top of page
5af7d379370133.5ce2e484d8045.png

Amadeus SkyCAST by Optym 

5af7d379370133.5ce2e484d8045.png

Amadeus SkyCast by Optym

Overview

​

Amadeus SkyCAST by Optym is a machine-learning airline network planning forecasting system. My challenge was to animate a world where every network planner in this industry relies on this system, to demonstrate it's value and need to the industry. Doing so through compare and contrast scenes, a futuristic-like environment, and very lively animated characters. 

​

The most in-depth asset for this animated video is the Sky Mandala. You can see my process and some behind the scenes in creating this wonderful animation at the end of the page. 

Role & Duration

​

Project Lead

​

Storyboarding, motion design, animation, and script direction. 

​

​

Team of four animators, two designers & three writers.

​

​

Sept 2018 - April 2019

​

Final Video

Storyboard

​

We started with a script review and brainstorming session where we threw around ideas for a story to showcase the product. We then took the best of those ideas and turned them into a storyboard and animatic. This allowed us to figure out timing and staging for scenes, as well as  informed us on what assets we needed to create.

dbfed479370133.5ce3034b61e2c.png

Fig. Scenes 1 - 5 of storyboard

Illustration

​

With this video, we updated our design sensibilities. We went with a cleaner, more simplified look, while keeping our Opytm flair. This required creation of all new backgrounds and props, as well as some fun Easter Eggs.

32bad979370133.5cc0cedb42c1e.gif
be61b279370133.5cc8a8d75c80f.gif

Animating the Mandala

​

The Sky Suite Mandala design draws inspiration from several sources, including the Golden Ratio, the Golden Spiral, Sacred Geometry, orreries and, of course, mandalas. It is one of several mandalas, each specific to a different industry. The Sky Suite Mandala is specific to the air transportation industry, and includes people traveling through airport security, their luggage, and the planes that transport them. The main shape is a hexagon, which reflects the 6 different Sky Suite applications.

04_Sky_Mandala_storyboard_Kelsey_Page_2.

Fig. Scenes 1 - 5 of storyboard

First Pass at animation

​

After recreating the design, I began to animate in black and white. Doing this allows me to first focus on the reveal and movement of all of the elements in their own compositions. I will later invert the colors and apply the cosmetics in the final, high-level composition. You can see that I began to steer away from the storyboard a little. Most of my creative inspiration come in the moment when I hit "the flow." I embrace these random sparks and apply them as I see fit, while sticking to the important business requirements like "Optym | Amadeus" being the first element revealed.  

Behind the scenes

Recreating the Photoshop design in After Effects for animation.

​

The original design of the mandala was made between Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Because of the heavy amount of Photoshop effects and smart objects that linked back and forth between the two programs, I decided to recreate the entire design in After Effects so I could have full control of the vector shapes and properly apply similar effects that couldn't carry over from Photoshop, like inverted colors, and RGB splits. This was a very time intensive, detailed process. You can see about a month's work of work sped up to three minutes below.  

Kelsey Wilkerson 2018

bottom of page