The team at FxFactory caught up with We Are Alive, an animation studio based in Dubai, UAE, specializing in motion graphics animation and digital art, and asked them about what went into creating the Trovicor image film and how the After Effects plugin Yanobox Nodes was utilized in the process.
What was the goal of the project?
We Are Alive was tasked with the creation of an animation for Trovicor, a company that develops software solutions for law enforcement agencies. They wanted to have something unusual and were open to suggestions. We were all very excited to work on such a project and immediately several ideas came to mind. In the end, we decided to create a spy story about a terrorist crisis and intelligence analysts who are trying to prevent a new disaster. We managed to create tension and suspense while only showing the user interface and the way the analysts are using it to identify suspects to save the day.
How much time did you have? What tools / Workflow did you use?
We were lucky that the client approached us well before the deadline. This allowed our team enough time to work on a script and a storyboard. But still, there were over 30 shots that we had to design and animate. We started by creating still frames directly in After Effects. While creating the storyboard we were also preparing the layers of the animation at the same time. We probably had around three weeks to design the stills and two weeks for animation.
Why are After Effects plugins like Nodes cool and how do they change the creative approach and workflow with clients?
We made the decision to use Yanobox Nodes early on. It was an amazing timesaver for us because of its powerful presets. These features are a great starting point when designing visual effects and animation. We have had nodes installed on the computer for a long time, and were waiting for a project that would fully utilize it. This was a perfect chance. It’s fully integrated with After Effects 3D space, and it’s very easy to animate. You can have a detailed shot, a lot of dots and lines, and it’s all contained within one layer that you’re able to animate using only one slider.
Please tell us a little more about We Are Alive.
We have a small but dedicated team with years of experience. Our team gets a lot of satisfaction by working on a project from beginning to end. It gives us opportunity to enjoy the creative process and deliver our best. In addition to the animation, we would also work on the script, sound and music. It’s an exciting time that we live in and animation is all around us. We can’t wait to see what happens next and what our next project will be!
Yanobox Nodes
Yanobox Nodes is being used by many talented artists on a number of great projects. Previously, we have looked at screen graphics in motion pictures such as Ender’s game, Planet of the Apes, Earth to Echo, The Avengers and Transformers: Age of Extinction.
Nodes tutorials are available for Final Cut Pro X, After Effects, Premiere Pro and Motion.