This was the first animated cover I (or anyone) did for Australian Geographic. As with all of these covers, I created the animations using existing photogrphy from the issue and added sounds and effects in After Effects. Hopefully the thunderclap didn't scare too many people.
We walked the fine line on this one. Trying to animate a cover on such a serious subject meant that we had to treat it with great respect. Something simple with music added made for a haunting cover.
This cover was all about knowing where to dissect th ebiurd in Photoshop.
After separating the Eagle into several pieces for animating, a 'Displacement Map' was added to give it a slightly more fluid look.
A simple 2D image cut into layers and animated within a 3D space within After Effects.
The image of the stars were added over a darkened version of the cover image. With tweaking in Photoshop and After Effects, a transition between the two was added. Spot and Ambient lights were mixed with a lens flare to give the feeling of the sun rising over Kakadu.
A water effect and deep-etched fish were used to give the Dugong a bit of life. Sound was added in After Effects.
A segmented, deep-etched snake and a simple Displacemet Map were used to bring the snake to life.
Stock video fo bubbles, murky water effects, undersea sounds and a spotlight were combined in After Effects to bring this still image to life.
Sometimes subtlety can work better. Originally we had the dog moving a lot more but it came across as too much so we simplified the movement, added a displacement map to distort the dog's features and were far happier with the result.
Much the same as above.
