After we finished compositing the individual shots in After Effects we exported them as TIFF sequences. We chose to export as TIFF sequences over H.264 videos because TIFFs retain the image quality which is lost in the conversion to video due to compression and artifacting. At first we tried editing our animation to the pacing of our animatic, but after reviewing the footage we had composited in After Effects we decided to re-edit some things. The final edit of the animation is a lot slower pace than the animatic we created, as it gets off to a much slower start allowing the soundtrack to set the tone of the scene before we abruptly cut to the establishing shot. Compared to the animatic, we also allowed some shots to linger longer while other, were cut entirely. The two shots where the the Succubus picks up the bed were condensed into one longer shot as the profile view seemed redundant. Overall I am more satisfied with the final edit of the animation than I was with the animatic, partially because we strayed away from the animatic.
I also created the end title card design in After Effects. For this I wanted a simple modernist, sans-serif typeface which looked sleek and presentable. After trying out various different fonts such as Tahoma and Helvetica I eventually went with 'Avenir Next Ultra Light' for its slick simplicity. I animated the text by keyframing the tracking between characters so that they move farther apart, and applied a gradual Gaussian Blur and changed opacity so that the text faded out as the letters drifted apart, tying in with the themes and title of the animation.
As for the sound editing and design we used a combination of sound effect Vlad created and creative license sounds. For Vlad's character coughing and yawning, Vlad recorded that himself, as he did with the sound of the lighthouse collapsing which was achieved by shaking a table and adjusting the pitch. Other sounds, such as the sound of the waves and the flames were sourced online from free sound effect websites. The music track used in our animation was created entirely by Vlad himself. For the editing of the sounds, I did a rough cut of the animation which determined the timing of the sound effects and cues while Vlad tided it up, mixed the sounds and overall had final say as he is the sound expert, though it was very much a collaboration, with me having at least some input.
The final render of the animation was done on my Macbook as it had the most RAM and all the assets were already stored on it. We exported the final animation as an H.264 .mp4 video file as per the brief at 24 frames per second.
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