Design Concept
Wallflowers consists of a series of three looping animated patterns which are designed to be projected on a wall as an animated wallpaper. The patterns are inspired by nature and botanicals, bringing them into an indoor space. The animated patterns will invigorate and make the installation space more engaging, capturing the attention of the audience.
As an art piece and a surface design, the audience and client will be the public who access the space. To appeal to the public, the designs will follow current graphic design and pattern trends, while also referencing future predictions to ensure longevity and relevance. The current graphic design trends Nature-inspired design and Psychedelic design are referenced through botanical motifs, bright colours, and chaotic animation (Barnhart, 2021). Upcoming pattern design trends follow a similar path, influencing the project through trends such as ‘Soul Space’ and ‘Upbeat Brights.' Bright colours will be used a reaction against Covid lockdowns and botanical inspiration will help people reconnect with nature (Watkins, 2021).
The animation Nature Enclosed depicts a series of oblong shapes in which plants and insects grow and move. These small parts of nature often go ignored until they are pointed out to us.
Living Windows shows apartment windows taken over by greenery. This was inspired by the increased interest in indoor plants and gardening during Covid.
In the Garden is a fast-paced loop of flowers growing and insects moving among them, showing the constant activity of nature.
Moodboard
Project Timeline
A trello board (screenshot below) was used to organise the timeline for this project. The trello board allowed me to easily add, delete and rearrange specific tasks as I progressed, and gave me an overall view of whether I was on track.
Project Statement
This project Wallflowers is a series of botanically inspired animated patterns designed to be projected onto physical spaces as digital wallpapers. The animated patterns will invigorate the spaces where they are displayed, bring nature indoors and providing changeable, moving surface art.
To achieve variation in the project, three animated patterns will be completed. These patterns will be repeatable so they can be displayed on a surface of any size and at any scale. Each element of the animations will loop so that the length for which they are displayed can be varied to suit the context. The colour scheme will largely remain the same for each of the patterns to tie them together as a collection.
The first step to creating the animations will be in Adobe Illustrator, which will be used to draw vector illustrations based off sketches for each of the pattern tiles. Then, the vectors will be separated into layers so that each illustration can be animated. The Illustrator files for each of the patterns will be imported into After Effects and a composition will be created for each pattern tile. The layers for separate animated objects will be pre-composed and animated. Once the animation of each object in the tile is finished, a new composition will be created for the repeating pattern, in which the tile will be copied and replicated so the pattern repeats. One pattern will first be fully created to ensure there is enough time to complete all three.
A major constraint is the presentation of the animations. As there is no physical exhibition involved in the presentation, the projection can only be trialled and mocked up. It is likely that most people will view the project online, so to allow for a more immersive experience, an Augmented Reality version will also be created.
If this project was created on a larger scale and longer time frame, projection mapping would be considered as a way of filling a physical space with these wallpapers. Another consideration with more time would be increasing the movement and immersing the viewer further in the animation by adding a camera to After Effects. 3D layering of illustrated motifs could also be used in After Effects, creating more depth in the animation.
PROCESS DOCUMENTATION
Animation 1 : In the Garden
Sketches
The sketches below were used as a basis for the illustrations created in Adobe Illustrator and indicate the motion used to animate each element.
Initial Illustrations
As In the Garden was created first, this pattern was used to develop the style and colour pallet. Initially the colours used were quite faded, but it was decided to make the brighter to make the illustrations more visually interesting.
Illustration & Colour
The initial sketch was locked in place in Illustrator and used as a template for the placement of each of the illustrations. This sketch was not followed directly but was used as a general guide. For each of the illustrations, I wanted to achieve a hand drawn look so used the pencil tool in Illustrator rather than the pen tool. This meant that I was able to draw using a Wacom tablet much as I would on paper. The colour scheme was further developed after the pattern tile was repeated and it was found that the dark blue was too dominating in the pattern. The shapes of some flowers were changed so the petals were rounded rather than pointed, giving a softer look. Some background colours were trialled as options, of which the dark grey was effective in making the colours of the illustrations stand out.
Final pattern tile
Below are the final illustrations. Each part of the motifs that will move have been added to a separate named layer (image on right) so they can be animated in After Effects.
After Effects animation
The first animation trial was completed using some of the initial animations. This demonstrated that the animation was achievable and effective, but this trial was not continued as the colours of the illustrations needed to be updated. The rotation function was used to move each of the bees wings so they flapped. The layers for the wings was locked to the bee's body so that when the position of the bee was moved, the wings stayed attached. To make the flower stem grow, a shape layer was created in AE from the Illustrator layer and the trim paths function was applied. The purple flowers appear using the scale tool to move them from 0 to 100%.
Once the Illustrator file was imported into AE each of the elements in the pattern tile was animated. The motion was achieved using basic AE functions. The position function was used to animate elements that move across the frame, such as the bee and lady bird. The rotate function was used to make the purple flowers rotate left and right. The scale function was used to make flower petals appear and leaves grow. It was also used to flip the bee and lady bird as they change directions. Trim paths was used to make stems grow, with leaves and flowers appearing just as the stem gets to the point where they are positioned. (The same functions were also used to animate the second and third patterns).
To get the lady bird to face the correct direction as it moved, I had to research how to use the auto orient function in After Effects (link below). I also had to research how to adjust the key frames along the path of the lady bird to make the animation smoother, as initially the speed varied as it moved because the path was curved.
Once the tile was animated, a new composition was created and it was repeated so that the pattern covered the whole frame. A half-drop offset was used in the repetition, meaning the vertical position of the tiles was altered so the same elements do not appear in the same horizontal position.
Each of the pre-compositions for the animated elements were looped so the pattern animation would repeat.
The pattern was projected onto a wall to test it. The projection was successful and demonstrated that all the details could be seen on the projected image.
Final animation
The motion of some elements were adjusted for the final animation. The movement of the centre of the pink flower was changed to be smoother, as originally the looping time was incorrect which made the motion jarred. The swaying yellow button flowers were slowed in speed and easy-ease key frames were added to make the motion smoother.
Animation 2: Nature Enclosed
Illustrations
In addition to the six shapes in the original sketch, three more were added to vary the pattern. The proposed movement of some of the insects was changed after it was determined it would be too difficult to animate. For example, the movement of the bug was changed so that instead of hitting the walls of the oblong shape, it moved back and forth instead. As in the first pattern, illustrations were created based of the sketch of the pattern tile. For each illustration, multiple versions were drawn using the pencil tool to ensure the illustrations looked hand drawn. The exception for this was the oblong shapes which were created using the rectangle tool. I wanted these to be symmetrical so they could be used as a geometric base for the pattern tile. Each section that moved independently had to be drawn separately. Once each illustration was drawn, the colours were finalised, with the background colours for each of the oblong shapes chosen to pair with the enclosed illustrations and the shapes beside them. Background colours were also trialled and the dark brown was found to be most effective as it contrasted with the brighter colours.
Final Illustrator tile
Below are the final illustrations. Each part of the motifs that will move have been added to a separate named layer (image on right) so they can be animated in After Effects.
After Effects animation
After making pre-compositions for each of the nine elements in the pattern tile, motion was added. Once the movement of each pre-comp was viewed together in the tile, it was adjusted so that the timing varied. For example, the blue mushrooms initially grew at the same time, but were varied to balance with the rest of the animation.
The tiles were then repeated, with each tile being horizontally offset to make the repeat less obvious.
The video above shows the After Effects file and layers of compositions and pre-compositions that were required to create the pattern repeat.
Final animation
The main change I made for the final animation was changing the scale of the repeat, making each of the tiles smaller in scale so more of the pattern elements could be seen in the frame. Depending on the size of the physical space these patterns are being displayed in, this could be adjusted in the future.
Animation 3: Living Windows
Some of the elements in the initial sketches (left) were changed. I decided that I did not want people to be in the windows, instead focussing on the life the apartment windows have when people are not present.
Illustrations
Being the third animation, the illustration process was much quicker as I had established the visual style. I liked the use of square windows in this pattern as they gave the illustrations a background structure. This allowed me to choose to have some elements arranged behind the windows and others moving outside the window, giving the animation perspective. Five windows were drawn so they made a square shape. The repeat was created by placing the tiles next to each other so the square windows alternated in a checkerboard pattern.
To decide on the background colour and whether I should outline each of the windows with a border, I made a document with the different potential styles so I could compare them. I decided that I liked the option on the top right which has a white background and no border around the windows as this allowed the colourful illustrations to be more prominent.
Final pattern tile
Below are the final illustrations. Each part of the motifs that will move have been added to a separate named layer (image on right) so they can be animated in After Effects.
After Effects animation
After making pre-compositions for each of the five windows in the pattern tile, motion was added. Once the movement of each was viewed together in the tile composition, it was adjusted so that the timing varied. For example, the leaves in the light blue window were moving too fast, so the motion was slowed down and easy-ease key frames were added to make it smoother. To contrast some of the fast moving elements in the animation, the plant swaying in the purple window was made subtle and slow.
Once the tile was animated, a composition was created for the repeating pattern and multiple copies of the tile were arranged in a checkerboard pattern. The arrangement of this pattern was the most difficult as I had to ensure each of the squares were aligned directly to those of the next tile so the corners touched but did not overlap.
The above video shows the After Effects file. Particularly, it shows the pre-composition layers involved in animating the light blue window. As I wanted the plants to move behind the window, I had to create an additional pre-comp for the background and plants, which I then used a square to mask so the leaves did not move outside the edges of the blue window. To learn how to do this, I used the video in the link below. A mask was also used in the dark blue window to make the water drop from the watering can disappear after it reaches the window sill. The video also shows the yellow window, and the many layers and key frames used to make the leaves of the trailing vine grow using the scale function.
Final animation
As I was more practiced at animation by the third pattern, I did not have to edit the motion of as many elements as the first two patterns. However, I did change the movement of the cat's tail to make it more subtle, as the angle at which it moved at was originally too wide, making the motion unnatural.
Compilation
To present the final animations, I wanted to compile them into a single video. However, I wanted more variation between the patterns to distinguish them, so decided to revisit possible background colours in After Effects. After comparing how the illustrations and motion looked against the background, I decided for the Living Windows pattern, the background should stay white, as other colours drew the attention from the animations. For the Nature Enclosed pattern, I decided a dark navy blue looked best as it contrasted compared to some of the brighter and warmer toned colours. For the In the Garden pattern I tried a few shades of green, a reference that the plants would be growing in a green garden. The brighter greens were too similar to the colours in the illustrations, so the darkest green was chosen.
Once I was happy with the background colours, I created a new composition for the compilation and added each of the patterns. After I played it through, I decided the video needed background music to make it more interesting. I went back to my A1 documentation and played some of the music I collected for potential use with the animations. I found that the soundtrack Revealed by Ketsa fit well with the animations as the music was paced similarly to the motion. I was also able to switch between the animations as the music changed, which made transitions seem less sudden.
I found that after I uploaded the compilation to YouTube, the colours looked faded compared to using After Effects or VLC player to view the video. I researched why this was happening , and found a video (link below) on how I could use a look-up table in Adobe Premier to adjust the colours to be more saturated. Once applied to the final video, the additional saturation helped to counteract the video player in YouTube which was desaturating the colours.
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Wallflowers
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References
Barnhart, B. (2021). 13 Inspiring Graphic Design Trends For 2021. Vectornator. https://www.vectornator.io/blog/graphic-design-trends
Watkins, H. (2021). Women's Prints & Graphics Forecast S/S 23: Design-Wise. WGSN. https://www-wgsn-com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/fashion/article/91407
Watkins, H. (2021). Women's Prints & Graphics Forecast S/S 23: Soul Space. WGSN. https://www-wgsn-com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au