A Little More After Effects: Baseball Matchup Graphic

So as I mentioned in my blog post last week, I have been teaching myself After Effects recently. With that I have been creating projects for myself to continue to get accustomed to the program.

I had the above idea one day while fiddling around in the program. As I get more into motion graphics, I'm realizing just how many there are around me, especially being such a big sports fan. With that in mind, I wanted to take a stab at my own matchup graphic. I used the last matchup of the Tennessee Smokies season as a test run since it is where my baseball career has left off at the moment.

I really loved the idea of steel doors shutting on one thing only to reveal another, so I went that route. After revealing the matchup logos, the video felt kind of stagnant, so I added in the team names sliding in from center. Even with that though, the piece still felt like it died after those names finished. To alleviate that feeling, I added a little rotation expression to the logos to keep them moving throughout the piece, thus keeping it "active" for the full duration. I made this rotation happen in 3D space to only further that feeling.

I feel overall that I accomplished my goal with this piece, exploring scene transitions and movement from various directions. However, I am up for suggestions on ways to continue to improve. Thanks for viewing!

Portfolio Video: An After Effects Creation

Recently, I've started to get involved in motion graphics creation. It has been a world I've always kind of shied away from, as I've always been more focused in static design, whether it be print, web, or social media, up to this point in my career.

However, I felt the time had come to expand my abilities, and so comes this project. I thought creating a video version of my portfolio was a great way to get into After Effects and learn as I create (which I feel is probably the best way to learn). I'm obviously relatively new to this field compared to my static design experience, but I think for a first project it turned out pretty well.

With that being said, I am definitely open to any feedback on how to improve on motion graphics. As I start learning, I'm like a sponge and ready to absorb all the information I can. Thanks for watching!