my assessment 3 planned project, but more projects going further into my design career.

The 3D text caused me the most issues during production, many of the features not working or causing processing issues. I was particularly frustrated when I attempted to extrude for the first time, my device having trouble processing the change. Issues like such continued to prevail throughout, though after getting advice for how to alter the settings to prevent this, I became more confident in my own abilities to produce with less risk of my work being compromised by glitches and stoppages. I ended up thoroughly enjoying the experimentation process, aiming to experiment with something new with each composition. While I feel I could have tried some more drastic changes between each variation, I am satisfied with each of the outcomes and feel I benefitted greatly from the commitments I made. While I mostly use 2D elements in my personal work, these activities involving 3D animation are still beneficial to my personal practice as I often struggle with perspective and lighting. Creating 3D projects that use these elements with the knowledge I have gained from this will help me further develop my skills in perspective.

While I struggled at first going into these projects, I remain believing that despite having different goals in my personal design path later, learning these general skills within After Effects will be hugely beneficial to me when it comes to unexpected elements within client work, and I can confidently say I am proficient in and can work on. I plan on further building on these experiment compositions and using a 2D text element within my assessment 3 composition, whether it be through After Effects or using the skills I have learned and applying them to another software. Regardless, I have much of my learned knowledge to rely on as I continue to build on projects within my design career.