With the storyboard done I saved each shot/scene as a separate photoshop file and imported all of them into Adobe After Effects using Ublik-om’s (2017) tutorial as reference for how to be efficient in the process. Using this method allowed me to go back into the photoshop file to separate different elements so that they could be moved in After Effects without having to re-import them.
With all the shots in I started to work on the timings, I first added a timecode to the bottom of the animatic then started adjusting the length of each shot and playing it back, doing this iteratively until the timings felt right. One thing I noticed early on when adjusting is that the fighting felt somewhat anticlimactic as it originally started and ended quite suddenly so I extended it which improved the impact of the explosion.
When it comes to doing the fight scene I will need to pay specific attention to the intensity and sound of the magic. This could be done by changing the VFX movement, making it more random and slowly building sound over time, increasing the intensity of the explosion will also give off a bigger pay-out to the build-up.
At the moment the Animatic is around 10 seconds short of a full minute, the remaining time will most likely be used to extend the combat section of the piece, allowing a longer build-up of tension up to the explosion. I have a large library of free animation accessible which will also help pad out the fight depending on how well production goes.
References
Ublik-om (2017) Animatics in After Effect [Tutorial]. Available online:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9zGQ8XKMuM [Accessed 20/11/2020].