Skyscrapers attract lightening — A 2D MythBuster Animation | Motion Graphics Design

2D Animation • Illustration • Voice-Over • 2D Graphics

Introduction

A 2D animation for an existing myth about — 'skyscrapers attract lightening' using Adobe After Effects and Illustrator.

• Roles

  • • Voice-Over
  • • Story Teller
  • • Script Writing
  • • Illustrator
  • • Motion Graphics Designer

• Duration

  • 3 Weeks

• Tools Used

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Ideation & Research

I researched and looked for various existing science related myths and animations. Finally, I decided to go with idea of introducing the myth about “skyscrapers attract lightening” and showing the fact by animating 2D graphics, text, and time placed voice-over.

Script and Scenes

To begin with I wrote down the script and prepared the below table to list down the sequence of animation in sync with the voice over.

2D Graphics and Voice-over

After completing the script and animation sequence, I used Illustrator for creating the assets and traced the silhouette skyline for the city of Seattle. All the elements were traced individually from the original reference photograph using the below illustrator tools:

• • pen tool,
• • basic shapes,
• • solid fills,
• • selection tools,
• • transform tool,
• • pathfinder palette, and
• • Organized layers to complete the illustration.

To mitigate the risk of losing the sync between the audio and animation in the final output I recorded the voice over audio using Voice Memos on my MacBook Pro machine and pulled it in After Effects to work on the animation.

Animation and Audio Effects

Before starting the animation, I setup the project file in After Effects with the following settings:

• • Composition size = 1080p with 30fps
• • Media Encoder format = H.264
• • Preset = Match Source – Medium Bitrate

I used the timeline to place all the assets and animate the 2D graphics, and text by adding keyframes and adjusting the properties like position, scale, opacity, etc., for each asset and text.

The challenge I faced during this project were:

• • To import non blurry assets into the After Effects.
• • To sync the movement of element in sync with the voice over audio.
• • To adjust the voice over audio tone when adding special sound effects for lightning striking the building.