The main reason behind this project was to take a simple vector image that seems 2D and animate it in a simple and interesting way. This image was in a newsletter as a free vector stock graphic from shutterstock.com.
I broke it apart in Illustrator for the various parts trying to keep the original design as much as I could intact while making it easy to animate. I built a simple rig that allowed me to easily control the wheels spinning, their visual spinning appearance, the handle bars, and the movement of the bike. I created a similar rig in C4D for the 3D bike as well. I did however forget to flip the visual appearance on the wheel in the render so the wheels look like they’re spinning backwards(which is how they look in real life).
In addition I used some expressions in AE to link the location of the bike with the bouncing ribbon so that it always stays on top since there is no way that I know of to parent it. I did this using a linear interpolation property in AE and Xpresso and spline point linking in C4D. The rest of it is just straightforward animation.
I did some research on this type of bike and according wiki it’s a women’s roadster bike. I recognized it as a dutch (European) bike for some reason and the name it has in the Netherlands is Omafiets (“grandma’s bike”) which is where I got the text for the title and the name of the project.