infographics

More Animation Tests

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These experiments can get tiring to the outsider reader pretty quickly so I am going number my updates down the page as this piece develops and keep publishing the same post - feel free to skip. This is for my own brain tracking changes and developments.

1: Write-on using line segments

For this:

  • I drew a line on the iPad - saved it to the cloud

  • opened it on the Mac and sliced the route into four or more sections

  • exported this into a single SVG file which I then opened in Pixelmator Pro/exported to a Motion project

  • in Motion I create a duplicate (black underneath with a wider outline) converted the top pieces into a yellow thinner line

  • I broke the four pieces into ease-in/out write-ons

  • I created a default marker in Affinity and did the same thing as above

  • then I added various animation behaviours - fade/type on/fade out

  • duplicated the pieces along the line and changed the pointer with shape manipulation within Motion

For this method to work it needs the stages to be decided in advance - the write-on behaviour is quite quick and easy to do instead of using keyframes.

2: Camera movements using ‘Frame object’ and ‘ease both’

Using the ‘Frame object’ menu function to position the focus on the placed markers. Then I use the scale slightly to bring it in. I don’t really like the wiggling going on in the camera movement. It probably needs a bit more love to get it feeling better.

3: More careful handling of keyframing

I went back and scrapped the camera moves and tried a bit more care. This time I used less scaling. It feels efficient and (perhaps) a little less human but I think it functions fine.

4: Redesign the map elements

I went into Affinity Designer and used all of my prior ideas to make this. It went back and forth between the Mac and iPad to make the most of the various organising/creating tools. Notice that I have used the green (going there) and red (returning) colour scheme. I also added in some edited segments for where the hills are most extreme. In an earlier version I tried to bring in a moving gradient diagram but it felt too busy.

5: Animate the sections

Pixelmator Pro didn’t play well with a handful of elements when I tried to bring my design into the SVG file/Motion project process.

  • the mile marker numbers didn’t translate accurately, so I ended up converting them to vector curves feeling pretty sure that I wouldn’t need to change the text again

  • the sections I had cut out to represent steep hill sections were re-interpreted as rounded sections (see below).

The Affinity designer squared ends (left) and the resulting Pixelmator Pro rounded version (right). In the end I quite like the look so it wasn’t such a sad time for me.

  • I needed to go in and tweak a few of the numbers that hadn’t translated very well even after converting them to curves.

Overall I was happy with Pixelmator Pro but be aware that it isn’t a perfect translation tool. It’s great but not perfect for Affinity files - worth bearing in mind if you cry a lot at night.

Anyways - here is the latest build:

There are a few framing issues but you get the idea - I like how this is turning out. When it comes to the video I am hoping to make with the actual Three Forts run, I need to remember to break those sections into smaller parts (as per section 2 above). Another issue is how the interplay between shot footage and the map works - so far this is a nice set of moving information - how do you integrate shot video into this without overdoing it?

More Map/Timeline developments

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Pixelmator Pro: a £35 Motion SVG plug-in

You can now import hand-drawn vectors from an iPad into Motion using this app. It makes me very happy: well done those guys.

I saw this post about a recent Pixelmator Pro update. You can now export vector assets as bona-fide Motion projects out of Pixelmator Pro (HT Ben and Luis, also Ripple Mark for this lovely demo video). I haven’t used Pixelmator in years (the Affinity guys have the edge in terms of iPad drawing and cross-platform transferability) so I didn’t get Pixelmator Pro when it came out because… it’s yet another thing in a folder of things. But this recent update got my attention. Essentially it links up the considerable strengths of hand-drawn iPad vector-tools with the animation-flexibility of Motion. It’s always a sadness when I have to make things in Motion because the tools are never that good - I have been drawing for years and the trackpad not the same for certain things. Earlier this week I resigned myself to constructing a map line using a trackpad because that’s how it’s done in Motion… click click click scroll click click etc. Now (with what is technically a £35 plug-in) I can draw confidently in the old way and send things across via SVG.

Here’s the process

  • draw something/anything on the iPad in Affinity Designer - making full use of the strengths of that life-changing Apple pencil

  • bring it back into the Mac and export as an SVG

  • move that file across into Pixelmator Pro

  • export as a Motion project

The (silent) clip below is not at all refined (hey this is process blog - what were you expecting, Instagram?). It is a further experiment where I am trying to link various behaviours to save animating everything using keyframes. The lines have all been drawn using the above method. I had actually already drawn them with the trackpad but went back to see if it was quicker/easier. It really was.

Linking behaviours brings greater flexibility

Some brief notes:

  • the drawn vector lines use the write-on behaviour to draw out (this may be problematic when I want them to slow and pause at different points - have yet to work this one out but I’m sure it’s possible)

  • it seems simpler somehow to have the route in two colours/parts for clarity

  • the ‘you are here’ circles use Motion Path behaviours that link to the geometry of said drawn vector routes

  • in the end I was having a lot of trouble getting the camera framing behaviour to obey my choices so I hand-keyframed the movements (in some ways this feels better anyhow because I like the imprecise feel of it)

  • forgive me, but the course incline box in the bottom corner is a visual mess (and probably too busy I think) but I wanted to give it a go - the steepness of the route seems like an important piece of info to impart so I thought I’d try and find a way of automating it. I connected the yellow and red route-halves to the main route animation with the link behaviour applied (using reverse behaviour for the second part to get it flowing in the correct direction). Unfortunately I had to resort to hand-key framing the sideways scrolling because I was too tired to work out how to animate the anchor point. It will hopefully come to me soon.

This represents some solid steps forward. Building behaviours into the guts of an animated timeline allow for some flexibility if you need to change things later, but they take a bit of getting your brain around.