My next animation was a rocket taking off and soaring into space. I created an illustration of a rocket on illustrator. I used a similar theme to the skydiving illustration using lots of curves and bright colours to create a colourful image. I also added fire trails to the back to animate t ogive the sense of the fire coming out from behind the rocket.
I then created the background for the animation as I wanted to give the impression of the rocket taking off and flying through space. Firstly i created the take off platform, using bold shapes and colours, keeping it simple with no shading. I kept it non-realistic to stick with the theme as I did with the rocket.
Next I made the illustration taller and added various features including stars and planets which the rocket will fly past in the animation.
Finally, i added a background with a gradient, starting off light at the bottom and getting darker towards the top to give the sense of the rocket flying away from the earth and light. Again, i used bright colours and bold shapes.
After designing the background for the animation and adding the original rocket design to it, although both designs individually are very similar to the style I am using, they don’t fit together well so i created a new rocket which fits in more, i used the same style with the bold shapes and colours, however I think the new design fits much better with the overall style of the background and the shape of the take off pad.
I added the two illustrations to after effects and added an effect to the trails from the rocket to give the sense of movement. I also move the background down with the rocket staying central on the page to give the illusion that it’s soaring through space.
I decided to get rid of the stars on the background, as I tried to keep the whole animation simplistic, the stars overcomplicated it and added to much to the page which draws the eye away from the rocket in the centre.
Ben Jackson 