ROSTAM PRODUCTIONS
Complete Global Cooperation | Umbrella® was the result of few goals as I continued practicing my Design. I wanted a project that felt like a real infomercial or internet ad, as compared to the previous story based projects I worked on. I also wanted it to be something I was still passionate about and at the time I was enjoying the Resident Evil series. The idea formed in my head to create a commercial for the all powerful Umbrella Corporation, but style it as if they actually existed. It was an intersection of my passion for the games and a common real world application of Motion Design.
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In terms of technical prowess, the project focused on transitions. It's a fundamental of Motion Design, and something I always come back to improve on
This work also heavily featured the use of boards and styleframes, since its scope was a lot larger than my other projects. The boards you see on the right only partially reflect the final advertisement, but they were instrumental in testing what designs would work best for me and figuring out the order of the transitions. Below the boards frame is a comparison for Shot 11 with the final result at the bottom.
I've highlighted this water droplet transition here as an example of experimentation with different styles. As shown in the first frame, I wanted a traditionally animated water droplet. I created the rough animation in Photoshop before using shape layers to polish it up in After Effects. Despite the very fluid and impressive look, it didn't fit with the rest of the composition. Ultimately, I chose to cut it. Instead I created three ellipses and used effects to give them a watery look. Although it wasn't as complex, it was much less destructive and tedious to edit. They also interact with other elements such as the water lines; pushing them apart as they ripple outward. It was an important lesson for me to learn about how to focus my vision.
