2d Animated planar tracking composite
COMPANY
RCAD
ROLE
Designer, Animator, Compositor, Creative Director, Sound Mixer
SOFTWARE
Adobe After Effects, Nuke
YEAR
2025
Credits
Sound Mixing, Animation, Design, Concept, Composite - Me
Sound - Pixabay
Music - Universal Production Studios
Project Description
For this project, I created a 5–10 second ad for a publishing company’s new animated book line. I animated scanned or captured illustrations and composited them onto high-quality footage of the book, adding movement either through handheld camera work or motion of the book itself.
Process
Concept
The first part of this project was creating a pitch with 3 ideas for what posters or imaging in real life we could film and have animated and composited. Out of my 3 ideas, the book metamorphosis was chosen. With the animation and idea approved, next was going onto making a vector version of the book cover and animating it.
Film
Once the idea was approved, i quickly had to use a camera from our schools digital checkout and some lights to create a spooky setting that could match the vibe of the book. I put one light in front of the camera to easily see the book in the dark room better, as well as a green light in the background to help give it a more spooky and interesting feel. Then i filmed multiple takes of a handheld shot of the book until i was happy with one of the options.
Design and Animation
Not much thought went into the design of the book considering the design was already made. What i had to do, however, was match the coloring as closely as i could to the book in the video and adding the textures onto the animation to make it look like it can easily be put into the same world as the book. Finally, i added a "bevel and emboss" effect that after effects offers on some of the design to help give it that 3d appearance that is on the book in the raw footage.
Compositing and Color Grading
After having all of the assets i needed to make this project, It was putting it all together. Using a planar track, i was able to attach the animation onto the cover of the book, following the rotation and position of the book in the video.
After compositing everything together, the animation didnt quite feel like it was a part of the same world as the video it was composited on top of. So next was rotoscoping out different parts of the animation and color grading each section to look more similar to what the covor of the book looked like. Adding in my own fake spine shading, highlights on the book, and shadows.
Results
After many iterations of animation, many learning curves with using Nuke for the first time, and lots of rotoscoping and color grading, I finally had a convincing animated book cover composite for my first project in my compositing class.