Singapore-based digital illustrator Ellen Winata has shared her process for creating ASCII-inspired animations. The tutorial, which utilizes After Effects to make it easy for anyone to follow along, has garnered a lot of attention on her social media.
ASCII art is a form of digital art that uses characters to create images, and in this tutorial, we'll show you how to combine it with animation to create a unique visual effect. The entire process is accomplished through a simple combination of effects and iteration, and is designed to be easy to try even for beginners in video design.
The first step in the tutorial is to create a basic animation in grayscale. We then use the 'Stylize > Mosaic' effect to give it a pixelated effect and enable the 'Sharp Colors' option to make the color boundaries clearer. This is followed by applying 'Keying > Extract' to extract only the desired color gamut based on brightness values.
The key is to create a separate square composition for the ASCII-style icons and repeatedly tile them over the mosaicked base animation, using the 'Stylize > CC Repetile' effect to overlay the icons over the entire animation, and the 'Track Matte' effect to reveal the icons based on the brightness value of the base footage. The result is a moving pattern of letters and shapes that creates an interesting visual effect.
Winata recommended experimenting with different variations of the style while tweaking different settings, a technique that not only creates a visually striking look, but also lends itself to being applied to large amounts of video content with a repetitive structure.
Ellen Winata is an accomplished illustrator who has worked with Adobe, Clinique, Samsung, Net-a-Porter, The Times, Shake Shack, and more. Her work is often noted for combining a digital sensibility with a sophisticated visual language, and this tutorial is no exception.
ASCII animation has recently gained popularity in digital art and motion graphics as a way to capture both creativity and technical playfulness. This tutorial by Ellen Winata is sure to inspire many designers in this trend.
