Sting Progress

The Raven from Jay Stelling on Vimeo.

After a brief chat with Ben I decided to let the 'road/street' issue go, to leave my printed pictures and to throw some Jay magic into this animation. I shouldn't feel so bad for being organised and printing early. I was ready and managed my time so that I could focus on one brief at a time. Other people are still printing/making pictures, but that doesn't mean that their pictures are better than mine or that I haven't spent enough time on them, I just did it in a different order.

I've been fiddling about with the assets and layers for a long time. After effects takes so long and I've had millions of technical problems but I still really like the software. It's so much fun to see my pictures moving and to have the ability to add/remove/change things in the scene so easily (unlike stop motion).

I found out how to use the puppet pin tool and it's so helpful! It means I can move the wings as one layer but as though there are joints, and the movement ripples the rest of the asset (e.g. feathers waft too).

Discovered a rain effect in After Effects and applied this to enhance the melancholy, dark atmosphere. More rain sounds! Thunder? Lightening, too far? Don't want the weather to distract from the crow but I do want to make an immersive and moody scene.

I'm much happier with the way it's looking. The bird seems less comical/childish (though it still does appear to be smiling/smirking?), the bird lands much more realistically and gracefully.
I finally worked out how to make a light turn on in the house but it's not as warm a light as I want. I'm also not sure how many lights to have turn on - all of them? Just one?

PEER REVIEW
Impromptu feedback

Bronte: The motion happens at a nice pace, not too slow or too fast. And the music is brilliant, really sets a somber. The way you've made the wings move is ace.

James (Graphic Designer/boyfriend): mood much moodier now, the soundtrack is dreamy and haunting. Careful to match the cawing to the bird's beak opening and closing. Make the light at the end brighter. Can you add shadows? Vignette? Fog? It suits the tone of the author and works well with the printed pictures book. A snippet of Poe's world.