After Effects: Roll Credits!

Good evening, design friends!

I'm excited about tackling this week's project, which is creating the rolling credit sequence for a movie. I learned a lot during this process! I decided to work with one of my all time favorite films, Donnie Darko. To ensure I did a good job, I researched effects and looked for images that captured the emotion and feel of the movie. I even created a short storyboard to guide my direction. After that, I organized all my Donnie Darko materials in a dedicated folder. 

I edited my images in Photoshop, resizing them, and then moved them into Lightroom to create a preset. I adjusted the mid tones, highlights, and shadows using blues and greys, adding a bit of noise before applying that to my images. While I had many photos I wanted to use, I ultimately had to narrow it down to just a few that made the cut. I let the composition flow and allowed it to take on its own life, which is sometimes how it goes, and I'm okay with that.

Next, I took my Donnie Darko materials and added my first video clip to draw viewers into the footage. I used opacity and layered the next clip, applying ease in and ease out techniques while timing everything carefully. Then, I created a new composition for my credit roll by taking the cast and director information from IMDb, typing it up, and adjusting the text to center it. I chose a typeface that closely matched the Donnie Darko style. 

To animate the credits, I added a keyframe to start them from below and another at the end to bring them above the composition. I then created a solid color layer and navigated to Effect > Generate > Gradient Ramp, setting it to a linear ramp. I played around with different colors for the start and end points, ultimately finding that black and white worked best. Typically, you would set the start color to black and the end color to white, positioning the black where you want the fade to begin and the white where the text should be fully visible. If you want the opposite effect, you can reverse the colors. Next, I positioned the text layer directly above the gradient layer, went to the Track Matte dropdown, and chose Luma Matte, ensuring that the text layer was below the track matte layer.

Here’s where I ran into problems: I took this composition and placed it into my main composition so that the credits would roll over a forest background. However, I wanted the forest's lowered opacity, which made the credits barely visible. To address this, I layered and timed additional images to fade in and out as the credits rolled, and I animated a path for a cutout of Frank the Bunny, who pops in to say hello. I realize this might detract from the serious, gloomy vibe of Donnie Darko, but it adds a personal touch that I like!

Finally, I brought everything into Adobe Premiere Pro and added Echo and the Bunnymen to complete the sequence. I know there is much work I still want to correct, so I am submitting this version on time while I continue working on aligning and improving the visibility of the credits.

So, for now, this is what I have. It has been a fun learning experience, and I hope you enjoy it!