Western Sunrises - The iPad in the creative workflow
Western Sunrises
Whitney Alexander is an American Motion Designer and director based in Philadelphia.
He recently created an amazing music video for Art Decade, particularly notable for its use of the iPad within the production workflow. The tablet played an important role in the making of the video, which you can discover below.
The iPad as a production tool
The tablet was used not only for the creation of the storyboard, but also for designing the backgrounds, animating certain elements traditionally, and for the final touch-ups on some shots.
The iPad app used is called ProCreate. It’s a true Photoshop-like tool designed entirely for touch-based use. Below, you can see an example of how it was used to draw and animate the character’s jacket in a traditional way:
After Effects for animation
Of course, the images weren’t created entirely on the tablet. Once the storyboard was approved and the first still frames were drawn, the bulk of the animation was done in After Effects.
The oceans, sky, and clouds were created using Trapcode plugins: Psunami, Form, and Particular.
The impressionist painting look was achieved using the Video Gogh plugin from Re:Vision Effects, the creators of Twixtor.
An impressive character rig — free download
The main character was fully designed and animated in After Effects. The rig built to control each body part is simply impressive.
The character is made up of over 400 layers, and Whitney has kindly allowed me to share his After Effects project with you! Below is a link to download the character rig, an amazing piece of work:
Tablets in the creative workflow
Tablets are often described as the future of personal computing as we know it today — and for everyday users, that’s undoubtedly true.
But what about the professional creative field? What role can these new tools play within our production pipelines?
A complement to desktop applications
With the rise of cloud computing and cloud storage, it has never been easier to move from one device to another while working on the same files.
For now, tablets aren’t powerful enough to replace desktop use entirely, but they can already take on a significant role — especially during pre-production.
Adobe clearly understands this, with its complete lineup of tablet apps, the Touch Apps.
Start your project in Photoshop Touch, then instantly open it in Photoshop to finalize your work — no file transfers needed.
These kinds of workflows will become increasingly common and natural within the production chain.
With tablet apps like Eazel, Color Lava, or Sketchbook, the line between digital and traditional art is becoming even thinner.
Of course, it will take time before brushes and pencils disappear completely — but as with vinyl, digital will naturally become the standard in the near future. If it hasn’t already.
A matter of power
Eventually, as processing power and touch precision continue to increase, tablets will take on an even bigger role in our workflows.
The advantage of tablets is that they don’t need as much power as desktop towers to run efficient software. Apps on the iPad use modern technology and are designed from the ground up to take full advantage of GPUs — something still lacking in most desktop programs, which rely on old, heavy foundations that are slow to evolve.
After Effects on a tablet? For now, that remains a dream — but it’s the future ahead of us: animating with our fingertips!
And you?
Do you already use tablets in your workflow? At which stage of production, and with which apps?
A discussion is open on the forum to share the best creative apps for tablets!
About the author
I am the Founder of Mattrunks. I work as Creative Director and Motion Designer in my studio. I also create video tutorials to share my passion of motion.