The Process:
Getting Started:
Once I figured out that I wanted to do a Yankees Ad I started to make the storyboard. I envisioned a fast-paced video that matched the Yankees' branding, I wanted the audience to feel inspired and prideful when watching It. I wanted to include audio from Yankees games as well as from players on the team talking about the Yankees.
I brainstormed symbols and quotes that had to do with the Yankees. I circled the ones which I knew needed to be in the video so that when I created the storyboard I could check those ones off.
I created a new project in After Effects and titled my first composition as "Demo Reel." This comp Is going to be the whole entire project. I will be Importing the other compositions Into this one to create the final video. I also created folders for each Individual comp to keep things organized.
I created a folder called "storyboard" and added screenshots of each frame of my storyboard into the folder. Then I created a new composition titled "storyboard." Here I was able to time out each frame so I could have a rough layout to follow.
Illustrator:
After I got the storyboard finished I started working in Illustrator to create each object or symbol In the video. I created a different Illustrator file for each comp. Each layer was a piece of the comp that would be moving separately from the others. This was time-consuming but got faster as I kept going. I made sure each layer was named something that represented what was on it so it would be easier for me when putting it into motion and following my storyboard.
Back to After Effects:
After I finished the comp in Illustrator I would put it into After Effects and create a new composition out of it. Then I used different keyframes to put each layer Into motion according to my storyboard. For the "city" composition you can see on the right, I used the position keyframes to allow each building to rise. Once I finished the composition, I dragged It Into my Demo Reel comp and adjusted it to follow my storyboard.
For each composition, I practiced using different keyframes to make movement. I used other transformations like rotate, opacity, scale, anchor points, etc. to create these movements. Some vectors used a combination of multiple transformations while others just used one.
Audio:
I had bulleted a few sounds I knew I might use in my brainstorm. I downloaded audio files from different radio and news snippets. I also downloaded free sound effects and background music files. The first thing I did was add the sound effects I wanted in there because It was clear where those had to be since they must line up with the video; for example, when the bat comes down and hits the bottom It makes a knocking sound.
Once the sound effects were in I added a beat that went along the duration of the whole video. then I added a radio audio at the beginning and used keyframes to allow It to fade out nicely. Then I added the audio file of Aaron Judge's speech to the end of the reel as It says "Join the greatest fans in baseball" to emphasize the message that Yankees fans are the best. I also used keyframes on this to allow his speech to fade in and out.
