Urban Oasis
This project was an opportunity to develop and practice my illustration skills. I wanted to design a style frame for a simple piece that could be animated and shared on social media. Using the prompt 'Urban Oasis,' I researched illustrations in my target style and assembled a mood board before sketching.
With the sketch exported as a PSD, I brought the file into Adobe Illustrator and constructed the vector shapes for animation. Marking and splitting the arm joints was a crucial step to ensure the file was fully animation-ready when imported into After Effects.
With my references collected, I began sketching the basic composition in Procreate on my iPad. This workflow allowed me to iterate on the composition and experiment with different designs until I arrived at a satisfying arrangement.
Animation and Composite
With the vector artwork prepared, I used Battleaxe's Overlord to import the files into After Effects and organized them in my timeline for animation. I kept the animation process simple to complete the project quickly and allow for repeated practice. Once I animated the arm, watering can, and trees, I applied the Roughen Edges effect to restore a hand-drawn aesthetic and add texture to the clean vector graphics. Finally, I added Posterize Time to achieve an 'on twos' animation style and applied grainy texture over the entire piece for additional visual interest.
