Claude Whatley Portfolio
My Process in Steps
Every project I take on means producing in a way that is uniquely effective, and easy to showcase for quick changes and feedback. Depending on the program, there is a difference in procedure, but most media follows the same general formula.
Adobe Illustrator/Vector Process
Adobe Illustrator
Illustrator is a fine program, but its specialty is vector art. Pictured on the left below, you can see an Artboard for my "Night in the Woods" inspired creation. I do not own any properties or assets from Secret Lab, or Infinite Fall, and all pictures were pulled from google images for purely referential material.
Pictured below is the process to two of three finished animations of mine, in an effort to create an advertisement for "The Last Bookstore" in Los Angeles. The theme of this three part visual series is the slow deterioration of the world, held alight by a cozy, comfy glow ruminating inside. The design for the animation's art style comes from both Night in the Woods, by Alec Holowka, Scott Benson, Bethany Hockenberry, and the developers of Infinite Fall, and Secret Lab.
Second Act of TLB
To make a second act of the story, I copied the first iteration (viewable in animations) and began to change a few things. I gave the curtains a few rips, the streetlamp a broken light, and the bird character an older look to signify change. I created each asset myself from a reference, but without tracing, and kept the assets aside for future use.
Setting up for Animation
You may wonder why I have all of my layers apart from each other on the bottom left, and why there are bricks covering the moon. This is to set myself up for animation. In the next section you can see how the Illustrator to After Effects Pipeline works so well for vector animation.
Adobe After Effects /Animation Process
After Effects
When transferring over to Adobe After Effects, any topmost layers on the Artboard are separated from each other, and given specific control in a composition. I like to cut down on the layers, and make what I can out of previous layers. In short however you should see a composition for the animation.
Keyframe Animation
Now comes the best part. I am able to manipulate every layer in terms of the anchor, the position, scale, rotation, and opacity. In this animation, I added lightening, and subsequent lighting to every object during the flashes. I can manipulate how long a flash occurs, where my character looks, and many other features using stop and start keyframes.