ForceX Software Factory

The goal of this project was to illustrate what ForceX does: turn software into products and solutions that assist the warfighter. I wanted to build something that could be shown to anyone (literally anyone), and they’d walk away with at least a very basic understanding of what our company is about.

But, I must admit, this was a passion project. Nobody asked me to do this. My manager would come over and ask me countless times what I was working on. It took me a while to get people on board.

I was sifting through motion design ideas that could be implemented at my current company, and this one really struck me (illustration by Josh Warren).

I was mesmerized. And I thought that I could at least attempt to replicate it.

I really didn’t storyboard the motion graphic until AFTER I had finished the illustration (I know, it’s crazy - probably couldn’t get away with that again). But nevertheless, my initial sketches laid the foundation as to what the composition of the whole project would look like.

For the illustration, I wanted to use a color palette that was within the L3Harris brand guidelines (with a little tinkering here and there, of course). Having a consistent look throughout the project was crucial. I chose to house everything in a thin dark navy stroke for a few reasons. I wanted to maintain a small element of playfulness. A, “yeah, we’re a tech/defense company, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously” vibe, if you will. The other reason was that just laying multiple shapes with gradients would look chaotic and get out of hand quickly.

So I finished the illustration, intentionally leaving out elements, like the little squares on the conveyor belt, that I knew would be just easier for me to create in After Effects.

But there was a problem.

I had used a ton of gradients. An ungodly amount of gradients. And if you know anything about Illustrator and After Effects’ relationship, you know that AE doesn’t read gradients directly from an AI file. Bummer.

So I employed the use of BattleAxe’s Overlord plug-in to help read all the gradients into AE and preserve everything as it was in Illustrator. I jumped through a few hoops to get there, but I got there. I was ready to start animating.

Here are literally what my notes looked like:

First, I just dove head first into the micro animations on the vehicles. I figured it would be the hardest and most tedious work, so I wanted to get it over with early. Plus it didn’t really influence the rest of the project’s timing which was nice.

Next, I started by making the conveyor move. That was the basis of all of my timing for the entire project. It was so crucial and would dictate how everything else animated.

Then, I worked on shooting out the 0’s and 1’s and looping those so everything would be seamless. It was the same with the vehicles. As long as the numbers and vehicles had the same position keyframes, and they were timed properly, everything would go smoothly.

Finally, I finished out all the other micro animations that were based on when specific vehicles were at specific places on the treadmill. The little lights, screens, and smoke were touches that I think really gave it the playful vibe I was going for.

I was really excited when I was told this motion graphic would be played internally on our Sharepoint site and would be on the TV Loop at our office. It was going to get exposure initially from our employees before I released it into the wild (the internet). Everyone received it really well. Are there elements that probably aren’t super accurate? Sure. I know that an AC-130 wouldn’t scoop up a pick-up truck Expendables-style in real life. But the point was to illustrate (and animate) in a very basic sense what ForceX does: turn software into solutions that translate to helping troops.