Tuesday 31 January 2012

Top 10

Today I worked on another ident and got the first 10 seconds of my title sequence done.



I have been using the song that I have previously chosen, and judging by the first ten seconds I think it works well. It also suits the pace of the animation. 
I have made good use of the markers on the sound layer, so that I can move the camera about in time with beat of the song.


I have added some keyframes so that the audio fades in in time with the drinking women sliding over. I intend to leave the song to end without a fade, as it comes to quite an abrupt end which suits the sequence, it could also be a good way to tie the sequence to  the idents, if I use the same abrupt ending.





My first ten seconds was relatively easy. I found it quite challenging however to create an effect where it zooms in, without distorting the images. Initially I tried to just alter the scale of the layers themselves, but the positions would change and it didn't have the same effect. So instead I added a null and camera layer, which I think is going to be very useful as I move the camera around quite a lot in my title sequence.

I also partnered the layers together as I only need to rotate the hands at the end and altar the positions slightly, this was so that they move around together and don't look separate.




Monday 30 January 2012

Top 10

Today I started animating my idents. I started with the simplest of my four ideas to ease myself into it. Both went really smoothly and I didn't really find it too difficult. All I need to do is add sound, I am going to record sounds of a cocktail being made and ice being shaken about for the 'hair of the dog' ident and sizzling bacon for the fry up one.

Initially I felt this ident looked too dark. I was using a light layer to try and add texture, so I took that off and it ended up looking a lot better. I added a concrete texture in the background and lowered the opacity. I like this look better than having just a plain white background, which just looked lazy and unthought about design.





Thursday 26 January 2012

Scale/Frame/Format

Today we all chose an object and then all swapped them around so that we ended up with something random to work with. I was given the word 'suit'. The brief is to create an eye chart, in which the object replaces the letter.

I need to simplify the suit so that i can be recognised on a small scale far away, (20 feet if we're talking eye charts).

My initial idea is to create a chart that is made up of different elements of the suit (bow tie, jacket, waistcoat etc) and having the whole suit at the top. This also adds to the aspect of it being an eye chart, having to recognise each individual element taken from a suit.

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Type as image.

Progress and final outcome on my type as image brief.

I designed three coins to communicate the million, billion and a billion phrase. I kept the shapes simple with minimal detail, as I think the colours and shapes speak for themselves. I created the type from Euphorigenic.




I decided to screen print this design because I thought it would work effectively with the metallic colours and simple shapes. I made use of a lot of negative space on the A1 format, keeping the coins almost scaled down to actual size. I decided to do this to help communicate that they are coins. Also it reflects the content of the article, which is about people not understand the magnitude of numbers. By keeping the text small it communicates how people underestimate how big these numbers are. The fact that million is on a 2p, billion on a 50p and trillion is on a 2 pound also reflects this point in the article.









Visually working with the words million, billion and trillion worked really nicely as the last letters are all the same. I printed it on white stock initially, but I also really like it on the black. I also prefer the design without the words in between, so it only says.. million billion trillion.


Tuesday 24 January 2012

Top 10

I have been working on more illustrations for my title sequence. Working from my storyboards, i know what needs to be done, and so far I think I have everything down. I have also vectored the images for my final ident, which is a pill being dropped into water.





I will add the fry up to the hungover girl inside after effects as it is easier to scale it up and down. Also I will change the scale of other elements such as the pill in comparison to the size of the glass for the same reason. 
I have kept each element that needs to be moved separately on individual layers each labelled clearly, to keep it as easy for myself when working inside after effects.


Thursday 19 January 2012

Type as image.

We were given our new brief which is an extended from last weeks task. We need to use the same articles as before and take a phrase from each. For next week we need to communicate these phrases through type as image, all three on a1 format.

Here is my rational and phrases.




Editorial Image

My three final images show in context, alongside the relevant articles.







Wednesday 18 January 2012

Top 10

I have carried on illustrating the images that I intend to use in my title sequence and idents. I have kept the style very simple to reflect the light hearted feel of both the content of the programme and of the channel E4. Keeping the imagery simple also gives me the chance to focus on the animation side of things.

Again, I have kept the sections I want to animate on separate layers and labeled them to save confusion later on.





I have also vectored the E4 logo and banners that they use when advertising upcoming programmes to make the idents look professional and in context.


Silent movie

My final silent movie animations.

 

 
 

Top 10

I started vectoring up some drawings on Illustrator for my title sequence. This turned out a lot harder than I originally expected as I had to think ahead which bits I want to animate so I can keep them unattached to each other to allow movement.

I have also rendered the images as they consisted a lot of vectors, so I am worried that After Effects might freeze while I'm working on the animation.


Top 10 Progress crit

Strengths:

Storyboards easy to follow, full sense of story
Good key framing
Simple, easy to create imagery
Text isn't very necessary
Good amount of research

Areas for improvement:

Is their colour?
Pace of pan/ movement
Will the idents last 10 seconds?

Considerations:

Maybe have the first frame in the middle? Taxi there or something before, will it last 60 seconds?
In the last frame try emptying the plate of food and have "top ten" in ketchup or crumbs
Colour
Type
Liquid flow could be complicated

Additional comments

Pain killer ident works well

Tuesday 17 January 2012

Editorial image

Progress on my editorial image task.



Silent movie

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Slent movie

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Silent movie

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After Effects Induction 4

Make sure you choose the square pixel widescreen option as opposed to the widescreen option when working with Illustrator or Photoshop files. Otherwise files that you copy over may appear distorted.


Creating text within After Effects.



You can select the text by dragging over or by double clicking on that layer.


It is all on one layer, so we can'y animate each individual layer like we can with outlined text copied over from Illustrator.

The animation options are all the same as usual.


The first difference is the position of the anchor point, normally it would be in the centre of the image, but when working with type within After Effects it is positioned at the beginning of the text.

If you want to changethe anchor point, simply drag over the yellow numbers next to the anchor point option.


However, the downfall with this is that it moves the text and not the anchor point, changing your animation.
Another, easier way to change the anchor point is by selecting the pan behind tool.


The properties specific to text.


The source text property allows us to change what the text says or the format of the text over time.

If you remove some words, a square keyframe appears.


Using this property you can make more text appear over time.




You can also change the colour of the text over time.



...and the size.


We have a little side menu called animate.


Choosing position to start with.
We have added an animator option to our text properties.


We now have two position properties, they both do different things.


We need to look at the range selector, start, end and offset.


If you change the position by using the yellow numbers and then change the start, it will move it back to its original position, letter by letter.



The percentage determines how much of the text is effected.


Another option is to animate using the offset selection.




If you change the start and end so that part of the text dips, and then further down the timeline you change the offset, then the dip will move through the text.

If you drop down the advanced menu and change the units from percentage to index, then it allows you to animate the text character by character.


You can also change the mode.


You can delete each animation by selecting the animator layer.


Now work with the scale.



If you select index then it allows you select how many characters are going to be effected. Change the start and end to 10 and 11 and then change the offset.



Changing the tracking amount will change the spaces between the characters as it changes size.



You can also make it change colour.




Changing the offset, smoothness and other settings will change the effect.

To make the text move along a path, create a new mask and then with the pen tool draw a path. On the path option menu select your mask and then the text will sit on it. Then change the number next to first margin to make it move, adding keyframes.



VIDEOO!!!