It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything on this blog.  The reason for that is that we’ve been overwhwlemingly busy, which is always a good thing!  Today, I plan to show you a little bit of what I’ve been working on.

We were recently commisioned to do a graphics-only spot for GA Southern University that utilized still images provided by the University.  For more specific deatails about what they asked for, check out my previous post.

Click the link below to see a sample of the animation.

SAMPLE ANIMATION LINK: Opening Animation for GSU Branding Spot

It took about 3 weeks of full-time graphic design work to get the spot done.  The effects that they wanted required a TON of layered design work, and in this post, I’m going to show you how I put together the opening sequence of the spot.

The final product looks like this:

It seems pretty straight forward, but there are actually quite a few layers of images working here.  Here is how I got to the final composition.

I started by adding the foreground elements:

This sidewalk is extracted from a picture I took on a location scout.

The original picture looks like this:

I then added this branded flagpole which is indicative of the university:

The original flagpole image looks like this: 

The flagpole was placed a bit farther away from the virtual camera in After Effects so that it moves a little differently from the sidewalk, giving the feeling of perspective.

Next a picture of the building was added to the background.

I had to use Vanishing Point in Photoshop to really sell the building, also I had to replace the sky, which was very overexposed and blown out in the original picutre.

The Original Picture looks like this: 

Next I added the groups of students to the image, 3 of them crossing the street, and 3 of them chatting on the sidewalk in the background.

I extracted the students from a picture GSU provided to us: 

And lastly, I grabbed the GSU bushes out of this shot:

After extracting all the elements I needed out of the individual pictures, it was just a matter of placing them in 3d space and using the AE camera to move through the scene and really create the illusion of depth.

Check out the final intro sequence again HERE.

The final spot is complete and will be on line shortly, I’ll post a link for you to check out in the next few days.

…endtransmission…