Four years ago I finished my Animated Alphabet project. I had designed and animated 26 unique letters of the alphabet over a two year period with the aim of learning After Effects.
As I was doing this project piecemeal in my free time and because I was more interested in learning the multitude of skills required, the end result didn’t feel like a cohesive set of letters as I had experimented with different fonts, illustrative styles, colour themes and animation methods.
In 2020 I decided I wanted a way of showing this piece off as a complete video. But to do that, I would need to revisit every single animation to get some consistency across the project.
Reworking the animations took the most time. I had unfortunately lost of some of the original After Effects files so I had to redo a number of them, based off the exported GIFs. Others had their colour palette changed, animations improved or style edited. It was another good learning experience, as now I am much more experienced in After Effects and could improve upon my process and previous program-skill limitations.
I’m incredibly happy with the final outcome, it’s still one of my favourite projects to date. It no longer feels like 26 unconnected animations. I think the music and transitions between each animation really pull the whole thing together. I think if I did it again, I’d perhaps add some sound effects above the music for some of the animations (like bees and windy etc.) I’d love to hear what you think as well.
Now with over 6,000 views(!) on YouTube, my Animated Alphabet:
Jonesing for an Idea 