My Worm Animation

Worm Animation

 What was the project?

           This project was called "The Worm Project." The first step to this project was to make sky, ground, a worm, and if time permitted some clouds, in Adobe Photoshop. The gradient tool was used to make both the blue sky and green ground. Just to note the grass and sky are separate layers. I made a layer for the worm and the worm was made by using the paint tool. I made a layer for clouds as well. I made the clouds and the worm look 3Dish by using bevel and boise. Once everything was touched up in Photoshop I saved the layers into a file. Then I put the file into Adobe After Affects project window. I then used a new tool called the push pin. The push pin creates key frames that let you to warp a spot in an image were the push pin or pins exists. Once all of the pin key frames were set to were I wanted them. I used another tool that is called glue. This tool helped keep the worm in place. Once that was done and all of the pins were in place, I put them in a group hidden from sight. This put them out of the way for the next part of this project. Next I used the tool that is called "Noll," this tool keeps things from moving off a certain point of travel. In this projects' case the Noll makes a layer which, is used to keep the worm from moving up and down as it moves across the page(screen). So I connect the Noll layer to the worm layer. I just use the position key frames, setting them every 10 frames to make the worm move gracefully across the screen. Finally I made the worm a shadow.  Once that was done I rendered the animation, posted it on YouTube, and Embedded it into this blog.  

What did you learn?

            I learned how to use the pin tool in Adobe After Affects. The pin tool allowed me to make pin key frames and attach them to my worm. Once the pin key frames were set in place I was able to maneuver the middle and back pin key frames, up and forwards a little to make it look like the worm is scrunching up before it takes it's next "step" foreword. I also learned how to use a tool called Noll. I learned how to make a shadow in after affects too. I first copied the worm layer. Then I just had to flip that copied layer horizontally. I turned the color of that layer to night black. Finally I gust turn the opacity down and soften the edges of the shadow. 

How did it go?What would be done differently?

             This project went pretty well. I would have loved to have been able to make the clouds move across the screen. I also would have made the worm larger so that it wouldn't look so small. I was also little crunched for time, so I was not able to animate the clouds sadly. This project was lots of fun. I can not what for the next project I get to do and all of the new things I will get to learn.