For this project we were tasked with making a relatively simple animation explaining a process. The obvious example that first came to mind was a caterpillar's metamorphosis into a butterfly. Initially I thought it would be too overdone, but then a novel and visually interesting approach for it came to mind.
This was a pretty open-ended project, with the only goal being to make a motion piece that explains some kind of process. The first idea that came to mind was a butterfly's metamorphosis, but I assumed it was too cliche at first. As I kept thinking I realized there was a way I could approach it which would be interesting to look at, that being to have it mimic the style of renaissance and/or scientific illustrations.
These illustrations became commonplace during the time in which science, botany and biology was making huge strides. This makes it a fitting theme to use for a complex process which nobody understood until recently. I also wanted to make a piece with which I could demonstrate my illustration and animation.
Since this was only a two week assigment, I decided to keep things relatively simple and do the majority of the animation in After Effects, rather than frame-by-frame. It also occurred to me from the beginning that at my current skill level and with how much time I had I'd need to keep the art relatively simple.
I started off drawing the assets and adding flat colours in Photoshop, then brought them into After Effects to put together the composition. I realized while working in Photoshop it wasn't ideal for animation, so I moved to Krita in order to animate the Butterfly, starting with a sketch of the simple shapes of the wings and then adding the details. Once all the assets were done I added texture and a background to create the illustrative style, the text explaining how metamorphosis works, and finally animated all the elements that needed it and a few effects for things like the passage of time.
While it isn't quite how I envisioned it, I'm quite satisfied with the final result. The illustrative style turned out pretty nicely, and I think the animation of the butterfly flying in particular looks good. If I were to re-do the project I would attempt to use thinner lines and add some finer details to really sell the illustrative style.
