OUGD203 Module Evaluation

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

During this module I attempted to do another animation piece for the Together brief. The last animation module wasn’t much of a success for me, but it was something I enjoyed doing and wanted to do again. For this I had to build on my animation skills refine the way I keyed in movements, making them more smoother and natural, aswell as timing this to background music. I feel this shows through well in my animation for the Together brief, it is much more refined and enjoyable to watch, than what I had acheived previously.

I also worked with experimental hand-drawn typography for this brief too. For the ISTD brief I created a set of 2 typographic posters that work very well as a set, especially the ‘One Love’ poster. For this I had to use knowledge of type that I had picked up when learning about set and compter type, and apply this to illustrated type. This involved measuring up and splitting shapes into grids to draw the type into. Overall I am very happy with that project.

For the Faber&Faber brief, I had to design book covers for a collection a film orientated line. For this brief I had to blend visually engaging design, with certain elements of practical design, such as the design for the front and back versus the spine. The front cover is something to grab the audience’s attention what at a book store, to get them excited about a book, but the spine is a practical element that needs to show it’s users what it is on a shelf full of other books. I also had to take into account more practical sides of design. Because I was desiging a wrap-around covers, things like bleed for the edges when cutting and trimming and leaving extra space for the extra milimeters or so that corners cause so the jacket fitted correctly had to be accounted for.

2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

For this project I was looking at research from various different source and using design principles found in all of them to help design something for a brief. For instance I was using the video from a computer game to demonstrate how I wanted my cover to take influence from.

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

My biggest strength in my work has to be with type. I take into consideration points like clarity versus aesthetic, when not to go overboard and scramble a message, what sort of font to use for a certain format. I am beggining to get knowledgeable of a few certain type faces, how to use then and when to use them. I also feel I have good layout skills. I think layout is one of the most ciritical parts for design and I pay alot of attention to it.

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

Presentation - I believe I would benefit from a better organised, catagorised and and annotated group of pre-liminiary work. I often leave this till the end and I often don’t have time to change it.

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

Better Project Management - While I am happy with what I have produced, final resolution-wise, it was a push towards the end to get it done in time. I also did not leave enough time toorganise my pre-liminary work organised and sorted.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:
(please indicate using an ‘x’)

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

Attendance: 2
Punctuality: 3
Motivation: 3
Commitment : 3
Quantity of work produced: 2
Quality of work produced: 3
Contribution to the group: 3

Together Animation - Final Piece

I decided to keep the one animation idea and this is the final piece. I've smoothed out some animation issues, such as some of the un-organic movements with the clouds. I have also added background music to the piece: Au Revoir Simone - Backyards Of Our Neighbors. I worked this into the animation by timing certain movements to the beats in the song, such as the rising of the hills, of the flow of clouds to the piano. I think this song is really fitting for the animation and works with the calm feel of the piece.

Together Animation - Combined Idea

I had the idea of combining the to 2 ideas of the black and white animation and the colour animation into one video and to give it more of a narrative. I also thought this would give the juxtaposition more impact. I think the it works well and has allowed me to do more technical bits of animation, such as increasing saturation to throw the animation from greyscale to colour. It is quite a slow paced, calm animation which fits really well the the message it is delivering to it's specific audience (16-25 year-olds).

Together Animation - Alt. Text Animation [Version 2]

As I am trying to make the text in my alternative video flow like clouds, I decided to take a different approach. I split the paragraph of text down into single words an decided to animation them flowing like the clouds. Due to the complexity and many layers involved, I decided to do this as a separate composition in after effects than can be inserted as an already animated layer in the main composition. This took more work and timing, but I think this method is visually much better, and more readable.

Together Animation - Alt. Text Animation

This is an alternative to the other text animation. It is to work with the greyscale animation that is running alongside the colour one. I want to try, like I have in the other, to connect the movement of the text with the movement of the clouds (or windmill in the case of the other animation).

Together Animation - Text Animation

This is a test piece experimenting with text animation. I want to connote that the windmill turning is almost like 'cranking' the text up. I think it works quite well.

Together Animation - Cloud Test

This is another initial animation, intended to run alongside the other animation as a juxtaposing video. Demonstrating the movements of clouds.