Life: Designed

This week I got into the nitty-gritty of my project: the animation. This week is when all my prep work finally comes together, and my vision starts to become a reality. 

If you didn’t know, I’m working towards creating a comprehensive animated infographic centering around the topic of reproductive rights in the United States. I’m calling my project The Statistics of Autonomy: Reproductive Rights by the Numbers. This is week 5 of 7 of that journey!

What I Accomplished

As I mentioned, this week was all about animation. My goal going into week 5 was to animate as much of my video as humanly possible to stay on track with my original project plan. I wanted a solid base animation with all the big stuff complete so next week could be a little lighter as I go in, clean stuff up, and add some final touches. 

I’m happy to report I’ve met my goal. I’m sad to report I’ve been sitting down hunched over my computer far too long this week, and now my back hurts. 

While animating this week, I really pushed myself, creating by far my longest motion graphics project ever. I tried some new and complex effects, learned about pre-composed layers, and learned how to move After Effects’ cache to my external hard drive so my laptop didn’t quit on me.

What Came Up This Week

Compromises seemed to be a main theme of this week. I had to compromise with the amount of time I planned to spend working to achieve my goal. I compromised on parts of my video I had planned. I compromised on certain animations I had imagined that may be too complex to be worth it. 

The decisions I had to make allowed me to be adaptable with this project. The circumstances forced me to make moves that would be in the best interest of the project timeline. 

Time

From day one, it was clear I had bitten off more than I could chew. I had spent far longer doing the introduction section than I had planned. This was one of the simplest parts of my animation, so needless to say I was a little worried. I chalked it up to some rust since I hadn’t used After Effects in a couple of months and kept going. 

The day went by, and I was still only halfway through part 1 of 5 of my animation. By day two, I had finished part 1 after 10 hours of work. Luckily for me, this was the longest part, but I didn’t want to risk each part taking even close to that amount of time. 

One thing about me, though, is that I always get it done.

Cutting Down

To stay true to my word and get this done, some cuts needed to be made. I was already shaping up to be far over my intended video length. Not to mention, the first part took me 10 hours to complete. I could not afford to take nearly that long with the other 4 parts. 

I had already seen cuts coming and had noted down some parts I could chop. The problem was it didn’t seem like that would be enough. 

I ended up cutting some quotes, some state-specific information that was similar to stuff I’d already mentioned, and some facts that were less important to me and the overall story I was trying to tell. 

I stripped the story down. In some parts it made more sense. In others, it was what needed to be done. But in the end I was able to make my cut only 35 seconds over the original intended length of 5 minutes. Despite the cuts, I still feel like I have a cohesive, impactful data story that I’m proud of.

Making Adjustments

In the interest of saving time and meeting my goal, I made some adjustments to my animations. Whether that was altering transitions to make them a little simpler or simplifying a sequence so it fit better, the adjustments were a necessary part of my process. 

Some of the animations I planned in my storyboard were things I didn’t necessarily know how to do. While I did learn a few new skills for this, I didn’t have time to dive into something super complicated. Either that or I knew how to do it, and knew it would be too time-consuming for a result that’s just a little bit cooler than what I know I could animate in less time.

Other animations, like one using the shatter effect, I had used before and had success with. When I tried it again here, it wasn’t working the way I wanted. So, I pivoted instead of wasting time on a single animation.

Looking Forward

Next week I’ll be finishing up my animation. That means adding the audio, making small adjustments to timing and keyframing, and adding textures and effects to make the animation come to life. 

We’re in the home stretch now, so be sure to check back next week!