TASK
The Norman Hall Oak Tree, a well-beloved landmark of the college, sadly fell during the harsh conditions of Hurricane Helene. From the building's construction in 1932 to its untimely demise, the tree remained a symbol of strength for many generations of students, faculty, and staff.
To commemorate the tree’s impact on countless Gators and carve a path for the future, our team crafted an 8-minute video.
Over a period of about a month, I crafted a visual style for the project's graphics and animated approximately ten shots to accompany the interview and B-roll footage.
PROCESS
Pre-Production
While exploring options for a visual style, I quickly felt that this project required something more textured and handmade rather than vector graphics. I tried recreating the tree graphically first, since the tree would serve as a focal point throughout the video.
Through some testing with different brush styles, we landed on oil brushes in Procreate for our look. I selected a font with a handwritten feeling to accompany these illustrations and add to the tactile feel of the graphics.
Post-Production
To contain the scope of the project, we used various tools in After Effects to give the illustrations motion without requiring much cel animating. Most of the scenes use textured wipes to give the feeling of illustrations painting onto the screen.
Stacking simple effects helped us limit the frame rate and add warping to the illustrations, giving a more cel animated feeling. The final graphic sequence uses a small amount of frame-by-frame animation for smoother transitioning.
Credits
Producers: Ian Clontz, Kevin Coulson
Creative Direction: Eileen Kohner
Design, Illustration and Animation: Jack Losier
Production Manager: Angela Epps
Video Production: Ash Foira, Erin Hardin, David Levesque
Story Edit: Moxy Moczygemba
Editing and Sound Design: Eileen Kohner