Rowry Design

Summary

I started a project for the dance cover group ‘SPIRITS’, creating a backdrop animation to accompany a performance during a dance camp to emphasise their performance and to add to the overall atmosphere of the room. The show would be a medley of songs by a K-pop group ‘ITZY’ which involves colourful and energetic pop music.

I ensured that the animation would use the songs as full inspiration by using elements from each music video as falling objects at the back of each scene. Areas of the song would also be stylised based on the performance that the spirits had choreographed to.

The Process

When setting out initial research on the project I was ready with my sketchbook to draw out any scenes that popped into my head. Originally the centred logo during the animation was going to be a static 2D version floating up and down, but it was obvious straight away that there would be a lack of life in the animation. So 3D sparked to mind.

I didn’t need to spend hours making the most refined logo I could, a simple box with some knife cuts and extrusions managed to do the trick. Within Blender, I created just the animation of the icon rotating on its y-axis, as this was not so easily feasible within AE. With this animation created, I was able to then work on new materials to apply to the different logo’s identities between each scene.

Gaining inspiration from one of ITZY’s live performances, I wanted to imitate the falling object’s animation that they used for ‘NOT SHY’. I worked with the leader of the dance group to find items that best represented each song that could be falling in the animation. 

I found as many 3D assets as I could online and made 2 of my own to set up with new materials to fit into each composition. Creating three different poses for each asset, allowed me to make 6 unique images for use in After Effects as I could simply flip them on their y-axis.

To simulate the falling nature of the objects, I had initially planned to use the particle simulator to then replace the particles with images of the posed 3D assets. However, there were issues with the colour and transparency of the objects that became more complex than anticipated. So instead I created individual keyframe animations for the falling objects.

By creating a separate composition for the falling objects. It was far easier to create duplicate compositions and then replace the falling objects with those of the different songs to speed up the process. This also gave greater freedom in the manipulation of the speed at which the falling objects would move, as time remapping came into play. It can first be seen as the falling objects reverse and move upwards instead during the beat drop in ‘SWIPE’ which matches the invert used to create the colour change. 

Masks were used throughout the full animation. But worked greatly in the final section as the previous logos and backgrounds reveal themselves to create what I feel was a great final shot to compliment the full performance. 

Tools Used

Adobe Photoshop
Illustrator
After Effects
Blender