So It Goes

Screen Based Communication Rationale

It was a challenge to learn After Effects and to create my drawing board as an animation. I have learnt a lot on this unit just by using the program for hours and hours every day, believing that there was a way to achieve whatever I wanted to do. I found the internet tutorials very useful and I now feel competent in both Flash and After Effects. On a couple of occasions I settled for an effect that did not match my original idea, but after watching the rendered animation I realised I had to make it just as I had invisaged or I would not be satisfied.

After showing people what I considered my finished animation, a number of concerns were raised. Although my dots were always on a 3D plane, on several occasions my text was not, which ruined the dynamic of the piece. The colour scheme of my text was also raised as an issue, and after experimenting with different colours I decided that I would need to have a specific reason for the colours I chose. I had previously looked at road signs to possibly use in the animation, and with the black and white it seemed logical that the other colours I used would be red and green, the colours used for road works signs, particularly 'stop' and 'go'. These colours work much better, are much less obtrusive and easier to read. Another issue that was raised is the font I used. I did search extensively before deciding on Kenyan Coffee, which I chose because it was simple yet slightly stylised. After my animation was near complete I did try other font choices but I still believe my original choice was best.

Another issue I found difficult was sticking to the timescale. When designing a storyboard for the animation I was not aware of how long it would actually take, which meant I had to cut out a section. It is also hard to work out how long text should stay on the screen for, for it to be readable. I overcame this by getting several people to read the text and taking an average of the time.

The tone I had chosen to take for my animation actually became quite difficult to define, as potholes are a problem as the statistics confirm, however on the scale of issues that I could have chosen, they are not particularly high. I had decided to take a slightly less serious approach using bright colours and minimal shapes, however as I progressed I realised this was not necessarily appropriate to the subject matter. It is something I will need to consider much more in any future designs.

Potholes

Four Designers

After a slightly shaky start, (getting to London later than planned after a 5am start and hectic rush hour tubes) we managed to sneak into the auditorium just in time to see the beginning of James and Stuart, from Thoughtful design company's presentation. Their talk was very well thought through and was entertaining as well as insightful. They have worked closely with students in the past and had some really good advice for putting ourselves out there to gain work and enter into the industry. Secondly Lise Brian spoke about her background as a designer.

The next day began with a talk from David Kester, Chief Executive of the Design Council. David's talk looked at design from a perspective based mainly on functionality and how important design is focusing on how design changes has helped save lives for the NHS.

Secondly Simon, Gary and David from SomeOne spoke, they belong to a design group of fifteen designers and base their work around enjoying what they do as much as anything else. They talked controversially about the logo and considered that it is now unnecessary, as much as I can see where this point is coming from I do not agree with it entirely as I believe in many cases logos are still important in company branding.

Finally Mike Dempsey spoke. It was very interesting to see how Mike's work had changed throughout different times to fit with the then style. He did not initially study art, but instead ended up taking evening classes later in life and managed to get where he is by working hard and taking every opportunity, which I found very inspiring.

Although I am now absolutely exhausted I do think it was worth the journey, we were given many useful tips in getting a placement and it was interesting hearing the way in which Design companies work.

Okeford Fitzpaine Allotment Group

Above is the final logo design for Okeford Fitzpaine Allotment Group. I have used a plant like shape making the letters flow into each to create an organic form.

Pothole Gardens

I am doing my statistics animation on potholes and whilst researching came across the artist Pete Dungey. The pothole gardens are part of an ongoing series of public installations highlighting the problem of surface imperfections on Britain's road.

Pete Dungey says;

'If we planted one of those in every hole, it would be like a forest in the road'.

After Effects

After researching different animations I decided I definitely prefer those done on After Effects, they seem more creative, interesting and flow much better. However, when I mentioned this in a tutorial I was told that there was not need to use After Effects as my animation could easily be done in Flash. I considered this... but being stubborn and never one to take the easy way out I decided I would still try After Effects and compare this to Flash.

I did a short section in Flash using the screen of holes scrolling across and then did the same thing in After Effects. Mind made up.

So I am now trying to learn After Effects, after thinking Flash was daunting I clearly had no idea... After Effects seems to use several similar tools as Photoshop but with a timeline. It is taking a long time to learn each technique I need to create my animation from the storyboard, however so far it seems quite accurate. 10 seconds down... plenty more to go.

Video Game Motion Type

Above is the ending credits to Portal with the Still Alive song by Jonathan Coulton. I really like the way the screen is split, showing the credits on the right hand side with graphics below and then the lyrics scrolling down the left as they are sung.

There is also a good kinetic type video for the same song, I like the simplicity of this one using mainly black and white with very simple images.

I Met the Walrus

In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced him to do an interview. 38 years later, Levitan, director Josh Raskin and illustrators James Braithwaite and Alex Kurina have collaborated to create an animated short film using the original interview recording as the soundtrack. A spellbinding vessel for Lennon's boundless wit and timeless message, I Met the Walrus was nominated for the 2008 Academy Award for Animated Short and won the 2009 Emmy for 'New Approaches' (making it the first film to win an Emmy on behalf of the internet).

This motion type is fantastic, the mixture of realistic images like the tape recorder combined with some beautiful ink illustrations. This animation flows so well from beginning to end. The mixture of realism and animated images is something I would like to use in my animation making the car look realistic against the background of black holes.

Typographic Animation

I absolutely love this animation. It is done on After Effects using just typography. The way it only uses black and white is really effective and the use of letters is a really great idea.

Psychedelic

I was pointed towards this advert because I'm hoping to go in an almost psychedelic style for my final animation.

I really like the way this advert is done, the shapes merging into one another and evolving. I would really like my animation to do this, seamlessly moving from one section to the next.

Bournemouth and Poole Councils

In research for this project I contacted Bournemouth and Poole Councils to see how the road conditions had changed locally to see what statistics I could find there.

The person that contacted me back said that there had been extreme changes in the conditions but they were hard to quantify, however they did state:

'In Poole we have compared our works requests for carriageway repairs for different years and months and note an approximate increase of 100% for last February (2009) and this January (2010) than for "normal" winter conditions. These were the two months when particularly adverse icy conditions existed on the network'

I have now arranged a meeting so will hopefully find out some more information.

Storyboarding

I have finished my storyboard now and have clear in my head where I would like my animation to go, and how it will be visually. I am concerned that It is not rhetoric enough. I know that the brief states it must be clear what the animations stance on the particular subject matter is, however I have not stated this explicitly. I end the animation with a car falling down a pothole, in my mind this shows that potholes are not good and something must be done to get rid of them but this may be something I need to adapt.

Stop Motion

This is my first stop motion animation. Within groups we put together a set of photos using objects we had on us. The rabbits kick the egg to each other then towards the camera. I really like this technique and although it is time consuming it seems so much easier than using Flash but unfortunately this style does not work with the topic of my animation.

Today we also looked at importing movie clips and adding sound to the animation.

Visual Culture Essay Mark

Yesterday I received my mark back for the Introduction to Visual Culture essay on Semiotics. I was really pleased with it as I had not previously received much feedback, so I was unsure which direction to take it in. I got a lot of feedback this time written on the essay so this should help me for my next essay. It is unfortunate that the essay was due back the first day back after Christmas and that I was not given the option to have any individual tutorials on this essay as that may have helped me further my mark even more.

I found this module useful and in the end did actually buy Malcolm Barnard's 'Understanding Visual Culture' as I think this will help me in future.

Woman

Kinetic Type

I have decided that motion type is definitely something I would like to use so I have been looking into this more.

The video below uses a really interesting technique that looks like paper cut outs with hand drawn typography in a scrap book style. I think this method makes the animation appear much more personal and creative.

Another motion type animation I like is the 'Live Out Loud' shown below. Although this is short the way it matches the sound with the visuals works well and the simple use of colours is effective.

Film Openings

I have been looking at several film openings and end credits. The ones that caught my attention were Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho made by Saul Bass. I think the typography works really well for this and I find it quite haunting, it is also very influential for the time it was created. I have also looked at Casino Royale directed by Martin Campbell, the opening credits designed by Daniel Kleinman. Kleinman was inspired by the cover of the 1953 British first edition of Casino Royale. In creating the images he digitalised the footage of Daniel Craig and the film's stuntmen on the Inferno Visual Effects System, depicting intricate and innovative card patterns.

However, the one I liked most was the opening sequence to Catch Me if You Can. I really like the simplicity and the minimal use of colours.

Where The Wild Things Are..

This is a quote from the film Where the Wild Things Are. I tried to make the texture to look like fur, I'm not sure this has worked that well though.

Flash Progress..

Second lesson of Flash we tried to animate objects, so this is my strange man going backwards and forwards. I'm beginning to get a hang of the basics and it isn't as daunting as I had thought it would be.