Infographics are a simple way to make data look interesting.
In todays session I was given the choice of 20 different statistics about the University of Huddersfield. The challenge was to create a 10 second info graphic for this statistic using two frames.
The Universities colour needed to be in the video which is:
Red: 44
Green: 60
Blue: 103
I chose my statistic randomly as I didn’t want to waste time trying to decide which to use. My statistic was:
STAT 16 – Best Careers Service in the UK
I started by drawing how I wanted the frames to look, in Illustrator. I drew different components that I thought best represented this statistic which were: A man in a suit, a sound icon and a trophy.
I used two art boards on Illustrator to represent the two frames and started to layout the components on how I wanted them to look. I used different layers so I would be able to animate them separately in AfterEffects. I saved the art boards as two separate files, so they could be important separately in After Effects.
In AfterEffects I imported the files and made sure they weren’t imported as ‘Footage’ so all the layers still remained. I created a new ‘Composition’ that was:
1920 px x 1080 px
25 frames per second
5 seconds in duration
I then created a second which was exactly the same. These were to act as the two separate frames.
I created a new solid that was the same size as the composition, to use as a background. The first frame used the University colour, the second frame used white.
I dragged which files I wanted into each frame and began animating them using the ‘Opacity’ and ‘Position’ animation.
After I was finished I created another composition that was less than a second long. This was going to act as a transition between my two frames and at the end of my animation. I created a solid that was as big as the composition and tilted it. I pulled it off the screen on the left hand side and turned on the position animation, I then pulled it across to the other side until it disappeared on the right hand side. This was to act as a ‘Wipe’ effect.
I then created another composition that was 10 seconds in length and added all 4 components. I positioned the first and second frame straight after each other and the wipe frame overlapped the two.
Here is the finished animation.
I wasn’t happy with my animation so I decided to change the frames in Illustrator. I then repeated the process in After Effects.
Here is the finished animation.
As a group the finished animations are going to be placed in a composition together to create a longer animation. This is then going to be projected onto the side of the Creative Arts Building at the University of Huddersfield.