Day of Design Write-up

On March 1, 2014 we had the choice of attending Skype presentations from 2 out of 3 professional designers, and I attended presentations by Aaris Sherin and Jennifer Alrich.

Aaris Sherin is the author of Sustainable Design, which is the subject she mainly presented about. She featured a few people who took simple ideas of sustainability and turned them into successfull businesses. One includes an illustrator from the UK who designed his own characters that were made into stuffed toys, which are part of the fair trade organization in Nepal. Sherin said that fair trade has the most potential because it makes the best out of an imperfect world. I really like her idea of sustainable design, because I believe in going green to protect the earth, and integrating this into my potential career would be very exciting.

The next presenter, Jennifer Aldrich, is a Content Strategist and UX editor at Schoolwires, Inc.She started out with a basic introduction to how she got to this career, then went into the nitty gritty about UX design, which I found to be very interesting. I didn't realize that is is comprised of many different careers, and that it is best to have experience with several different fields of design. For example, a Content Strategist and UX designer edit wireframes to ensure usability of new designs, collaborate with other departments with areas of improvement, conduct remote and in-house usability research with clients, and analyze Google Analytics Data. She also gave other advice such as creating several social media accounts to follow leading industry professionals and start professional networking, don't expect to get your dream job right after college, and don't be afraid to try new things outside of your degree. I have to say it was very interesting to hear what she had to say, and it made me more interested in User Experience design, because it seems to be more of what I would like to do as a career. Of course, I still have time to figure that out, but I will definitely do more research on that field of design to see if it is really what I would like to pursue.

Week 9A- March 24

Today in class, we took turns presenting our logo animations and critiquing others' videos. Some feedback I received was perhaps not using photos, and instead using college-related icons. For the end in which the hat flies into the frame and lands on the "CL"I was told that it provides good visual rest to read the logo.

Outside of Class: Spring Break!

Last week was our spring break, and although I have access to AfterEffects on my own laptop, I am satisfied with the adjustments I made before I left for break. Below you will see my finalized video:

Week 8B- March 12

Today in class, we did a round robin critique of each others' videos. I received alot of feedback for my video, which I applied to my video. I have made the images go slower across the screen, and eliminated a few as well. I even changed the typeface to the one I had in my storyboard and added a small detail at the end with the hat flying in. Below you will see the improved video as well as the round robin comments.

Homework:
-finish logo design for next class, publish to youtube and embed on blog

Week 8A- March 10

Today in class, we were introduced to several different kinds of sound effects websites, then were shown how to use the program, Audacity, which is a sound editing program. I don't think I am going to use an audio file in this video, but its useful to know how to use the program for future projects. Afterwards we were given the rest of the class to work on our project. I completed my video, but I might edit it pending on if I get any suggestions to make it better or come up with ideas of my own. For now, here is what I have:

Homework:
-Continue working on motion design in AE
- Reminder: Project is due when we come back from spring break!! (Mon, March 24)

Week 7: Outside of Class

This week outside of class, I worked on finishing my Illustrator storyboard, and this time I added the photos I plan on using. I also decided on a different typeface, which is called Nord. It is a condensed, taller typeface than what I had before.

I also started on my video, which you will see below. I didn't quite get to the end yet to add "College Living," but I plan on working on it in class. I feel that the photos are moving a bit too fast to be seen real well, but at the same time they need to clear the screen in time for "College Living" to appear. Due to the fact this only should be a 4 second video, I will have to problem solve to make sure the photos are visible enough when seen on the screen.

Week 7B- March 5

Today in class, we critiqued each others' storyboards on Illustrator, and received feedback on them. The classmates that viewed my storyboard seemed to like my idea, and felt that it would look great rendered in video. I even got a suggestion on which typeface I should use for the College Living component that pops up at the end of the video, which would to find one that is more condensed and taller. I will do some research and post my updated storyboard. I will also add the actual photos that I am using in the video.

Homework:
- Finalize storyboard in Illustrator
    - Make sure you have visual continuity in your design
- Begin animation in AfterEffects
- Research animation techniques and test them out

Week 7A- March 3

Today in class, we first grouped together on small groups and critiqued each others' storyboard sketches. Some suggestions about my sketch is to possibly have a camera pan up a stack of books to see CL at the top, or to possibly have a collage of photos from campus  flood the screen to reveal my logo. These suggestions were made because my sketches conveyed the feeling of graduation, when my logo is really about getting through college. Since this logo is used for the app in my other class, I must make it relevant to the idea. It was also suggested to me that this logo could be a sponsor of a show instead of it's own separate TV network.

Homework:
- Finish Illustrator storyboard
      -use time code and symbolic scoring!
      - think about context and where this would appear
      - remember business goals and overall drive of the company

Week 6- Outside of class

This week outside of class, I worked on the storyboard sketch for my logo motion design. I'm not completely confident about what I have so far, though. It begins with the C and L coming in from opposite sides of the screen and bumping together. The graduation cap floats into the screen and lands on the hat, and then confetti begins to fall, with the potential addition of applause. Afterwards, "Television Network" appears from 0-100% opacity underneath the logo. I feel that there is a bit too much going on in this animation, but I will find out ways to improve my ideas in class on Monday. Below you will see the photo of my rough storyboard sketch.

Week 6B- Feb. 26

Today in class, we mainly had our skype session with Aaris Sherin, which you will see the write up for it in a separate post. For the remainder of the class we were shown examples of animations of logos. We were then left to choose a logo for our next project. As I have designed a logo for my Intro. Experience and Interaction class, I have chosen to use it for this project, which you will see below. The basic goal of this project is to create a 3-4 second animation of our chosen logo, while successfully conveying its meaning through the brief animation. I have a few ideas in which to do this, because the CL stands for College Living, which in my other class is an app idea that would basically provide an easier way for college students to keep track of their campus card money amounts. Here I will convey it as being a TV station that provides different shows that help college students live better. Therefore, you would mainly see this logo on a television screen. The idea I have so far is to have the hat float into the screen and land on the CL, and potentially confetti dropping.

Week 6A- Feb. 24

Today in class, we presented our final renditions of the message in motion videos. After viewing other peoples' videos, I began to realize some of the flaws on my own in which were critiqued after my class mates viewed my video. The words were moving a little too fast, along with the transitions, and the animation of the bee was a bit choppy in the beginning. Also, for an unknown reason, a "you'll" twitches as is goes across the screen, which I will have to assess later on to find out why it does that, because after trying to fix it several times it did not work. Overall, people seemed to be pretty pleased with the video.

Week 5B- Feb. 19

Today was basically a work day again, and this time I managed to get most of the video done. For now it is just a rough draft because I plan on adding either a plain colored or textured background that moves with the words. First I would like to get the animation of the wording done before I move on to the background aspect of the video. Just like before, as I went on with using After Effects, I began to learn more of the features. I am still a bit confused about how to use the Null Object feature, which I believe will be helpful when I better animate my bee and have it write the last word, so I will go back and watch the Lynda.com videos and work along with it. Right now, the animation of the bee that I have created is a bit unnatural and will need to be fixed.

Week 5- Outside of Class

This week outside of class, I completed my Message in Motion video on After Effects. I did have some troubles animating the bee, which I eventually figured out by re-watching the videos on Lynda.com. Overall I am pleased with how it turned out, but feel that more effects could've been put into the video if I knew about more of the features on After Effects, which I will most likely learn in future projects. Below is the completed Message in Motion video, as well as the previous videos that I have done so far in this class.

Message in Motion

Rhythm:
I'll admit I had some fun with this video in conveying the different genres of music through the movement of the letters. Each letter's animation is different, which reflects the feel of different types of music. 

Sequential Dreamscape
This video was meant to convey a dream about a friend who had recently passed away when I had this dream. I can remember it being peaceful and foggy, and being surprised by him standing on the bridge. I also remember him repeatedly asking me why I wouldn't date him, and I didn't know how to answer him, so I felt shameful and shocked at the realistic sight of him at the same time. My goal was to convey these emotions through the different types of photos and changing the colors of the words.

Line Emotion
My first project in this class using Adobe Flash, which is the only time we are using the program. The rest of the videos are done on After Effects. My goal was to convey the emotion of being shy through the movement of the line, which was fairly successful according to my classmates.

Week 5A- Feb. 17

Today in class, we critiqued each others' storyboards and began working on our projects in After Effects. In the beginning of class, two people were asked to volunteer to show their storyboards up front to be critiqued by the whole class, and I was the first one to volunteer. Before presenting the storyboards, I showed them my quote, and the class took guesses on how exactly I would convey it in After Effects. Some of the comments were very similar to how I wish to present my video in After Effects, so I feel that I have successfully completed this idea.

Some suggestions were to have a more simplistic bee than the original one I illustrated, a thinner line for "bee" in the last frame, and colors that represent nature better since the ones I have are too unnatural. The yellow was said to be hurtful to the eyes, and it was suggested to perhaps add an off-white background, which brings me to the background suggestions, since I had difficulty in figuring out what I wanted to use as my background, if anything. Another background suggestion was to have a lighter texture that fades halfway across the screen with the words as they appear.

Week 4 Outside of Class

This week outside of class, I worked on my storyboard pencil sketches, as well as the full color illustrations of the story board on Illustrator, which you will see below.


Here, my foreshadow is the bee buzzing across the screen in the second frame, which will be seen at the very end in the last frame.

As you will see throughout the sketches, I will try to keep the animations consistent between each pair of "You'll" and "I'll," and change them slightly from pair-to-pair.

 The recall is the "You'll" coming in from the right and moving left, and the "I'll" sort of answering it by coming from the left and moving right. I will keep the animations of "You'll" and "I'll" consistent throughout the video.

 I would like to animate the indicated words in a way to look like they are being handwritten, but I will have to watch some videos on Lynda.com to learn how to do this.

I haven't decided on a background yet for the video, but I hope to gather some suggestions from my classmates.

 As I went along on Illustrator working on my storyboard, I thought of some different ways to present different words, such as "wine" and "whiskey," as you see to the left.

 Again, consistent animations between each pair of "You'll and "I'll."

The bee you see here and in the first storyboard was completely illustrated by myself. I hope to learn how to make it spell out the word "bee" because I feel that it would add a cute finish to the video, and complete the foreshadow from the second frame.

Week 4B- Feb. 12

Today was basically a work day to work on the part of the Message in Motion assignment that is due Monday, which are the storyboard sketches and full color illustrations of the storyboards on Illustrator.

Week 4A- Feb. 10

Today in class, we reviewed and critiqued our classmates' Dreamscape and Rhythm videos. I was the first to show mine, and I was surprised when I was told that I did an excellent job on them, especially the Rhythm video. Next, we went over our next project entitled Message in Motion. For this project we have to take a short phrase or saying, and use time and space to give it a visual voice. The size and Frames Per Second are the same as before (W:720xH:486, 24 FPS), and is to be created on After Effects, and as long as needed to convey the message. The message I chose was from one of my favorite country songs, Honey Bee by Blake Shelton:
"You'll be my soft and sweet, I'll be your strong and steady. You'll be my glass of wine, I'll be your shot of whiskey. You'll be my sunny day, I'll be your shade tree. You'll be my honeysuckle, I'll be your honey bee"

We must use foreshadow and recall to enhance the communication, which we learned the proper definitions for. We were given hints like giving the video a second or two at the beginning before starting the animation, treat the type characters like actors you are directing. Too many in one scene is overwhelming. Be consistent, too many voices (movements) creates confusion. Make it readable, either through visual rest or repetition. We were also instructed to watch the following videos on Lynda.com which will aid us in creating the video :

After Effects CC Essential Training

3. Understanding Compositions
• Exploring compositions and project settings 6m
• Importing illustrator files as compositions 7m
• Understanding Pre-compose 4m

4. Building Compositions with Layers
• Creating layer solids and shapes with masks 9m
• Layer compositing: Masks, switches, and blend modes 7m
• Using track mattes 4m
• Working smarter by swapping layers 7m

5. Creating animation
• The power of parenting 5m
• Creating and adjusting motion paths 9m
• Using null objects 6m

The following PDF entitled "Symbolic Scoring" was posted on the server to show what is expected of us to do for the first part of the project, which is to do a storyboard of our overall idea of the video. This is basically a form of brainstorming before I go on to create the video in After Effects.

Homework:
1. Watch "03 After Effects Videos" text file on server
2. Storyboard (Symbolic Scoring PDF)
    - pencil sketch
    - full color in illustrator...as many pages as         needed. Label appropriately
3. choose message (done in class)

Week 3- Outside of Class

This week we did not have class due to the harsh winter weather, so we were assigned to still watch the After Effects videos, and also create our own video using the word "Rhythm" and communicate it meaning through the movement of its parts. First, I watched the assigned videos on Lynda.com, which really aided in creating my video in terms of learning different animating features. The following list of videos helped me with this short project:

4. Building Compositions with Layers

• Defining layers 5m

• Creating type layers 7m

• Precise typesetting techniques 5m

5. Creating Animation

• Understanding animation 6m  

• Adding and adjusting keyframes 9m

• Understanding keyframe interpolation 6m

I then went on to create my video, which I will admit I was confused at first even after watching the videos, but after watching them a second time and going along with it on my computer I began to understand it a lot better. I do have to say that I had some fun animating this video, and becoming even more familiar with the many features of After Effects. My method of conveying the meaning of Rhythm through the animation of its letters was to take each letter and animate it in a way that I felt the beat of different genres such as rock, electro, country, and hip hop. They seem random at first, so I tied them all together at the end by making them follow the same "beat."

Week 2: Outside of Class

This week outside of class, I worked on and finished my Sequential Dreamscape video on After Effects. Below you will see the video and photos I used for the video. Just like with Flash, as I kept using the program, I learned more and more tricks to using it. I actually had fun creating this video, and am fascinated by the many features of this program. I also watched the assigned After Effects videos. I felt that by using the same typeface throughout the video and only changing the color, I still managed to convey my emotions during the dream. I used the period at the end of each word to make them seem "to the point" and blunt. My photos I feel also convey the emotions I was feeling throughout the dream, such as the calm colors for the peaceful and calm parts, and foggy photos for the fog part.