Final outcome

see the final animation at
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afvh2Jakn_c
or
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/41740970

Inkling relates to the development of this animation could be found in Issuu:
http://issuu.com/fayhuo/docs/the_choic

entrances in the virtual world

Once the black dot arrived at the virtual world, it is faced with hundreds of front gates. Losing all his memories, the dot (man) is forced to find an exit by trying the entrances one by one. My first design of the front gates scene was difficult to animate unless I used 3D techniques (just as the following picture shows)  

Then I tried to use abstract symbols.

Test animation of the entrances:

vista outside the window

Following the collapsing scene of the metropolitan, there is scene showing the whole city was caught up in big fire. I created this scene to transfer from the overview of the city to the talking characters indoors.
the test animation is too long for this transition and I will put more fire effect on the final one in order to make it
look more intense.
test animation:

scene design (the collapse of the world)

the first draft of the scene, created only with AI, then I realize the effect is not so satisfied in After Effects.

So I decided to redo the scene designs, made it more detailed and more realistic.

tunnel

I designed tunnel as the connection between the virtual world and the realistic world. At first, I chose to use the CC Star Burst effect in After Effects to show the brains moving to another world, but it looked really boring, so I redesigned the look of the tunnel and made the patterns of the doors consistent with the virtual world.

In this test video, I intended to show the man lost all his memory and transformed into a black dot before going into the virtual world. After showing to my friends and my tutor, I realized there are too much information for the audience to understand within such a short time, and the words are not attractive, I have to rethink the way to complete this scene transition.

tunnel test 1

this is another test, since I still want the star field look, so I created a background for the moving doors. but it looked strange when the doors are moving forward while the colourful lines are unchanged. I have to think other way to make it better.

character design

     I want to combine realistic paintings as well as abstract patterns in the portrait.

     I think it is very fun to mix the sketches with orange marker and pencil lines.

  

   I also designed the fabric on the woman.

   Finally, I made video and then exporedt it as a JPEG sequence. Then I used Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter 

   to draw a series of portraits.

  

I created 142 pieces of paintings and imported them as a png sequence in After Effects.

abstract pattern

The virtual world in my animation will be made up by abstract lines and dots. I drew reference to the works by Louise Bourgeois, then I design patterns which can be animated.

                                 I used Corel Painter to create small samples of abstract pattern.
                                 The brushes I utilized are Variable Chisel Tip Marker and real
                                 2B pencil.

Initial sketches:

A short experimental test showing how abstract pattern could move.