OUGD202 Evaluation

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

I think I have managed to get to grips with and make use of quite a wide range of After Effects’ potential tools. Whether this was in the silent movie brief where I used lighting effects for the first time and learnt about nesting compositions or in my best and worst brief where I learnt about using expressions and editing to a sound track.

I have also developed skills with iWeb in this module, I think the main thing I can take from iWeb is understanding a websites navigation structure better and how to organise information to make it logical and easy to use. I also have a greater understanding of file sizes and how to optimise images and video for the internet.

Another skill I have developed during this module is how to manage my time best and also understanding how I work best. I have realised I don’t work well in the evenings and I work much better at college than I do at home. This has meant long days in university working and relaxed evenings where I can unwind and not think about work, so I am fresh in the morning.

2. What approaches to generating work and solutions to problems have you developed and how have they helped?

I think I did some really good quality research over Christmas, which started me off on the right foot and gave me lots of ideas and potential directions for this project. Once I had finished my research I started to sketch out a lot of ideas this helped me develop a large quantity of visual ideas and pick out an appropriate solution quickly.

Another positive thing I can take from this module is being quite disciplined about decision making, I think when I have come to a point where I have to choose which direction to take my project in next I have made my decision quickly and stuck to it. This has definitely helped me work towards appropriate solutions more quickly than I have in the past.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

One of my biggest strengths during this module is that I have been able to understand and pick up new software relatively quickly I think this is particularly important with After Effects because there is some much to know and so much that could potentially go wrong. I think the fact that I picked up After Effects quite quickly meant that I could utilise a lot of different aspects of the program in my final solution to make a more varied and interesting animation. It also meant that I was able to work more quickly and efficiently. In the future I would definitely like to consider animated or web based solutions to briefs.

During this project I think I have been able to decide on a direction and generate a large quantity of work, which I can pick an appropriate solution from effectively. I want to take this mentality and way of working forward into my future projects.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how could you exploit these more fully?

One of my weaknesses with this project was not leaving myself quite enough time before hand in to get everything exactly as I would have like it. If I had had time I would have liked to make a sleeve for my DVD so that it could have been presented more professionally. There were also so final changes to my animation, which people pointed out during the most recent show-time that I would have liked to address if I had had time.

The pacing of my animation wasn’t quite perfect again I would have liked to address this if I had had time.

I think I can be quite disorganised with the way I work, in the future I would like to be more structured and disciplined with the way I save my files.

5. Identify five things that you will do different next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

• Leave more time at the end of the project for final changes and improvements.
• Be more organised with the way I save my work.
• Experiment more with the Effects tools in After Effects.
• Improve my storyboarding.
• Work with sound to a higher level.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

Attendance - 5
Punctuality - 5
Motivation- 4
Commitment - 5
Quantity of work produced - 4
Quality of work produced - 4
Contribution to the group - 4

Final Piece

This is my final piece for the Top 10 Best and Worst Brief.

A Couple of Things

Neither of them particuarly related to my projec but oh well.


Saw really cool stop frame animation, It has loads of cool ideas in it and is really nicely done. I would have liked to do some stop frame animation for this project,


Also a friend showed me this really cool iPhone ap which I have subsequently downloaded called for all seasons. It kind of reminds me of a guy who was doing some really cool stuff with kind of cascading running typography and cutting out huge posters of tiny point size type, whos name I've completely forgotten.

More Test Pieces

Here are a couple more test pieces from this afternoon.

With this first test piece I wanted to animate the pedals so that they looked like they are turning and the perspective looked correct. I also put the handle bars and front wheel on a seperate layer and moved the anchor point so that it is easy to animate and make the bars look as though they are turning.


This is a very early test piece for number 1 the timing is about right but I'm not really happy with the sound and colours so that will be a problem I have to solve soon.

Test Pieces

After spending this morning completing the storyboarding of my entire 50 second title sequence I used this afternoon to create a few quick test pieces. The title sequence is for an E4 program called Great British Bike Rides.

With this test piece I was seeing how I could animate a bike. I put all the moving parts on separate layers in illustrator, then when I opened the file in After Effects it was relatively easy to make them all move by rotating them around their anchor points. Mike showed me how to add an expression, which is basically a piece of code, that meant that all the movements would loop and basically go on as long as I decide to make the composition.



With this piece I just wanted to see how easy it was to sync the speed that the wheels turn to how fast the bike moves across the background.

Here I was seeing how easy it was to make a 'rolling road' so the bike could remain stationary in the frame and the background would move. I used the same expression code on the background so that it would loop and keep going for the length on the composition.

Bike Videos

I have been looking at some bike related videos and animations.


You will probably remember this orange ad. Technically its way out of my league but in terms of mood and tone of voice I really like it, I might consider a similar feel for my animation.


Cool bike animation probably made on after effects.


I really like the way they have animated hand rendered elements on this, probably using a program like after effects.


This is a cool stop frame animation where bikes put themselves together and take themselves apart again, I would really like to do some stop frame animation and was considering doing it for this project.

Research

So I've conducted a few different types of research for this best and worst brief. My chosen topic is BIKES. The first thing I did was to go around York and photograph 100 bikes, here I have catagoriesed the 10 best and 10 worst.

Here are the 10 best

10 Worst (CLICK TO VIEW LARGER)


The next piece of research I did was to obtain the list of bicycles available from a local bike shop, Cycle Heaven, I then catagoriesed 100 of their bikes from best to worst and traced all of them. In order to differenciate between the best and worst bikes on the stock list I spent only 10 seconds tracing the very worst bikes going up, in incriments, to 5 minutes to trace the best ones.

This is one of the worst bikes and only took 10 seconds to draw.


This is one of the best bikes available in Cycle Heaven and I spent 5 minutes drawing it.

All 100 bikes (CLICK TO VIEW LARGER)

Top 10 Bikes with their specs. (CLICK TO VIEW LARGER).

Research

In my research I looked at some vintage bicycle adverts, I think they are very rich source of visual research. I really like the typography on them, they have some great illustrations which are very much of their time and they are all fairly witty and entertaining.

Over 100 bike related postcards


Here are my personal top 10:

E4 Idents

There are a load of E4 stings/idents on youtube I get the impression a lot of them are amature entries for for the competitions E4 run, but some of them are really good.


This is an amazing piece of stop frame animation, I'm suprised it didn't win, or maybe it did it seems kind of familiar. The sound works really well with the movement and altogether it feels really professional.


This is a nice idea and well executed, I hate that music though.


This is a very cool reworking of that iconic Channel 4 ident.


Conceptually this is hilarious I actually loled a little bit. However the execution feels a bit amaturish, it is clearly an entry by a student for the E4 competition. I think a good, witty concept or idea is probably the most important part of a good ident, the implementation can be quite simplistic and it can still be effective.


Cool ident for channel 4 uses some interesting blending effects.


Ident for more 4 which I think is awsome, apparently it was made in after effects.

I couldn't find some of my favouite E4 stings on you tube but you can watch all of them on the E4 site Here.

Done, done and done

This was a test piece for the word absorb. I animated lines that I had made in illustrator to move into the centre of the word gradually turning it to black, the idea had come from some of the early thunbnails that we had done in the workshops. I am pretty happy with the overall effect.

This next video is an earlier version of my final piece I was fairly happy with it but I felt that the way that absorb turned into boom didn't work very well and also I had used Ariel rounded as the typeface for 'boom' because I wanted to keep it consistant with the typeface I had used for absorb, but I didn't feel this worked as well a Geist which I had initially used for boom.

This is my final piece I managed to iron out all the little niggles I wasn't happy with on the previous version, and I got the timing bang on overall I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

Story Board

This is the story board for my final 10 second clip for the silent movie brief.

Boom

This is my animation for the word 'boom' I animated 10 BOOMs separately all of them spinning and flying in different directions to give the idea of an explosion.

I've also been experimenting with lighting effects. they give 3D layers much more depth. This first video hasn't got a lighting effect applied to it.

This second video does have a lighting effect applied to it, it gives it a more realistic 3D feel. I'll probably use a lighting effect in my final piece.

Test Pieces

I have been working on the transition between "confused" and "absorb" I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and I stuck to my timeline and what I had planned fairly well. The pace on this particular video might be a bit fast.

I then tried to used a camera layer to follow the path as it spelled out "confused" but because I had nested several layers, when I tried to zoom in the quality really nose dived. Also because of the pace that the line moves at the camera feels really jerky and unpleasant. I think I can safely say this was a fail but at least I learnt something doing it.

Confused?

I made a few more animations on after effects, my main goal was to see how I could animate a path, I am fairly happy with the results but want to see how i could take it further.

This was my first attempt the arrangement of the typography doesn't really convey the idea of confused but I was just experimenting with animating a path to create the type.

This was my second attempt I tried rearranging the letters to make it more "confusing". Although I don't know if I've rearranged then too far and the word has become illegible.

This is my third and I think most effective attempt, I have rearraged the letters to convey the idea of confused but the word is still fairley legible. I like the way your eye follows the line.

YOU TOOB

A nice video inspired by Jackson Pollock made on after effects

Amazing video about global warming using only typography. Gave me loads of ideas on how I could use typography creatively in our current brief.

Another cool video using type as image.

Some people have some seriously crazy skills with after effects. really well done, subtle but really cool looking and effective.

My Animations

These are the first 2 animations I made in the After Effects workshop this morning. Nothing very advanced, I was just experimenting animating simple shapes.

BMX

When we were given the design for digital media brief this was one of the first things I thought of. Its the intro to 2003 Odyssey BMX video. I really like its lo-fi feel.

This is an amazing animation by Studio MK12 for a song Sleeping Beauty by Funkstorung. If you watch one thing on this blog watch this! You can check out their show reel on their site by clicking here, Awsome.

Title Sequences

This is the title sequence for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang created by Danny Yount.

Brilliant title sequence for Steven Speilberg film, Catch Me If You Can. Great typography.

Storyboards

Today we started story boarding for our After Effects animations. They have to only use type and we are only allowed to use 3 colours. I was just coming up with some basic ideas of how I could get the movement of the word to relate to its meaning.