With the task of creating a looping GIF, I got thinking about examples of cycles that occur in real life. Something small-scale that resembled a GIF in real life was perpetual motion machines, including the marble machines that are sold as toys. This gave me the idea to create a loop within a loop using multiple identical objects.
This goal of this project was to create a short looping animation, only about five seconds long. The animation could be of just about anything we want, so I got to brainstorming and it didn't take long before perpetual motion machines came to mind.
These machines were imagined up as a way of generating endless power through physics, but in reality these kinds of machines are impossible. The theories of physics at the time didn't take into account certain things like Entropy or Conservation of Energy. In the end fake perpetual motion machines that use batteries or other sources of energy to create the illusion have been made simply because they look cool. This gave me the idea of making a looping animation which looks longer than it really is, based on these fake perpetual motion machines. In particular, one of the looping marble tracks that are now sold as decorations or toys.
Because we didn't have a lot of time for this assignment, I opted to keep the visuals relatively simple. I still wanted to give it some kind of interesting visuals, so I decided I'd attempt to implement the geometric style we had recently learned about. I also needed multiple layers for the entire track for the metal balls to disappear behind, and I realized I'd need this to be highly structured piece rather than use approximate vector art that we could get away with in most other projects.
I began with a quick sketch of the track, with a plan of how the balls would move along it and how many there would be. Then I moved into Illustrator and began building the assets which I would use to animate it. The isometric grid didn't take long, but it occurred to me that in order to keep everything consistent I would have to create pieces for the majority of the track I could re-use and combine together. This took longer than I anticipated, so I had to keep the visual style simple.
Once I had that, I also had to make the unique parts of the track being the loop, elevator, and funnel. I also needed to keep in mind the height of the different parts of the track, for everything to look right. The loop didn't turn out quite as I hoped, as the shape was too difficult to do by eye and I couldn't find a guide on creating an isometric loop. Once I got past that, the rest of the assets and animating the loop went smoothly and the project was finished on time.
While there were some challenges and the vector art turned out a bit more simplified than I originally intended, I'm happy with how the project turned out. The loop appearing longer than it really is with a bit of visual trickery is a relatively novel approach to the project and I can be proud of that. If I were to re-do the project I'd have reached out to my professors more and asked for assistance figuring out how I can do the isometric style, and especially the loop, more accurately and efficiently.
