Buck In-App Animations
Brief: Make a set of 5 looping animated illustrations for each of Apple's products (iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, Apple TV+, and Mac).
Target Audience: Well educated people with an appreciation for clean, simple nd sophisticated design.
Humble Beginnings?
To say the least, I came into this project with a "go simple or go home" mindset and it bit me in the butt.
The 2 directions I wanted to do involved blurred trim paths, playing with the idea of the loading sign, and using blurred and liquified gradients in the points of interest.
This was where my problems started; I got too hung up on what I wanted and not what Apple would do.
So I went back to the drawing board!
Sketches
Direction 1
Apple goes into the detail of their products and shows beautiful imagery with it, often using close ups. Direction 1 revolves around a single composition that would zoom in and out of that single composition and into close ups to focus on a single unique or important aspect of the device through the screen.
(i.e. Siri, Mac Mouse, time/watch, pressure sensitivity/apple pencil, and Apple TV+ remote)
Direction 2
Similar to Direction 1, the composition would possibly start off on a single frame of the apple logo alone and have the other assets animate or zoom into frame.
I wanted to explore this method to play with having the final deliverable be one single animation of all 5 products seamlessly animating one after another.
However, if the zooms became too much to look at over and over, the animations could easily be turned into their own singular animations.
Final Styleframes
Going forward with Direction 2, I wanted to have more flexibility in what my deliverables could be and also have functionality play a part in animation (pressure sensitivity for iPad, swiping for iPhone, etc).
With color, I wanted something that spoke to Apple but also had a playful vibe to it. Sophistication is also an important factor since that was part of the description for the target audience.
For the final, I decided not to start off on a single frame of the Apple logo because I knew zooming in and out between animations would become
sickening to the viewer.
Final Product
5-Up of Products
All animations in one composition and single animations below.
Animated in After Effects
iPhone Mockup
All 5 animations placed on a mockup
of an iPhone to see what it would
actually look like on screen as if it were on the Apple Home app.
Animated in After Effects and Photoshop