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.