In the Kitchen!

Motion Design
Overview
"In The Kitchen!" is the title of a collection of 4 microanimations designed for an Introduction to Motion Design course. The brief required that every one of the microanimations belong within the same theme or context. This collection aims to highlight the fun interaction between kitchen appliances and food!
Timeline
2 Weeks
Tools
After Effects
Illustrator
Team
Solo Project
Early Moodboarding
Much of the inspiration I had in creating this microanimation collection was from 1950s era kitchen appliances as well as some meta modernism. I found the more simplistic yet colorful palettes to add a nice pop to my animations without being overwhelming. The appliances themselves are also minimalistic especially when looking at the toaster or the blender which was heavily inspired by the Osterizer Model 403 from 1953.
Early Storyboarding
Blender (Loader)
This microanimation was a lot of fun to create as prior to this project, I had never had the chance to work with masks in After Effects. The process of creating this loading animation  included animating the falling fruit into the blender, closing the lid, and switching on the blender all before the loading could officially begin. In terms of potential applications, this feels like a pleasant loading screen while paging between different website sections.
a short loading animation that displays two orange slices dropping into a blender that fills up the blender with juice to display progress
a short animation of a switch that shoots a piece of toast out from a toaster when switched on and reinserts the toast when switched off
Toaster (Switch)
The toaster felt like the perfect switch having it's natural verticality when the toast it cooks is ready. The execution here was straightforward aside from the challenge of tethering the toast within to the switch for a synchronous leap. This microanimation feels like it could be used for a light/dark mode switch on a cooking website especially with toast being more associated with breakfast and daytime for a light mode experience and hiding back in the toaster for a dark mode experience.
Egg Crack (Button)
The concept for this microanimation felt so simple and yet the execution required the most time out of the entire set! The egg itself required 3 separate components (the top, bottom, and egg yolk) and required my crack animations to be timed to the taps on the bowl. Overall, while this microanimation has a less direct application, it creates a small easter egg moment of joy for a user navigating a cooking website.
a short animation of a button that picks up and cracks an egg into a bowl when pressed and drops a new egg into a nearby egg carton when pressed again
Rolling Pin (Loader)
The rolling pin was a unique challenge as it required morphing the small ball of dough into a rectangle at a much greater scale. Thankfully, the rolling pin was straightforward although matching it to the edge of the dough was a bit of a challenge as precise timing was required to perfectly hide the edge. This microanimation would serve nicely either for a cooking website's paging loader or a loader before reaching the home page of a pizza delivery app.
a short loading animation of a rolling pin rolling over dough that spreads out to form the progress bar
Final Reflection
Creating this set of microanimations was a huge learning process as I gained a brand new understanding of not only animation but also the potential inputs that can initiate an animation in a digital setting. I'm extremely grateful for this short but fulfilling project. If I could change anything about my project, I would try to experiment with other kitchen appliances and color palettes. I would also try to ground myself more with additional constraints such as a providing a real client with an existing website.