Summarized Position Statement

We had to take the position statement we had created about ourselves and shorten it down into some main bullet points. Below are my list:

1. Diverse Designer

2. Being part of a working team

3. Want to be pushed by other designers and vice versa

4. Customer/Client/ brief care is important to me

5. Creating a functioning relationship between both designer and client is also important to me

6. I want my work to represent me in some way

7. Want to engage with people that are as interested in design as i am.

8. Want work to be original

9. Want to have some strong type based work

10. Love print based work - packaging etc

11. Interested in branding

12. Type drive and layout driven

13. An organised and methodical designer

14. Want to gain as much experience in different areas as possible

3 Magazine layouts

EVALUATION

Robyn Russell OUGD202

BA Graphic Design

Evaluation

TOP 10 FICTIONAL PIRATES. 

I have throughly enjoyed this module. There have been so many things that I have learnt and will be taking with me to future projects, and hopefully beyond. Firstly one of the things that has improved dramatically within this project is my organisation and time management skills. From day one my main aim was to keep on-top of my work and blogging. This is because I knew not only did I have this module but other modules running too. I have learnt that by keeping on top of my blog and keeping it focused meant that I knew what I was doing and where I needed to be going. I am very happy with this because I feel I’ve finally realised how to utalise my blog in the most efficient manner. 

As I began with the research, my main aim with it was to have a broad range of specific research relating to all things pirate, as that was my chosen topic. I wanted to be as informed as I could be. My intention was to get as much done before I started designing so that my ideas and inspiration could just spring broad on from there. This is exactly what I achieved, throughout the project I was able to just dip back into my research wherever needs be and I could find the soloution/inspiration I was looking for. By sorting this out early, meant I had a lot more time to spend on understanding the software I was working in and coming up with design ideas.

I have developed a new range of practical and conceptual skills with this module. Apart from my new found and hugely improved time management and organisation skills, I have also become quite confident in the ways of mastering After Effects. I made sure that I was constantly testing, incorporating and developing my skills in the software, either checking through workshops I had done or pushing the skills I had already picked up. By going through this process of reevaluating what I could do and how I could inform myself more, really helped me become more comfortable and confident working with the software. This module, for me, was all about learning and understanding the fundamentals we had been taught and experimenting with them, to find an appropriate solution. This helped me throughout the project, taking this methodical approach, because when problems did arise within my animations it was a lot easier to go back and fix it because I knew what I had done and I understood how to change it without damaging the rest of my animations. 

This project has also helped me push my hand drawn skills and then combining them with my illustrator skills. I haven’t given myself an opportunity to work like this in previous modules/ briefs and it felt good to be able to go back to basics and create something, by me from scratch. It was very satisfying. Another skills that went alongside this was storyboarding. I enjoyed the process of creating the storyboards for my project, the process made me learn to appreciate planning things out before you go to a computer or start designing. This process really helped prevent prevent problems that could have arisen in the future.

Another aspect that I had to utalise throughout this project was the help that was on hand. From either tutors or students. This, I believe, was an important part of the design process. Without being able to ask for help I really don’t think I would have been able to do what I have achieved. The software was complicated, and I don’t think I could have got as far as I did without someone being able to help me out here and there, along the way. 

One thing I have learnt while working in After Effects, is that you need to be completely versatile and flexible, this is because there are some things at the level I am, you need to realise that there were some things that I wouldn’t be able to do. Due to the time period we had, and the lack of skills we had. This then lead me to work out the next best thing I could do creating the most appropriate solution to the problem. 

There is a very specific design process that I feel I had to stick to, to create my animations. That was truly understanding the concept before animating (storyboarding process), getting to grips with the animated components (creating assets) and then working through the animation in a methodical manor. I know this worked well for me, because not once did I lose or misplace a file. Nor did I become stressed about the animation itself. Again being organised and methodical I think was one of my biggest strengths throughout the whole of this project. There is nothing I left to that last minute. I know that throughout this project I have really put the hours in to keep on top of the work and keep it focused. By taking my time and staying in control, has meant my project has run smoothly. 

I think the only weakness within my project was possibly the professionalism of the videos, but that isn’t from the lack of trying on my behalf. I think this is just sue to the lack of expertise in the software. However, I do intent to use this software again in the future and hopefully that will improve the quality of the videos. I am very happy with my outcomes though because I know I have thrown my best work at them. 

There are a lot of things that I intend to take from this project. Firstly I know I have come out of this module with a new and improved working ethic that fully suits me and I know now benefits my work. Secondly, I intend to work more on planning my projects in the future, so that they are thought out and therefore, just as with this project, I can utalise my time more efficiently. Another aspect of this project I intend to take on in the future is working in after Effects itself. This will not be the last time I use the software, I have seen the capabilities of the software and I intend to use it in future projects for promotion etc. 

If I were to re-do this project, I don’t think there is anything I would change. I believe there are more things I can do in the future, because of improving my skills on a week by week basis. 

I only hope in future projects I can get as much enjoyment and satisfaction out of it, as I have done with the project. 

Final Title Sequence

Final Title Sequence
I am really happy with how my title sequence has come together. I started it bit by bit so that it wouldn't get too complicated too fast because there were a lot of separate animations running at the same time and it would have been easy to get confused and therefore the animation wouldn't work. By separating it into chucks i could work on separate areas and if something needed tweaking it was easy to go back and find what the problem was. One of the biggest problems i had with this whole sequence was working with the map background in 3D. My concept was to have a huge map and then using the camera tool move around it to different areas so different animations could happen. However, this proved to be problematic as the map was scaling too large and i was loosing a lot of detail. So this did take up some time fixing. However, once i had overcome this problem, the rest of composition seemed to just slot into place like a jigsaw puzzle. Because i had run every separate animation using different compositions bringing them in with the nested composition was a god send. Again this meant that i could work on individual parts of the animation without worrying that it would damage the rest.
As for the fluidity of the piece, having it run smoothly was very important. As it was continually moving, i had to make sure there was movement happening at all times with different paces so that it would correspond with what was going on. generally i think i have succeeded here. There is not one part of the animation that completely stops, and there is enough time spend on the important elements so the viewer has time to read and compute what is going on. The time management within the whole composition was very important, i had to break down the specific areas that needed to most time and then work around with the rest of the sequence. Once i had worked out an appropriate time line, this was very easy.
I am very happy with the style of the piece, i feel it really communicates the idea of a hand drawn map, which is very symbolic of pirates. This was the main focus of my piece.
I have really enjoyed putting my title sequence together, its been a really good experience and taught me more than anything th organisation at is the key to having a successful animation.

Final idents

Here are my final idents...
It was important for me to have a level of consistency across my idents, as i knew i was using different assets to my title sequence. But as long as they were in the same style and illustrating pirat(y) things then they would be consistent.



Ident 1.
Above is the first final ident. I am happy with its function, it does what it needs to do, which is inform and entertain. While keeping the viewers engaged. This animation is simple, and it doesn't have a lot of elements to it making it easy to follow. The concept of a message in a bottle is good, because it relates directly to pirates and the tales of old about the. I am happy with the colour too, although it is different from the other animations i have done, i feel this did actually need it. Overall, i am really happy with the animation, it does what I set out for it to do.





Ident 2
This is the second Ident animation that i created. The concept being around the interaction with the type and the cannon ball. I kept the same ship to link with the other idents and title sequence, keeping a level of consistency. I had trouble with this ident because it was hard getting the ball to move in a natural way and interact with the type effectively. However, after working out my problems this ident actually works quite well, i believe. Again the concept itself is quite simple, but it has a visually pleasing effect. I like the interacting with the type and the cannon ball and i think it adds something else to the title without it just being a plain reveal of the title. Its something different to the other Idents i have done.



Ident 3.

This is my third ident, and its focused on playing with the perspective of the ship. I really like the concept behind this ship ident, it moves smoothly into the foreground. It was hard trying to get the effect of fog across the ship and it parting, but having played around with it a lot i finally got the effect i wanted. This was one of the harder idents to animate, because there were a lot of separate elements i needed to animate in order for it to look smooth. All in all thought i am very happy with the outcome of this ident. I think the audio compliments the erie feel i am trying to create with the visuals too.



Ident 4
Lastly, my fourth ident. This is my personal favorite. I think its because its so simple, that it really works. With this ident i just took elements i had already animatd and pulled together the best concepts, in my opinion. One thing i am really happy with is the font at the end. I hadn't used many other colours throughout this project, so it was a good chance to practice reversing out. As i said, this is one of my favorite idents and i am really happy with how it turned out.



I think throughout these idents/title sequence and project, there are a lot more things that i maybe could do in the future. I found that as i worked through ideas, it was hard judging what i could do and what i couldn't for the lack of knowledge and experience in the software. So i found towards the end of the project i was coming up with a lot more complex ideas that i could do in the future, and thats because now i can actually think and work out how i would go about doing things. It's a bit of shame that this project has ended so early because i feel i was just becoming good and efficient at working within After Effects.

Packaging with Printed DVD

As we weren't able to print on the discs in the mac suite, we were able to print on stickers and then place them on the DVD. Its only meant to be a mock up because the discs can't actually be put into the DVD players on the macs. What i did do before i put the sticker on the disc was test the DVD. I put my first folder of my final animations on the disc and then tested them on 3 computers in the studio, my laptop (which was a little judery but thats because its slow).

So, once i had put the sticker on i then placed the disc with the rest of my packaging. The images are below.

I placed the packaging on a light coloured background to best show the contrast to the packaging. The packaging works on a whole because the colours work together. It was key for me to have simple packaging because it mean's everything is on the disc that you need to know. 

What i do want to do is take the images with candle light to give it a more authentic feel too it. 

Bottle Ident

Final Ident 1 from Robyn Russell on Vimeo.


After my crit on Wednesday, people thought it may be a better idea to add a blue hint to the animation, just giving it a clearer feel of it being water. At first i was a little skeptical about this idea, but after i added the colour i can see now that it does actually work. It adds to the style of the piece without detracting from the main animated points. It adds to the feel of the animation and looks a lot more visually pleasing.

DVD Cover for print

After choosing the DVD cover and selecting the type that i am going to put on my DVD, the final image is below.

Admittedly the colour is a little bland, but thats the reason I picked it as i have mentioned before. I am really happy with the design because it will blend well with the packaging and it says exactly what needs to be said without over complicating it. By blending the style of font with the packaging and product itself again links them both together so they become a packaged deal.

The next thing to do is get the DVD printed to see how it will actually look, if i remember correctly the printer in the mac bubble is fairly accurate with regards to colour and accuracy with regards to detail. So hopefully this will work well.

The only other idea i have had is to add an asset i have used in my animation just to give it something else, so i may put on the image of the skull so it has a little more to it. 

DVD covering..

DVD Covers...
Because in a previous module last year i had learnt how to print on DVDs..I say learn't i went to the bubble and they printed on the disc for me. However i am going to use the same technique to print on the DVD discs, the discs have to have our name and module code on them. So using the font that i have already created for this project i intend to put the information in the same style and then have it printed on the disc.

Organisation

Fred pointed out that it would be good to reference how we have kept on top of our after effects and how organising has helped. With this project has been huge and there have been sooooooooooo many files, in a variety of different formats so keeping on top of them has been THE most important thing. So the best idea for me was to keep them all organised within one file.

I kept them all within distance so it was easy to access them when i needed them.

Colour coding helped me recognise which was which, and as the project got on i got

used to being able to recognise the files by colour. 

This is the images of the inside of the folder, each in separate 

folders with their corresponding files. 

These are all the projects i have used throughout this whole module,

from the first silent movie to the current. again this helped when importing 

files and opening new projects. 

It was fundamental to keep all my vectored images together

so that when it came to importing they were on hand and nothing got lost. 

That then meant that i wouldn't loose any files when creating animation.

which was a big plus.

Another important part was making sure all the scans that i had

created from drawing my assets were together so that i could go

back to them at any time. 

This is file made for the videos that i have created, there

are quite a few so it's important to keep them organised so

i knew what i had done and what to do next. I could also reference back.

All of this organisation has really helped me keep on top of this project, which Fred and Loranie made perfectly clear that it was very important to keep on top of this from day one. 

Ship Fire Ident

I have altered certain aspects within this ident that i wasn't very happy with. I decided to change the cannon asset to a ship, it made more sense to the viwer to see a ship instead of cannon. I know that the title would later explain what it was about but i think it needed to be more obvious from the beginning. By adding this ship it also corresponds with the ship used in the title sequence, linking them nicely together.

I used the pairing tool to keep the same position and motion and switched the

cannon to the ship. This mean't that the rest of the sequence wouldn't be

disturbed by my altering a small part. The ship stays well within the title safe, that is

because i only wanted to give a hint as to what it is, as the ship later

appears in the end sequence so theres no need to show the full asset twice.

I also changed the camera angle from the original so that

the title is larger and appears more on the screen at the beginning.

This makes it clear and easier to read and understand whats going on. 

As the cannon disappears of the far left side at the beginning,

it falls back onto the screen in a more direct way then the previous ident.

I also altered the way the cannon falls down giving it a more natural feel,

loosing momentum and interacting with the type. 

I also altered the way that the ball rolls around the type.

Before it was bouncing slowly off the type, instead this time

it just rolls downward, again giving it a more natural feel.

Editing around the ball landingon the S was key,

because i didn't seem to quite fit because it was too big

and obscured the S. So i shrunk it slightly and then moved

the motion so it was more fluid. 

The ship at the bottom isn't quite in the title safe so i need

to pull that up.

But generally i am really happy with this ident now, the transitions between frames are smooth and it still remained fairly simple. I may add lighting to the sequence so that it is similar to the others, but for the moment i am happy with the outcome. 

Side Ship Ident 2

With this ident, i am already happy with the whole sequence but i decided to add lighting too it. This is because i wanted to give it the  illusion that the sun was coming up on the boat as it moved across. This also added another interesting element to watch. Seeing as the sequence is faily simple, it just gives it another depth. I also added the smoke coming from the cannon, again adding another natural feel to cannon fire.

Here the cannon fire moves up and across the ship. 

It is quite faint, but it adds more to what a ship fire would

actually look like. You can't really see the smoke on the

smaller screen grabs, but you can see if you click on the images

By pulling the cone of light back it gives a faded edge

to the final title of the ident. The ident then looks

like its got a little fade to black on the edges. 

This is a nice effect because it feel like its wrapped around

the cannon ball. 

Ship Ident Edit 3

I had to heavily edit this ident. The movement of the type and the ship wasn't working at all. I wasn't sure how to get the movements to move at the same time so that it just appeared it was all moving together. 

So i decided to try and parent the layers. This actually worked but there were certain things that didn't work, the layers were still scaling too large for the size of the ships sales. So i had to go through each layer and edit accordingly. Now finally all they layers move in one go and it looks like they are part of this ship.

With the screen grabs above, i have taken images of they key frames where it illustrates he motion happening and how the words stick to where the ship is moving. This has actually worked a lot better then i though it was going to, i thought it would be harder to parent the layers. I did take me a while how to work out what was going wrong, but once i did it was quite easy to fix. I really like this animation now, its simple but interesting to view. 

Title Sequence - Top 10

I have altered the way the Top 10 is laid out in the last frame. It just seemed to centered, which didn't really relate to the images and type that is in the rest of the sequence.

I decided to skew it slightly, like i had with the 

'channel 4 productions presents'..

I think it adds more to the piece, especially with the

altered hierarchy you instantly read 'Top 10 pirates' 

and then the fictional after. This is good and intentional

because i want it to inform immediately and the fact they

are fictional is added information. 

I also altered the timing so that it will hang over the last

frame with the Top 10 in it for longer. This is due to the crit i had

on Wednesday where they rightly pointed out that because it was the

title it needed a bit more time on it.

This was fairly simple to do i just edited the camera pan to happen a little

later and get to the next key frame faster.

Overall i think this looks a lot better, it now has a level of consistency. 

Title Sequence - New Edits

I have now pulled together my new beginning of the title sequence. I have edited quite a lot, so its important to see that they all work well together and that nothing has been lost or missed out due to the edits. I have taken screen grabs illustrating the new changes. Generally now i am really happy with the first 2o seconds of the animation, i think its all working together really well. There is no unnecessary time over lay or boring bits, there is now something constantly happening keeping the viewer engaged and interested.

This screen grab illustrates the new animation with the ship

and the cannon. 

These two screen grabs illustrate the new transition and timing of

the map lines entering the frame. I am very happy with this now.

This shows the new fast paced animations. And the gap

that the type would be shown in. You can see it better

in the animation video.