WNM205 Module 02

4 Black Squares

Description

Using four black square graphics, create a short animation that best expresses the meaning of provided terms. Produce one animation for each word.

Word Cues

● Bold

● Playful
● Nervous
● Wistful
● Ordered 

Production

Create a new composition that is 800 x 800, 5 seconds in duration. Create a new solid, 400 x 400. Create 4 total. You must use four squares, no more, no less. You may begin the animation with all elements out of frame, but they all must be revealed to the audience at least once. 

Use the transform properties to bring life to your square graphics and communicate effectively the cue word. Ensure that you adjust the spatial interpolation of your keyframes as needed and adjust your motion paths to visualize your ideas. You may rotate, offset with anchor point, or change the transparency of your square graphics, or keyframe these as you please! You may also disproportionately scale your squares to produce rectangles, but please do not change the color of the squares, mask them, or apply effects. You may also produce a looping animation if it enhances your concept. 

It is highly recommended that you: 

●  Sketch out the ideas of your sequence ahead of time before working in After Effects. 
●  Iterate through a few different solutions before arriving on the animation you deem most 
effective. 
●  Produce one animation each day. Work for one hour, five days in a row, rather than five 
hours in one day to familiarize yourself with the software.

●  Don’t do a Google search for other solutions to “Four Black Squares” until after you’ve completed 
the assignment. 

When you are finished with the exercise, you should have 5 compositions in your project file. Send all 5 compositions to the Render Queue. Render them as QuickTime movies, with H.264 compression. 

Purpose

●  To experiment with the interrelationships between shape and movement.
●  To connect non ­visual concepts into the visual vocabulary of shape and motion.
●  To develop your skills using graphic language.
●  To produce enigmatic and communicative animations with a sense of purpose. 


Tools 
●  Illustrator
●  After Effects
●  Quicktime


Due Date 

This assignment is due next week in class. 


Submission Directions

Deliver all five movie files, the After Effects project file, and the Adobe Illustrator source file organized in a folder. Please name your folder accordingly: “4_Black_Squares_firstname_lastname.mp4”