Jude Lowes Graphic Design

Module Evaluation

Essentially, Overall, I feel like this module could have gone better, more productively, and had a much more interesting and different outcome. There are a number of reasons for that; but that said it has not been all bad and there have been positive points.

I feel like the choice on which medium to use was perhaps the biggest wrong one, as I am not overly familiar with after effects, and although i picked up a lot of really useful techniques and ideas in the sessions, i think creating thirty seconds essentially using only a program that you do not know as well as you should isn’t a great move. I feel like it would have been better to pursue the stop motion approach. Initially when i did early tests i preferred the way AE generated content looked; smoother, cleaner and more ‘animated’. but as time went on it began to change from looking like that to me to looking plain and overly simple. I feel that stop motion would have brought a more individual and less flat look to it, more charming and less plain.

I think i definitely should have taken advantage of drop in sessions more and asked for various bits of after effects to be explained in detail rather than trying to work them out myself, as even though i find it easier to remember how elements of programs work when i have worked them out myself, i think i was in over my head on this and it would have been quicker in the long run to ask to have things explained.

I also feel that this after effects generated style of animation made me much less experimental. I had an idea, basic means to create it, and I just moved forward step by step doing each bit til it looked right rather that doing drafts and improving bits after the benefit of seeing a full version.

I don’t mean to be all negative about it. I am happy with how much of the program I learnt to use, and as with any project, I think if i were to be given the brief again now, after encountering the problems and mistakes the first time round, and with the knowledge i now possess of how to approach this, it would be much easier, and i would come away with a result i was much happier with and that was better finished all around. And in the end I guess I am happy about the finished product. It doesn’t look like I would have wanted when drawing up storyboards and ideas, but it carries the same idea, and with more time and better methods, it could look like the final product i would have wanted it to.

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Final Animation

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second line changed color, and sped up to double speed, so that it can appear from off screen and catch up with the initial line, before pausing for a few beats, falling back, and beginning again in time with the blue line. it then disappears downwards off-screen after merging paths briefly. i feel like this fills part of the empty feeling gap that was left on the blue track between the curve and the loop, and to fill the second part of it i intend to bring in the green third track which will come on screen upwards and then follow the blue around the loop.

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second line lowered this time, so that it disappears off screen downwards after crossing over and merging for a few moments. i feel like this works better as it makes them more individual, and with the second line changed color-wise, they wont clash into each other.

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addition of second line on the curve. the overlap works nicely. the second curve just sort of jumps in. but it needs to come inwards from the edge, however for it to start at the edge and catch up to the same level as the initial track it’s going to have to be moving at a faster speed, either at 1.5 or 2 time the speed… i also want to mess around with having it at a lower hight, so that it can slowly even out off screen, and change the colour to orange as used in the storyboard.

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full thirty two-ish seconds of animation, of blue track only, with music. from laying it all out i can see where i need to bring in other colours to fill long areas and blank spaces, and the end needs to be slightly abrupter to fit with the music stopping.

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full loop with blocks moving back as they advance forward. i feel like this fits the prior established movement style better than just having the blocks appearing forward with now backwards motion. i feel like it’s a little jumpy at the moment, but with a second loop in another color added that should change hopefully, or i’ll make adjustments to it.

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loop, with background removed, and the forward movement in groups of six squares implemented. this works, and continues the style that has been built up so far, although i need to work on making the blocks move backwards as the loop moves around, to fully continue the style that has been built up to this point in the animation.

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Loop Dynamics

I drew up a loop background in photoshop divided up in equal segments, although when i started adding in blocks I chose not to stick to these drawn segments exactly, as that would make the blocks too far apart. currently i’m not entirely sure how to make the blocks follow the circle around.

at this point i feel like the blocks will have to leave the left side of the screen and step out into the centre to follow the circle around, otherwise it will either not work or there will be far too many blocks on screen and too many tracks to be manageable.

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i decided to have the track even out at about mid-hight and then drift downwards before sort of ‘clunking’ onto a resting level, showing a little bit of vibration as it evens out onto a completely flat surface. at this point, if the animation ends on a full circle as planned, it leaves a slightly awkward amount of space between it evening out and the circle beginning, which leaves a good amount of room for another coloured track to come in and add something at that point hopefully.

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