For our final design project, we were tasked with taking our original logo creation from the first project, and apply animation to it to create a smooth, animated brand logo. The video had to be ten seconds long and feature original animation that conveyed the aesthetic of the brand well. Thus, for my brand (Sandbox Publishing), I wanted to maintain the fun, creative elements that I had established early on and convey that through the motion of my image.

I took my Sandbox Publishing logo and separated all the different parts of the image to be their own unique layers in Illustrator. Then, I put them into After Effects where I could adjust them individually as I pleased. I settled on the idea of having my shovel “dig up” the sand in the book, which would pour the sand out the bottom and reveal my logo underneath. The first part of this was pretty simple. I had my sandbox/book plop down into the frame, then my pail, then my shovel. Using positioning and rotating keyframes, I had my shovel then lift up and move as if it was digging into one of my sand hills. I found a grainy-looking fade-in animation preset for my text which made it look like it was being built up out of sand. Last thing left was to actually have the sand pour out of my book.

Unsure of how to start this, I turned to the web, looking up tutorials on how to create sand-like motion in After Effects. After much searching, I finally found a helpful video explaining the effect “CC Particle World,” a preset that created a firework-like motion of particles that was easily adjustable. I matched the color of the effect to my sand, and changed the motion from an outward burst to a directional line, where the particles would fall downwards in a straight line. I played with the size and shape of the particles until they felt like sand, and then set the in and out points and where the speed of the falling sand should ramp up, then slow down. I also added a “bounce” effect to my sand, where once the particles hit a predetermined “floor” position I selected, the sand would bounce and spray up for a moment before disappearing. This gave it a realistic feel that acted the way that sand really would if you were to pour it on the ground. I put my sand layer behind my book to create the illusion that the sand was bursting out of the book from the bottom, and timed it with the fade-in of my text.

Overall, I am incredibly happy with how this animation turned out. I think it is fun but looks professional, and the sound effects I chose to go along with it (just some sand sound effects and an upbeat background music selection) all paired really well to make a full video.