Guilty Unicorn
Motion Graphics

Guilty Unicorn is a motion graphic piece that acts as an introductory sequence to a kid-friendly YouTube channel. The video features fun colors, exciting actions, and rigging to create a whimsical work.

Overview

Guilty Unicorn is an animation project created using Illustrator and After Effects, incorporating the Duik Ángela plugin for character rigging—a feature not natively available in After Effects. This marked my first experience with both rigging and animating a horse walk cycle, making the project one of the most challenging I’ve worked on and one that took several months to get to where it is.

Process

The journey of Guilty Unicorn began the spring of 2022 and was intended to be a logo reveal. As I was a beginner to animation, I decided to animate the unicorn using a frame-by-frame approach with the pen tool on after effects. Though the end result of this endeavor was successful, I wasn’t fully satisfied with it. In addition to this, due to using the pen tool to alter paths, the shape within would be poor rendering. After months of trepidation, I was finally ready to try a new approach in Winter of 2023. To streamline the process of rigging, I chose a simpler illustration style that would allow me to focus on mastering the animation techniques without getting bogged down in complex visuals. The project also required a carefully selected typeface to complement the playful tone of the animation. The appropriate typeface was “Nove”, which has a blocky, rounded appearance that adds to the whimsical and fun aesthetic of the piece.