grid

a good range of transitions, simple shapes and smooth transitions between keyframes...

The GRID from Tomas Markevičius on Vimeo.

photographic

Neither of these videos were created using aftereffects, however, the context aswell as the concept of time and movement within them seems appropriate and i really enjoyed watching them!

The Mountain from TSO Photography on Vimeo.


Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

the good life

This music video is a good example of kinetic typography with sound. Kanye is actually interacting with the type itself. There's a rage of different visuals within this video, such as type running through his glasses. The colour also sits nicely on the black & white video making it more appealing and emphasizing the type/lyrics.

screenshots:

gnarls barkley

I like how this music video demonstrates effectively how the frame can change and morph into another. Although the animation is very two-dimensional, depth is created through scale and time/speed.

hp

Not very relevant to stars/after effects but as a piece of stop motion I think the concept is really clever with fun visuals as a type of moving image. Clearly alot of time & effort gone into this. I particularly like how the video becomes more & more complicated with a nice finish.

HP - invent from Films & Things on Vimeo.

discovery channel

Nice clip from the discovery channel about the comparison of sizes of planets & suns in our universe.




I particularly like how much this video relates into my project as it's nice to see how it's been tackled by the channel & also shows me that my chosen top 10 subject & theme are appropriate to discovery.

sun and other stars

I found these simple images on 'stumbleupon'. They show how small our sun is compared to some of the other larger stars in our sky. I definitely want to try & get this point across within the animation...

comparitable sizes

Another interesting piece of information that I've been looking att is the size of our sun compared to these bright stars. I find it fascinating looking at the scale of things as it really puts it into perspective along with giving you a greater understanding of the universe.

I found some interesting videos that also try and put sizes into a relative form:

Real Size In The Universe - Funny video clips are a click away

hadar

HADAR
DISTANCE: 530 ly
APPARENT MAGNITUDE: 0.60 m
SPECTRAL CLASS: B1 lll


By Hipparcos mission data, Beta Centauri is at a distance of about 525/30 light-years, although this may be subject to some debate. If the Hipparcos data is to be taken, of the top 20 brightest stars in our sky, this star ranks as 4th in both intrinsic brightness and distance. A number of other physical characteristics of Beta Centauri are not entirely clear. Dr. James Kaler places it at a distance of 335 light-years. He also gives it a probable surface temperature of about 22,500 K (about 40,000 F or about 4 times as hot as the sun), and a mass of about 9.5 times that of the sun. With that temperature and mass, Beta Centauri must be about 15,500 as luminous as our sun, with a radius 8 times as great. If it is at the greater distance, those values will increase as well.

(far right)

achernar

ACHERNAR
DISTANCE: 140 ly
APPARENT MAGNITUDE: 0.50 m
SPECTRAL CLASS: B3 Vpe

Data from the Hipparcos mission puts Achernar at about 140 light-years away. It is a B3V star, meaning that it belongs to the ranks of “normal” stars known as the “main sequence,” but it is much hotter and brighter than the sun.

In fact, it is nearly 1100 times as bright, visually, as our neighborhood star. Brighter, hotter (and bluer) than the sun, Achernar produces more energy in the non-visible ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths. When you take this into consideration, it pumps out some 3,000 to as much as 5,000 times the solar energy level. The discrepancy is due to an uncertainty in the amount of UV radiation it produces.

discovery science

I like how this ident for 'human element' is informative, using type, but still allows a lot of interesting movement and graphics. It's clearly applicable to the channel itself..

Discovery Science Ident - the Human Element from +AKITIPE STUDIOS on Vimeo.

betelgeuse

BETELGEUSE
DISTANCE: 640 ly
APPARENT MAGNITUDE: 0.42 m
SPECTRAL CLASS: M2 Iab


If Betelgeuse were side by side with our sun, you’d find it 10,000 times brighter than the sun in visible light. It might be surprising then to learn that the surface temperature of Betelgeuse is only about 6,000 degrees F (3,600K) in contrast to the sun’s 10,000 degrees F.

In terms of mass, Betelgeuse is thought to be about 15 times the mass of the sun, but 600 times wider and more than 200 million times its volume! When you consider its size, as well as the infrared and other radiations it pumps out, Betelgeuse probably outshines our sun by at least 50,000 times.

procyon

PROCYON
DISTANCE: 25 ly
APPARENT MAGNITUDE: 0.12 m
SPECTRAL CLASS: F5 IV-V


Vega is the 5th brightest star visible from Earth, and the 3rd brightest easily visible from mid-northern latitudes, after Sirius and Arcturus. At about 25 light-years in distance, it is the 6th closest of all the bright stars, or 5th if you exclude Alpha Centauri, which is not easily visible from most of the Northern Hemisphere.

rigel

RIGEL
DISTANCE: 770 ly
APPARENT MAGNITUDE: 0.03 m
SPECTRAL CLASS: B8 lab


We could not live as close to Rigel as we are to the sun, because its surface temperature is much hotter, about 19,000 degrees F (11,000K) in contrast to about 10,000 degrees F for the sun. Overall, is about 40,000 times brighter than our local star. Earth would need to be about 200 times farther away, or about 5 times as far as Pluto. (Even then the light would not be the same, as much would be at higher, bluer, wavelengths.) Counting all its radiation (not just visible light, but infrared, ultraviolet and so on), it is 66,000 times more powerful than the sun. With such enormous energy, you might be surprised to find that it is only 17 times more mass, and 70 times width, of our nearby luminary.

The star lights up a nearby nebula

vega

VEGA
DISTANCE: 25 ly
APPARENT MAGNITUDE: 0.03 m
SPECTRAL CLASS: A0 V

Vega is the 5th brightest star visible from Earth, and the 3rd brightest easily visible from mid-northern latitudes, after Sirius and Arcturus. At about 25 light-years in distance, it is the 6th closest of all the bright stars, or 5th if you exclude Alpha Centauri, which is not easily visible from most of the Northern Hemisphere. Its distinctly blue color indicates a surface temperature of nearly 17,000 degrees F, making it about 7,000 degrees hotter than our sun. Roughly 2.5 times the diameter of the sun, and just less than that in mass, Vega’s internal pressures and temperatures are far greater than our sun, making it burn its fuel faster. This causes Vega to produce 35-40 times the energy of the sun, which in turn shortens its lifetime. At about 500 million years, Vega is already middle-aged. Currently it is only about a tenth the age of our sun, and will run out of fuel in another half-billion years.

alpha centauri

ALPHA CENTAURI (rigil kentaurus)
DISTANCE: 4.4 ly (light years from earth)
APPARENT MAGNITUDE: −0.01 m
SPECTRAL CLASS: G2 V

Alpha Centauri is part of a double (maybe triple) star system. Taken by itself, Alpha Centauri A is the 4th brightest star seen from Earth, just slightly outshone by Arcturus. However, the combined light of Alpha Centauri A and B is slightly greater than Arcturus, so in that sense it could be considered the third brightest. They are an average of 4.4 light-years away. The double nature of Alpha Centauri is clearly revealed in a small telescope, although Proxima Centauri is too faint and appears too far (4 diameters of the full moon) away to be easily recognized at part of the system. The actual status of Proxima as a system member is unclear. It may simple be passing nearby but not part of the system.

arturus

ARCTURUS
DISTANCE: 37 ly
APPARENT MAGNITUDE: −0.04 m
SPECTRAL CLASS: K1. lll

The red giant Arcturus is roughly 25 times the diameter of our sun. It is not the largest of the red giant, however, as the diagram below shows. Because of its larger size, in visible light Arcturus radiates more than 100 times the light of our sun. If you consider infrared and other forms of radiant energy, Arcturus is about 200 times more powerful than the sun. Its mass is hard to exactly determine, but may be slightly greater than that of our sun.

canopus

CANOPUS
DISTANCE: 310 ly
APPARENT MAGNITUDE: −0.72 m
SPECTRAL CLASS: F0 la

According to data obtained by the Hipparcos Space Astrometry Mission, Canopus is about 310 light-years away. Spectroscopically, it is an F0 type star, making it significantly hotter than our sun (roughly 13,600 degrees F at its surface, compared to about 10,000 degrees F for the sun). Canopus also has a luminosity class rating of II, which makes it a “bright giant” star much larger than the sun. (Some classifications make it a type Ia “supergiant”.”) Placed side by side, it would take about 65 suns to fit across Canopus. Although Canopus appears significantly less bright than Sirius, it is really much brighter, blazing with the brilliance of 14,000 suns. With non-visible forms of light energy factored in, it surpasses the sun by more than 15,000 times.

sirius

SIRIUS
DISTANCE: 8.6 ly (light years from earth)
APPARENT MAGNITUDE*: −26.74 m
SPECTRAL CLASS**: A1 V

*apparent magnitude is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, adjusted to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere. The brighter the object appears, the lower the value of its magnitude.
**the spectral class is a designated class of a star describing the ionization of its chromosphere, what atomic excitations are most prominent in the light, giving an objective measure of the temperature in this chromosphere. (http://outreach.atnf.csiro.au/education/senior/astrophysics/spectral_class.html)

At 8.6 light-years distance, Sirius is one of the nearest stars to us after the sun. (A light year is nearly 6 trillion miles!) In fact it is the nearest star easily visible to the unaided eye from most of the northern hemisphere. Classified by astronomers as an “A” type star, it is much hotter than our sun, with about surface about 17,000 degrees F (the sun is about 10,000 degrees F). With slightly more than twice the mass of the sun and just less than twice its diameter, Sirius still puts out 26 times as much energy. It is considered a normal (main sequence) star, meaning that it produces most of its energy by converting hydrogen into helium through nuclear fusion. As mentioned above, Sirius has a small, faint companion star appropriately called “The Pup.” That name signifies youth, but in fact “The Pup” is a dead star called a “white dwarf.” Once a mighty star, today it is an earth-sized ember too faint to be seen without a telescope.

brightest stars

I've decided to focus on the brightest stars in the universe as I think they would offer me an interesting type of visual/style using after effects...this could also incorporate info graphics which is an area I could potentially experiment with.

In order(brightest first):
/SIRIUS
/CANOPUS
/ARCTURUS
/RIGIL KENTAURUS
/VEGA
/RIGEL
/PROCYON
/BETELGUESE
/ACHERNAR
/HANAR

constellations

I really like the idea of using constellations for the top ten brief. Constellations are made up of minimal forms and simplistic shapes that I think would work really effectively when creating an after effects video. The lines could create an interesting use of movement and perspective...

Constellations are formed of bright stars which appear close to each other on the sky, but are really far apart in space. The shapes you see all depend on your point of view. Many societies saw patterns among the stars with gods and goddesses or stories from their culture.
Most of the constellations with which we are familiar come from ancient Greece. But other civilizations created their own patterns in the sky based on stories and people that were important to them.
Because of the rotation of the earth and its orbit around the sun, we divide the constellations into two groups. Some constellations never rise nor set, and they are called circumpolar. All the rest are divided into seasonal constellations. Which constellations will be circumpolar and which seasonal depends on your latitude.

The stars of the main asterism within a constellation are usually given Greek letters in their order of brightness, the so-called Bayer designation introduced by Johann Bayer in 1603. A total of 1,564 stars are so identified, out of approximately 10,000 stars visible to the naked eye.

images:

SPIN/video2

video2 so far...

i wanted to grasp the concept of timing with depth as obviously the spin rate & spid will change with distance:

spin/1 from Frankie Roberts on Vimeo.