Proof that all you need are simple shapes (and some great animation chops) to make an incredible animation. Check out this Student-made Title Sequence. It was animated in After Effects using thousands of keyframes. Notice how the shapes look alive. It’s like a Bugs Bunny cartoon with squares and circles! Great work.
UPDATE:
Jr Canest was nice enough to share some screenshots of his AE comp with us. Check out all those keyframes! That’s what it takes to get that level of animation. It’s not scripts, nor expressions, nor plugins. It’s raw keyframe talent.
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29 Comments
wow. that was awesome. love the music.
Amazing, keep it simple and keep it stupid is all I can say,
Rich
LOVE IT.
We need a tutorial on this…
Nick A on June 25th, 2009 said...
Just a quick note because I have seen these kind of comments A LOT on here. Nothing personal against you, jrxingram, but I just thought this was a perfect video to point this out.
A lot of people confuses the learning purpose of a tutorial with a quick way to get shit done and move on. Tutorials are to get you started. To imagine the possibilities. However, if you always count on tutorials to achieve something then you are always depending on somebody else.
90% of the technical knowledge you need to build this can be learned in nick’s tutorial about keyframes. But creativity, time, and taste is what really makes this animation a great piece of work.
keyframe tut:
http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/2009/03/23/guide-to-keyframes-in-after-effects/
Jeremy Ian Thomas on June 25th, 2009 said...
wise words!!!
jason on September 11th, 2009 said...
i can’t tell you how many demo reels i have seen in the past year alone that are comprised of nothing but andrew kramer tutorials in their entirety. what’s more depressing than that is these kids looking for the “cool shit tutorials” suddenly think they’re hot shit and subsequently underbid the jobs away from the real creatives who are now struggling to make ends meet. i’ve been working with after effects for over 10 years and dabbled with various 3d softwares. i eat, breath and shit visual arts and it sickens me to death that the market is flooded with these little piss-ants wanting someone to do the work for them.
i applaud you, nick, for calling this twerp out.
Matt Ciaglia on September 17th, 2009 said...
No Ethics with kids today.
http://artofmanliness.com/2009/08/31/the-importance-of-paying-your-dues/
thegorilla on June 25th, 2009 said...
Well put Nick. It’s animation skill that makes this video stand out. Study a book on cartoon animation. Learn about squash and stretch and anticipation. These are the things that will help push your animation skills to the next level.
jr on June 25th, 2009 said...
Completely agree with ^above comments after reading them and thinking about what you’ve said. Regardless, great work, and great feedback!
sawa on June 26th, 2009 said...
Any particular books that you’d recommend? Nn animator’s bookshelf essentials?
Anders Hattne on September 30th, 2009 said...
I’ll have to watch and analyse this video a bunch of times: I’ve got the technical skills to do this video (I think) but if I did it myself … the outcome would be dull.
I guess there are subtle details like the anticipation as you said – and the slight textures.
Practise practise..
Cool to see something impressive without particles and 3d motion!!
Awesome video!!
hey,that`s great.
I`m from china shanghai
Ha, somewhere maltaanon’s throwing chairs out windows with that many keyframes
Morten Christensen on June 25th, 2009 said...
hehe, that is so true!
Thanks for posting this video! I saw his work on the VFS competition wich he won, and his skills has really envolved since!
Nice one!
This kid is good. His work is really presented well and I like his music selection. I might have to feature it on http://lostringsattached.com/
This kid is good. His work is really presented well and I like his music selection. I might have to feature it.
Hey Nick.. this is that just amazing. Did you know that the boy who made this was the one that win the vfs scholarship last year?. his entry for the scholarship: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KExoP97KUnY
enjoy..
big fan of you!
cheers.
Brian on June 25th, 2009 said...
The piece Nick posted was great. This other one however…not feelin it.
thegorilla on June 25th, 2009 said...
True, but keep in mind that those two pieces are separated by a full year of learning and making mistakes. It’s actually nice to see such great progress in a year. You can tell he has been working his ASS off.
Luispsotfx on October 1st, 2009 said...
What are u talking about???
That one was good too…
in its own way…
THIS GUY IS R-A-W!!!!
Inspirational.
Anticipation and Overlap!! Best animation principles that exist. It really makes the elasticity in this project great.
guess he went over the limit of the “Circle vs. Square” 5 second project and decided to turn it into a title sequence. Credits to Nick for the idea.
Yeah it’s greattt
thank you nick for posting! great one to make a like at vimeo
and to get inspired for today! totally!
wow…
thanx for this post, mr. gorilla
Man this is great!!!AHHH so good! Anyways I have one question when u do an animation that is similar to this does one start out with the music in mind and the base the animation off of that or the animation first. I notice how well the animation fits in with the music. I am currently doing some animation but I think it would be hard to find a music that would fit well with it. I’m noob at this so yeah some advice would be appreciated.
Can we get a tutorial on this one?
Aaron on June 25th, 2009 said...
check out jrxingram’s comment.
Wonderful stuff. Nick, I realize that this uses many of the simple principles from your intro to keyframing tutorial, but maybe you could give us a short pep talk on anticipation, action, and reaction. I think it’s really fundamental and would be beneficial for everyone, novice to veteran.
yeah, although i read all the comments. I still Reckon that a pep talk on the principles of animation from the Gorilla himself should be interesting, I’m sure you got your own take on it.
Awesome stuff. The most important part of any FX work; PATIENCE. How long must this project have taken to complete. Imagine the amount of reworking that must have gone into this.
totally great…thanks for posting nick!
hey nick…
i was checking which i casts i have already seen and done and noticed there’s one missing in category AE tutorials…so if you want to be super perfect correct 
you can add there also the intro to 3D in AE…or am I wrong about it? 
nice new article category bar
http://vimeo.com/3536691
I was super impressed by this and watched it at least 10 times.
After that I realized it’s time for me to work my ass off too, every day. Get down and dirty and stop spending MORE time looking at cool stuff other people are creating, than creating cool stuff myself.
WOW! MAN! IM ON THE GEY SCALE GORILLA!!!
thanks all for the comments, Its being all great since I won the scholarship, Thanks to God Ive learing a lot and its just amazing to read all the comments, thanks guys! thanks nick! keep it up!
peace
jordan crark on November 16th, 2009 said...
you spelled gay wrong
amazing, tutorial pls
Although I hate keyframes (at least that much
) I applause this animation – Its perfect and it makes me feel good watching it…
At 00:33 i think it would look better with one less keyframe….
only kidding, very nice indeed. nothing stops moving, very alive and happy! good work
defiantly crazy enough this is not real !
Superb. but still don´t get why people keep asking for a tutorial on this.
YEAH!!!
MASSIVE FRAMES
IT ROCKS…I LOVE TO SEE SO MANY KEYFRAMES.
That is called digital animation.
Great Work!