Week 4 - Out Of Class

Above is the sketched out storyboard I created in my sketchbook. I drew out 30 frames in total and estimated that it would take about 42 seconds. I would like to use the panning/ camera effect in my project and was not sure how to portray it, so I used solid arrows and included detailed notes. Below is the digitalized version I created in illustrator. This version has the backgrounds, colors, and typefaces I would like to use. 

Week 4B

During the in class mini critique it was suggested that the red was too harsh and a yellow was suggested. To the left are the screenshots I did with the quick color change. I do agree that this works better; it is more readable and almost has a glow to it. We did debate which composition worked best but it all depends on how the motion works out. The lower is a more dynamic 2D piece but would it be confusing in motion? That is something I'll need to address during my process .






The rest of class was spent developing my story board in my sketchbook. So far it has been more thought than sketch.  So much of it will be done out of class.

Week 4 - Out Of Class

This is the poster we had to design for our quote. This is the first draft I did in illustrator. I chose two fonts that represent Disney and his achievements which he references in "new things" part of the quote.  I thought the colors did not draw attention away from the words and I felt that they work together well. I chose the background based on the fact that it seemed aged and added texture that worked but did not over power the design. It also adds depth, which I thought worked.

I have done multiple versions of this design.

 This is version 2 with slight differences including turning the word 'backwards' backwards and turning the word 'doors' downward to act as if they are waving back and forth. These are two movements that I would like to include in the actual motion project.  I was not sure if I was suppose to include them in this part so I made a second version.

This is the same as the first with the exception of the color scheme. I changed the the background to blue because the light section of the background and the white reminds me of Cinderella's Castle in Orlando and the red is a good contrast.

This version above is the same as the second one just with the new color scheme.

In this version (the fifth one) I started to play with the scale of the words and stacking.

In this sixth and final version I took the scaling and position even farther to make a whole new composition. In my motion portion I want to be able to pan out and allow the viewer to read/see the entire quote and the end which is why I did not go with this layout from the beginning. I do feel it is more dynamic which is why I was unable to choose one

Week 4A

The quote I plan on doing for this project is:

“Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” 

- Walt Disney

This quote is very inspirational to me personally. It is something I look to and read when I feel defeated. When I read the quote we realized how many motion words are within it, so it will be a great quote to use for this project.

During class we walking around to look at everyone's rhythm projects. I showed my Flash Firework motion piece to the class. We got the information for the next project and the exercise prior to it. I found my quote which is above then started working on designing the poster in class.

Week 3- Out of Class (2)

While working outside of class on Thursday I had to switch computers, between the ejecting my flashdrive from the first computer and putting it in the second, my flashdrive became corrupted  I did what I could to fix it but there was nothing I could do. I had not had the chance to save my files from that day's class so I had to start my Flash portion of the project over. By the end of the night I got to about where I had gotten that day. So the beginning is very similar to the last post's video besides the slight path changes since I can not recreate it perfectly nor did I want to since I have since revised it.

Today I finished and revised my Flash portion. I moved paths around so it was less chaotic which allowed it to be more readable as suggested. I made firework larger than the rest; this was also suggested to me. To choose which one I watched a few videos of firework shows, this helped me with timing and the pop of each one. Also, I took the suggestion of adding more than three. I added one additional one on the end to break up the rhythm and to break it up visually this last word does not have a streamer on the end of it unlike the others, which was also a suggestion. I did not add more because I felt this worked best with the loop and it seems continuous and it had a rhythm which was the assignment. It is also a very different rhythm from the After Effects piece.

I mainly used motion tween in Flash and not classic tween. The motion tween was so similar to After Effects I found it much easier to use since it had the diamonds within the timeline that I could move. 

Week 3B

In class today there was a small tutorial in the beginning to give us a better understanding of flash before we started on the second half of the assignment. After that we had in class work time to work in which ever program we wanted to work in.

I worked on the flash portion of the assignment and the video above is what I got done in class. Originally during ideation to be different than my after effects piece I was listening to classical music and instrumental since the other part had a pulsating beat of music like pop. I ended up listening to instrumental music of a fireworks show I had on my ipod. The actual rhythm of the music was too complex to illustrate in such a small span of time, so I thought why not instead create rhythm out of fireworks. The boom and crack of fireworks create their own rhythm as does the shapes they make.

I was able to receive feedback during class which included adding a few more fireworks on the end and maybe adding a few in the background without streamers on the ends. I plan to work on these suggestions out of class.

Week 3 - Out of Class

Today I worked on my rhythm motion project in after effects. I showed Paul what I had done in class and he had suggested that I make the type turn together in two sections instead of individually. So I applied that change to the first half of the word and the second half then saved it separately. Once I decided how they would entered I left the beat how I had it during class then mirrored the entrances at the ends to create the characters exits. This allows the video to loop correctly.

After I viewed the video in its entirety I felt that the beat in the middle section was not reading well so I went into the timeline and at different points of emphasis I made the scale get even larger. This change helped a little but it still was not working as well as I hoped it would so, I opened the timeline again and revised the beat to be simpler. This revised version is at the top.

In the video I used all of the transform tools in the timeline with the exception of anchor point. The only time multiple tools are used is at the entrance and exit. During the middle only scale is used so the composition does not become too chaotic.

Below is the Video on youtube

Week 3A

In class we viewed a few of the Dreamscape projects and guessed their meaning. Also in class there was a quick presentation on Rhythm and Motion, in which we learned about our next exercise. The next exercise is to take the word rhythm and create rhythm out of it. The first part is in after effects.

So far my idea is to have all the letters starting around the edge of the frame, flipping together to make the word, entering in different ways, pulse as if to a beat or rhythm, then flipping back out so it can loop correctly. Below is a screenshot of what is looks like with the R,H and Y animated; they are currently at the 'large' part of the pulse section I discussed above.

Week 2 - Out of Class

I read over my dream post a few times to really get the feel of it. During this I wrote down words that came to mind then I searched for textures that, to me, represented these words. Once I felt like I had enough I started working in after effects. Below are the textures I started with. From there I first placed in all of the textures and put them at about the duration I wanted them to be at then I added the text. I chose the font American Typewriter because the idea/ dream is based off a book I read before bed, so I thought to reference that in my type.

After choosing the duration of the text and adjusting the duration of the textures to coincide with the text I had finished my first draft of it. I asked a few of my classmates for their opinions. First it was suggested to change my first few opening textures because they did not reflect the words well enough, "they did not pack enough of a punch". Secondly, it was suggested to re-do the last frame's colors to better reflect the word. I applied these changes and asked others and they felt it worked. Below is the second draft.

The multiple colors in the beginning represent the colorful lights of Disney World at night. The awe and wonder that was felt just being there. The fading of these wonderful colors is what I used for the word confused because it's like the happiness is fading. Then the unease begins to set in because I see the villainous characters and I feel watched so I used the repeating words to display my flurry of emotions. I also used a texture that I felt was uneasy and had a lack of color to create contrast with the beginning emotions. Then I used verbs to create tension during the chase scene of my dream. I used a picture that had a pavement texture to it to give the feel of pounding of pavement. Finally I made the final frame white with the word to represent waking, to represent a change.

Week 2- On Campus Event

Today I attended the talk on campus where Joshua Buckwalter spoke. He is creative director of the company Inovat and is the President of AIGA Central Pennsylvania. He started with telling us that his career out of college did start with him having “crappy jobs” which was sort of refreshing and scary to hear. It is refreshing because I feel that for most of the design talks I attend they talk about how they landed all of these great jobs through all the connections they have. This is scary because being a sophomore in college; I do not have many if any connections.

 He discussed user experience and user interface and the difference between the two. Being a User Experience Designer consists of a large amount of skills overall, while being a User Interface Designer is more about prototyping, aesthetics and interface design. He explained in detail two case studies from his career, Engine Yard and 403 Labs. Through these case studies he showed as many different ways to get needed information from clients to create overall better designs. These included giving them many descriptive cards so the designers would know what the company thinks of the product and what they want out of a web site. Another exercise he mentioned was giving the clients a scale of formality to fill out. This is another beneficial way to get information for the people a designer is working with or for to understand what they think of their own company.

Lastly, he talked about AIGA and what a great resource it is. He had mentioned in the beginning how after he joined AIGA how much it helped him in his career. This is because of all of the events they offer, job postings and the fact that in general it is just this great community for designers and budding designers. As a whole I found this talk very useful to my future career especially when he mentioned all the job fair-like events that were being offered just this semester.

Week 2B

The class viewed four peoples' projects on the projector. Then as a group we went around to view everyones. The picture on the right is of the feedback I received. My word was Indecisive; group two thought scared/ hesitant, group one thought shy and group four thought reserved. I feel that all of these guesses were fairly close. What I could have done to make my word more obvious would be to have the line turn and then turn back more in the video to show that it can not decide. Next in class we learned how to export and upload our projects. We covered some basics in After Effects. Then wrote about our dreams (in a separate post). Then we got to start on the Dreamscape homework.

Dreams

One time I dreamed I was in DisneyWorld at night and I was walking around and it was like completely dark so it was like really creepy but I could get into rides. I read a book about Disney after dark before bed one time so I think this is where it came from.

 I was in all different parks so I would walk through the castle and be in Animal Kingdom and I was getting lost because no where made sense. The characters were walking around on there own and the villains were in the shadows and I was trying to stay away from them but one of them saw me so like soldiers and animal soldiers were chasing me but every time I turned I was in a different place and someone different was chasing me so I ran to the island. I hid in the fort and shut the door. They ran into the door and starting pushing on it so I laid on it...then I woke up.

Week 2A

Today I watched and took notes on the given videos of the After Effects CS5 Training.  Some interesting things I learned was how to bring in illustrator documents with its layers into after effects so I can manipulate the layers separately. Also, I learned about after effects interface and the five basic transforms which are, anchor point, position, scale, rotation and opacity and how to manipulate them.  The pictures are of the notes I took while I watched the videos.