2001 › Swimming turtle

This is my favorite project from my compositing/animation learning during the early 2000s.

Despite everything going on, this is just 2 static images that have been animated and composited. The turtle was a photo that I broke apart and added movement to the legs and head. Then that composition was nested in the larger canvas, and I animated the swimming effect. Beneath that I put the clip art of gravel, and used a filter in After Effects to create the light flare and water effect.

Despite the short duration of it, I'm quite proud of it to this day. I think the gliding before paddling again is just spot on and looks amazingly realistic.

2001 › Berkeley flyover

As with the swimming turtle, this video is actually just an animation/composite of a photograph - it's an aerial shot of my old Berkeley neighborhood.

The movement of it was all composited in After Effects - I cut out the few moving cars onto their own layers and animated them driving, and also added the brief lens flare and clouds to give it a more realistic flying effect.

2001 › Computer type

This was for a learning project in 2001. The end result was interesting, but even I admit that the typing and movement is a bit too fast. But I still like the overall animation.