How I Made The Animated Intro for MFJF

One of my first commissions as an animation artist was to animate an intro for My First Job in Film, a network for those working to break into the film industry. You can watch the animation by pressing the button:

MFJF Animated Intro

MFJF has two bases, one in the UK and the other in the US. I was connected to the UK base and was hired to animate an intro featuring its logo. Here is the process of how I made the animation.

Brainstorming

After receiving my assignment, I began brainstorming different ideas for the intro. I came up with three concepts for animating the logo and drew a three-panel storyboard for each idea on a single page. Each row represents one idea.

My storyboards for the three different concepts for the intro.

First Idea (Top Row): For this concept, only the first four words of the logo are visible. There is a projector off to the side and it turns on to reveal the last word of the logo.

Second Idea (Middle Row): A film roll appears and moves in the last word of the logo and then another roll of film appears and moves while overlapping the first roll.

Third Idea (Last Row): A roll of film begins to flow through the letters of the last word of the logo.

I then presented these three ideas in a meeting with the network.

Choosing and Making Changes to An Idea

During the meeting to present the ideas, the network decided on the first idea but told me to make some changes.

The first change was to add a projector screen.

A change to the first idea.

The projector would show different parts of the logo coming together on the screen.

The next change was to update the projector to a more modern version.

The first idea with a more modern version of the projector.

However, it was later decided that the older version of the projector worked better, and we agreed to not break the logo into separate parts.

Animating

Once the idea was finalized, I began preparing for the animation.

First I drew a rough sketch of the layout and the colors of the animation.

The rough sketch of the layout.

I then used the rough sketch to make the final versions of various elements, including the projector.

The rough sketch of the projector vs the final version.

After finalizing all the parts, I began animating them. I was then asked to make another change: remove the projector screen and have the logo projected directly on the wall.

Conclusion

This was my first animation commission after completing a mentorship program in After Effects.

I enjoyed this project mainly because I had a lot of confidence throughout the entire process. It helped me realize that I was establishing myself as an animator.