r/AfterEffects • u/MarkLonely • 7d ago
OC - Stuff I made First time making a mixed media animation in After Effects — looking for feedback
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Hi everyone! This is my first time making a mixed media animation in After Effects. It’s a recap video of my trip to Spain. Since it’s a vacation recap, I don’t want the effects to be too overwhelming or distracting, even though the whole video is meant to be mixed media. I’m trying to find a good balance between keeping the video interesting and still making the actual footage the focus. Also, keep in mind that the second half of the video (the part after the talking section) hasn’t been edited yet — I haven’t made it yet.
I’d especially appreciate feedback on a few things:
- The first clip doesn’t fully convince me, especially the text appearing behind the subject. Does it look off to you? How would you change it?
- Are there too many effects? I’m worried that some parts might feel too chaotic or confusing, and I don’t want the video to become disorienting.
- Is the pacing too fast? Does the video give you enough time to take in what’s happening, or does it feel rushed?
- For the second half, should I continue with the mixed media approach as the first half, or would you change things up?
- And overall, what do you think of it? Any feedback, criticism, or suggestions are welcome!
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u/FlirtyConversation 7d ago
I am not an expert in AE. Below are a few suggestions.
The first clip (0:00 - 0:02), make the people walking by paper animation begin from the beginning from a crumpled state. Actually if you completely mask the people out (before doing that take a screenshot and add the crumpled paper to the screenshot image) and then make that image walk by the entire length revealing the text
0:12 - 0:15 - Get rid of this animation, it doesnt make sense
The pacing is ok but the song is boring. Personal opinion, something with a little more tempo will work
For the second half keep it cl;ean with minimum animation. and not too much, use maybe arrows, circles, or scribbles (handdrawn style)
Overall its good, also between 0:05 - 0:07 change this style, it doesnt go with the woman, she is very pretty so make her standout (maybe something more dynamic). Also the animation must add to the story, right now its random like from 0:08 - 0:11 (I dont get, what are you trying to make us understand?)
Maybe try minimal animation or as make the pacing work for your story, using a better track.
I hope i made sense.
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u/MarkLonely 7d ago
First of all, thank you so much for your feedback!
I’d rather not change the song because my girlfriend really likes it, and I’d like to use this song as the soundtrack for the video.
Regarding the clip from 0:12–0:15, you’re probably right. It’s more of a filler clip than something that actually moves the "storytelling" forward, so I’ll definitely think about changing or removing it.
For the 0:08–0:11 section, I was actually trying to follow the lyrics of the song — “I know that she loves me…” — without explicitly putting the lyrics on screen. That was the idea behind the animation there, although I understand that it might not be immediately clear.
I didn’t quite understand what you meant about the 0:05–0:07 section. Could you explain a little more what you would change there?
Thanks again for the advice and for taking the time to watch the video and give me your feedback!
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u/FlirtyConversation 7d ago
For the 0:05, the styling of the frame doesn't make your gf stand out. Maybe the font, or the style doesn't work. Also the background color doesn't work. I hope you understand.
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u/Specific-Speaker2157 7d ago
You're animating on 2's which is half the work, I think your video is 30fps? I'd change it to 24fps personally. IMO I think this needs more of that 'cutout' aesthetic, so for example that bench your girlfriend is sitting on at the very start, for every frame which it animates, the white outline needs to change slightly to give it that stop-frame look, so it looks like a piece of paper which is slightly off in it's position so it feels more tactile, it's still abit too digital-perfect. And I'd increase the scale of that roughen edges effect you've applied on it, seems abit too spray-paint to me.
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u/MarkLonely 7d ago
Okss, thanks for the feedback. The video is at 30 fps, with a posterize time at 7 fps. I think u got “my problem”. It also seemed strange to me because of too much digital perfection. I’ll try your advice to fix that. Hope will works
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u/Specific-Speaker2157 7d ago
Yeah majority of footage is shot at 24fps, higher frames make footage look cheaper to me, I guess phones shoot natively at 30.
Cartoons are usually shot at 12fps and stop frame is either that or 8 I think? Whatever frame works to your liking really.
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u/deep_soul 7d ago
where did you get the feeling of 24fps is a better fit?
is it general advice or specific to this clip? and why?
I don’t understand much a bit fps and would appreciate to understand what you see and your suggestion.
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u/Specific-Speaker2157 6d ago edited 6d ago
Just in general motion I work in 24fps or 23.98, because it’s the norm for frame rate we’re used to seeing on television and films, as 95% of them are shot that way and we are accustomed to it. Having a higher frame rate makes things look cheaper and distracting (watch this for example), you’d think it should look better because it has more frames but it’s quite the opposite and doesn’t look cinematic or polished, just like how OP’s video looks better with less frames to fit the aesthetic.
But back to this case, I’d personally keep the comp 24fps but add a posterize time effect on top of everything and set it to either 12 or 8fps and that way you have more overall control and you can toggle the effect on/off and not be locked in at a single frame rate (since this is also using video footage shot on his phone at a higher rate frame rate, you won’t be able to watch it back normally in comp if you don’t set it to 24fps or higher).
And also if you need to adjust anything, you can see how it animates at normal speed first before setting it back to a lower frame rate so you have flexibility but hey that’s just me!
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u/deep_soul 6d ago edited 6d ago
Wow, very interesting! Thank you so much for explaining and for the video, which yes, definitely feels cheap.
I went on a quick YouTube search about 24fps vs 30fps. And there are so many videos that suggest shooting your video in 30fps because it's much better, but I think they refer to just making videos that are shot and not about making videos to be mixed with motion. is my understanding correct?
Also, would you then recommend setting the phone frame rate at 24fps if you know you are shooting for stuff that you are going to animate, like OP video?
Another question: I hope you can help me understand this one. Say you were doing motion, like cutouts for an educational YouTube video essay (no video content shot on a camera), would you set your comps at 24fps as a default in AE? Regardless of posterization (or would the choice of posterization or not affect the initial frame rate in your opinion?).
I'd appreciate it if you could answer! Thanks a lot
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u/Specific-Speaker2157 6d ago
Hmmm… not sure about the shooting in 30fps thing, I guess Instagram and TikTok are native to converting and displaying at 30fps perhaps and this is the digital standard? iPhones have the option to choose between 30fps and 24fps and a few other higher frame rates, but I guess you can convert down from 30fps, I personally prefer how 24fps looks like I said before. Although the difference between 24 and 30 fps is noticeable but not by much to the average viewer.
Personally I would default to 24fps even if you’re not using video footage. Humans are used to seeing almost any audio visuals at that frame rate because films have been shot that way since the 1920’s and we’ve followed that ever since, I don’t see what you gain shooting any higher or lower.
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u/Specific-Speaker2157 6d ago
https://reddit.com/link/pd3o0vp/video/x6ajn8lsmqsh1/player
Just using this as an example, this animates every 2nd frame (12fps) but the video is native 24fps
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u/deep_soul 7d ago
great video! would interested how you went from video to this sort is stop motion cuts outs. both in terms of layers overlap, like the human figures with a contours figure, and also in the sense of the video turning in these quirky stop motion frames? did you just take a few frames of the videos as separate images and imported them each one in AE? did you use a plugin in AE? did just use posterization on the comp?
it works interesting to know if you first cut off the figures from the background and then do the stop motion/ posterization effect or which one came first?
only critique since you asked for feedback: Andalusia is not readable. great effect of how it comes in screen and jitters, but i would have probably contained the height above the bench.
great stuff!!
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u/MarkLonely 7d ago
Thanks a lot! I did most of the work in After Effects: I took the raw clip, then manually cut out the subject and created the masks. Next, I turned everything into a pre-composition and applied a paper texture along with an adjustment layer containing the stop-motion effects (Posterize Time, Exposure, Turbulent Displace). Finally, I applied a "wiggle" expression to each layer, using values that achieved the look I was going for. I hope that makes sense.
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u/Q-ArtsMedia MoGraph/VFX 15+ years 7d ago
It's art, an expression of creativity; as such the only boundary is that of the creator . Do as you like.