OUGD202 Self Evaluation

This Module was the first experience I had of designing for screen; it was a learning curve in terms of using a new program and new time considerations such as rendering and uploading/converting. Before this module I was adamant that I wasn’t comfortable practicing motion graphics, it was too technical and that digital media wasn’t my style. However, after the first brief [silent movie] and several tutorials with Mike, it became clear that bringing motion to still images wasn’t too complex or out of my capabilities.

Skills Acquired/Developed

Obviously the biggest skill I can take away from this module is my new knowledge of After Effects. I can now navigate the basics and animate assets and manipulate them how I want them to. If I were to go back to the silent movie brief I think I wouldn’t find it as challenging as I did at the time, I struggled at first to understand controlling key frames and manipulating the given words. I don’t think I was confident with applying some of the tools that I experimented with such as the camera or using 3D layers. If I was to go back I would apply these techniques more confidently, I think I made the mistake of keeping things too simple and not challenging myself enough, but because I was handling new software I went for the safe option.

Storyboarding was the biggest skill that I developed, producing ideas quickly and communicating them fluently onto paper. The storyboarding process made visualizing my ideas easier, especially when working with moving elements. I’m really happy with how I developed the speed of generating ideas and transferring them onto storyboards. Translating ideas to visuals is something I've discovered I'm comfortable doing. I found out that even putting weak ideas down helps the process of developing concepts and ideas and getting the weakest ideas out of the way tp concentrate on the stronger ones.

The final stage of the module allowed me to produce packaging for the DVD. I felt that I hadn’t fulfilled my potential in the print module and wasn’t happy with my final packaging, so I wanted to use this opportunity to produce a really nice piece of packaging that I was proud of. The packaging that I ended up creating was based on a book and I think it was relevant to my subject. [top ten Brothers Grimm fairy tales] I also applied techniques that I regretted not using in the last module such as foil blocking. Although I enjoyed making the packaging and using the foil blocking process, I didn’t give myself enough time in case something went wrong, which is exactly what happened, I made the book before I printed on the canvas so the foil blocking process went wrong, but it wasn’t a complete disaster as I did like the final outcome even if it was accidental, all of which went towards developing my crafting skills which I’d like to progress with.

Strengths

In the top ten brief I really felt comfortable story boarding and communicating my ideas. In the crits I got positive feedback on my concept and the direction I was taking my ideas in and I was also happy with the tone and atmosphere that I created in the videos mainly the background elements.

I also think that the idea behind the packaging was strong and that I’d like to redo it and possibly use it in my portfolio. Finally I think I’m improving at annotating and commenting on my design practice blog, something I’ve struggled with in past modules, but I’ve found that it benefited me when looking back on my ideas and progression.

Weaknesses

I feel that technically, my videos aren’t very strong and that I should of applied more effects or added more motion to the characters and how they walked.

Even though I’m improving every module my time management is still not at a level that I’m happy with as it greatly affected the standard of my videos. I also spent several days on my image module which is much more time than i should have spent.

I think this module has made me realize what kind of designer I want to be and what I want to practice. Although I’ve enjoyed learning new skills and software I still don’t think that motion graphics is something I want to pursue. However I think that it was important that I did a motion graphics brief so that I was able to experience a different discipline.

Final Packaging

> My Packaging was inspired by the format of my top ten, Books. The Brothers Grimm made their trade from writing and publishing their stories in Books. I chose to use Baskerville as it looks and feels mature and in the right context, aged.

After making an error in producing the book before foil blocking I was adamant that I was going to scrap the whole thing and produce a new one from scratch, but with time restraints and utilising time to manage after effects and blogging I decided that the finished product wasn't as bad as I first thought. I can take away from this that I now know to print onto the woven material first and also a new technique and effect which I can apply to book design//

CD Packaging

> The foil blocking process didn't go as smoothly as intended, because I'd made the book beforehand when we put it under the heat press the PVA glue melted and came through the woven material//

> The nice people in the print room let me have the foil for free and so I foil blocked the remaining area of the cover so the mistake wasn't so obvious. The result isn't too bad, it isn't what I wanted but in terms of time I'm happy to use this as my final packaging design//

CD Design

> I decided to take elements from my animations and use them to design the cd. I think it works well with the book and relates to the videos.

Final Version of Title Sequence

> Final Title sequence done, happy with how the musi works well with the atmosphere and tone of the animation.

OUGD202 FINAL IDENTS

Rapunzal Ident

> Just finalising the Rapunzel Ident. Needs a solid layer at the start to fade away and possibly tweak the timings but other than that I'm quite happy with this.

Little Red Cap

>The final version of the Little red Cap Ident//

Red Riding Cap (Hood) Before Final Edit

> This is almost complete, I just have to tweak the timing of the wolf's position, he moves into view too early and starts animating halfway through.

>Unlike the other idents, I needed the character to stop walking (on the spot) and move with the environment and allow the other character (the wolf) to move into view as if Little Red Cap had stopped walking as soon as she saw the wolf walking towards her.

> I retimed the positioning a little so the wolf comes onto the screen just has the limbs start to animate.

> To sync the movement of the wolf with it's limbs I moved the centre point of each limb to where I imagined it to be connected to the body (as if it was a joint) and altered the rotation over time. I also applied the puppet pin tool, which I had been experimenting with and found that I could place pins on the legs where the joints would be and move the legs as if they had natural movement. It still isn't as fluid as a real moving wolf but I think the effect gives more life to the animation and is as realistic as a silhouette is going to get.

TV Channel

> Channel four do amazing documentaries and top (insert number here) type programs but I think the channels audience is too broad to fit my literature based program//

> More Four however are more serious than channel four and do have an audience that would be interested in a program such as mine//

> BBC however has been praised for it's literature based documentaries so I feel that my program would benefit more if broadcast on this channel//

sleeping Beauty Final Ident

>Not completely happy with this one. Most probably because I tried animating it from a different angle which didn't work as well as I'd hoped. I'm going to return to this soon and experiment with the camera and see what effect that gives me.

Sleeping Beauty 2D Layers experiment

> With this version instead fo using the 3d camera tool I adjusted the scale key frames of each layer and moved the anchor points so that the image would appear to zoom into the screen in the right position and as if the camera was moving away from the objects. It was a lot easier and quicker to edit this way compared to converting layers to 3d and applying the camera tool, I definitely preferred this technique.

Sleeping Beauty 3D Camera experiment

> Here I converted each layer into a 3D layer and experimented with the cameras. The effect was good but I took a long time getting to all the elements where I wanted them to be so I decided to experiment with 2D layers and adjust add in key frames, adjusting the scale at different stages.

Hansel and Gretel ident

>Almost complete just need to tweak the two characters movements at the end of the video, the background stops moving so it looks as if Hansel and Gretel are walking on the spot//

> I decided to fade the bbc four identity at the bottom of the screen, well within the title/action safe guides and be constantly visible through the rest of the video.

> This is the 1st and possibly only Ident that I'm going to use type in, I decided to use a script typeface to fit with the Grimm brother's theme and incorporate a handwritten calligraphic type.

Organising Workspace (Pre composing/nesting)

> I found that animating separate scenes started to fill up my workspace and it got a little over crowded. So I started to consolidate related layers into separate compositions making it so much easier to edit certain stages of the title sequence and along with colour coding the compositions made it so simple to navigate through my files.

Character colour

> Grey works well with the environment, not too dark not to be seen and not to bright so as to take attention away from the characters surroundings.

I really want the environment to be as important as the character and still be able to distinguish the characters features and not be lost in the background and I think this colour option achieves this.

> White comes out really well, brings out the character in all it's detail and sets it apart from the background. However I think it's too bright for the tone that I'm trying to achieve.

> Filled with black the king's son disapears and can hardly be seen at all, so I think I definitely won't go any further with this choice.

Images used in my videos

> These are the images that I vectored from my drawings then imported into After Effects. I tried making them as simple as I could without losing their distinctive characteristics.

Music choice

Philip Glass - It was always you, Helen

I chose this song to use in my videos because of it's chilling melody. It's a song that I can imagine being scary but enchanting at the same time similar to how the Brothers Grimm stories are meant to be.

More Drawings of Assets

Open publication - Free publishing - More elements

H&G sting with music and ident

> I've now added music to the sting along with the BBC FOUR ident although I have still to animate Hansel and Gretel. To make the Identity and program schedule info work I've also placed in two shape layers that fade in and out, these layers start and finish the video making it more smooth and allowing the white type to be visible at the end//