Storyboards 2

Today i created some more storyboards related to my words, based on the session we had with Fred. I PDF.ed them because i didn't want to scan them all into the blog and post them one by one this way they are more organized and you can see my thoughts. Again these sketches are pretty basic, as are the ideas but it is giving me a grounding within each word to expand on. As i work through them i am finding more and more that i really like the word disperse and click. They are a lot more interesting to work with and I have more ideas around them then compress. I want my designs to be simple, but at the same time interesting to look at and i feel further development in the initial designs will get me there. I still have more that i have been doing but these are my initial ideas.

In the next blog post i have selected and annotated my favorite designs from each of the words, these are the ideas i am going to take on further and develop and start looking into adding more frames in order to work out how the word would get there in the first place and how it would end, just like Fred suggested we do it. I really like employing this technique because it had helped me understand my words more and the process of creating storyboards. As well as the storyboards i have been practicing with After Effects and now working between the two you can really see how they work together, because the idea of creating something straight on after effects without having any idea of what it is i want to do is quite daunting as i don't know the software.

More After Effects

Today I had another attempt at creating an After Effects sequence. Again its really basic, but im going to keep trying with it because i don't want to forget how to use the software because i know it's going to get more complicated. So far i really like working with after effects, its nice being able to create something and then have something to show for it, other then something printed that you can hold. I know that understanding the basics and having a good footing in it will really help me in the future, so i am going to keep trying with the software as much as i can.

As for what I have produced, it is really basic, just a couple of squares dancing around but its helped me work out how important Key Frames are and what the process is around them. It still needs some serious tweaking in order to make it smoother, but i think that will come with time. I think i am probably going the long way around doing things and there are maybe some easier ways to do them but at the moment i am working through everything step by step. Below is just a screen shot of what I have been doing, and how i have worked across a variety of Layers in order to create my piece. Its a reminder to me of what i have done and how re-create it in the future if i choose to.

Square movements mark 2 from Robyn Russell on Vimeo.

After Effects Workshop

Square Dance from Robyn Russell on Vimeo.


This is the final sequence that i produced with my dancing squares. This was really useful, because it has helped me put into perspective what i can actually achieve. I have done a step by step guide within the workshop which is here, showing how i actually got this far. As this was part of my research i have done it on my context blog.

After Effects Workshop

First Try with squares from Robyn Russell on Vimeo.

Today we had our first introduction to the After Effects software today and this is the first production i did, following the instructions Mike gave us. It was quite tricky at first getting everything right but after a while it was really fun to do. I can see it being very time consuming but ultimately its satisfying seeing what you can produce at the end.

Story Boarding session

Open publication - Free publishing - More story board

Here i have converted my first storyboarding attempt from Fred's session into a PDF file. So you can flip through my initial sketches. They are all work in progress but i have really enjoyed doing it, because it has shown me exactly how i want to work with my designs. They didn't all fit on the scanner so i have cropped the last box's slightly but you get the general idea. I am going to have to do the designs on a smaller A size. My favorite word so far is disperse, i feel i can do more with this but i am still going to story board they others to help with concepts.

Type

Today we had a task to get a range of type faces together for our story boarding lesson we would have in the afternoon. This was a really useful task because for each word it would mean that we had to pick the type face appropriate, to the word. 

With compression i was looking at type faces that were close together or were layered on top of one another. I particularly like the type face with Edwardian Script, it all flows together and looks compressed. I don't want them to be so close you can really read it like the top line. 

When it came to choosing an appropriate type face for click, i went along the idea of technology. So clean and crisp lines. Sharp angles and a clear kerning so that was an appropriate space between them.I really like DIDOT because it is clean and crisp and sophisticated. 

With regards to Disperse, because i want the word to break down into some sort of pixels it needs to have sharp edges. So the more appropriate are the first 3, they can be broken down easily. I don't like the italics i don't think they work as well, because it doesn't really go with what i want to achieve. 

DISPERSE

Here i am looking at the word disperse. I have been working on, with my flip book, they idea of the word breaking down and filtering away so that it disappears. I have been looking at appropriate type faces to break down, which i will post after this. I have used graph paper to break up the image just to give me an idea of the pixel breaking down. This is only rough but it was good to see how it looked, and what i could do with the little squares. I think it works really effectively.