After choosing to create a mock promotion video for Ironman Triathlon for a BCIT assignment, I need to come up with a plan of what I wanted to say in my video and how I would communicate my goals to the viewer. I started by brainstorming keywords and phrases that I associated with the essence of the event. I then determined that I wanted show what it takes to be an Ironman and to try to have the view look inside themselves to relate to the event to their own limits as a person. I then storyboarded the video. I tried to break up the 3 parts of the event, swimming, cycling and running, and the immense numbers involved in performing these tasks using imagery and numbers to do so. I then wanted to associate these numbers with very descriptive words such as athlete, warrior, beast etc to create an emotional bond with the viewer. At the end I wanted to tie it all in to joining the event to test their own will and strength.
From the storyboarding, I had a very good idea of what assets I needed to build. Most of them were built in illustrator with some in Photoshop but the bulk of the work was obviously done in After Effects. Using rotation, masking, transforming, numbers, expressions, etc I was able to create the feeling of movement I wanted in the video. The main challenge I came across in the video was executing these tasks at the right timing to engage the viewer and move in tune with the music.
I really enjoyed this project, as there were so many moving parts in a project like this and arranging them all in a timeline showed me the importance of being organized and labelling things appropriately. I also was impressed with the way simple graphics can be moved manipulated, and adjusted to create stunning video in After Effects. I will be able to take many of the lessons learned from this project and use them in a diverse spectrum of projects I work with in the future. With video rapidly becoming more and more viewed content on websites to, being able to create or fine tune video is a great skills set to have, and I am looking forward to the opportunities I will have with After Effects in upcoming projects.
