New Blog!

My class blog has now moved over to WordPress so my partner and I can easily both make posts. Click the link below to see the rest of my classwork and progress!

https://desn246mckinneydugan.wordpress.com/

Week Eight: A

Today in class we presented our logo animations to the entire for a critique. I showed my animation in context with the end of one of Yes Theory's videos. Below is a list of comments from my classmates and my professor shared during the critique. 

• Glitch effect was strong with creating the discomforting feeling.
• Struggle with the readability of the white text against the background.
• The texture idea for the background was strong, but the execution was off.
• Use a thinner marker/pen or vary the line weight so there is more of a connection to handwriting.
• Another background idea could have been photos/videos of different places they have traveled.
• Inverting the background colors to white and black and using blue for the text  may have made the logo easier to read.

Overall, I appreciate the feedback I received from the critique, and I do agree that the contrast and execution of the background idea could have been stronger. 

Week Seven: Outside of Class

I continue to go back and forth with my project. I am trying to add interest to my animation to move beyond basics, but conceptually the ideas aren't matching the product. So on Monday night, I finished the simple straight forward first thought design that I thought of. I had to get the simple one out of the way so I could move forward and try something different. 

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On Tuesday I reached out to some of my classmates in my typography two class for advice on a direction. Their biggest advice was to push the emotion. Push the discomfort into the viewer. So I took their advice to try and convey discomfort and also for myself to try something out of my direct comfort zone.

On a completely different personal art project, I took a small 5-inch by 5-inch canvas and a thin sharpie and just began to write. I needed to express my words, but I didn't want to be tempted to read them again or for others to read my writing either. So I wrote complete sentences, full thoughts but all on top of each other. The end result was this jumble of words that when I showed people they struggled to decipher and felt anxious and overwhelmed. I feel like this could be a direction to go from. 

So I folded a sheet of printer paper into forths and I had my roommates and some friends word dump their fears all together on this paper and I took some photos of the texture we created.

 

My new thought is to use this new texture as the background and create the design animation coming out of this jumble of words. During class tomorrow I am going to work more on this direction. 

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On Friday night I continued working on my animation. I started by following the tutorial above to add a glitch effect. The video was helpful in walking through how to add a downloadable glitch mp4 video and create an adjustment layer and distort the displacement map. 

The process worked and I liked the effect that was achieved, but I only wanted the type to be distorted not the background. I had to take some time to think through how to either move the layers or group them together. I then figured out that I can pre-compose the adjustment and type together so that only the logo was distorted. 

I then worked on separating the characters to have them switch back and forth from the mirror to the correct direction as the glitch effect happened. I made layers of the two directions of the four characters and began to lay them out so they flip throughout the animation.

At the end of the night, this is what I had completed so far.

Tomorrow I am going to work cleaning up the ending and finalize the project.

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Saturday evening I went back to work on my project. I adjusted the white type in the design to disappear while the glitch effect was happening and then I started to insert a video clip from their Youtube channel. Below is what I completed thus far. 

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After looking back at the video Sunday morning I felt that I needed to add some sound effects to the glitching part of the animation. I found 50 free downloadable glitch sound effects and chose sound number 8 and number 9 to use.  

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jln945LM-gXUejEnAW9QFYeFwEBtpzHm/view

I ended the video before the logo and added the sound effects. 

The disconnect between the video and logo was not good so I added the audio back in and also removed sound number nine because it seemed too "space glitch" not "techy glitch". 

Below is the final design with the video at the beginning uploaded to Youtube. 

Week Seven: B

I now have a strong sense of direction in my idea. This may be the first design project I have done where I had to restart from the drawing board thinking back to the start, but now I feel like I have a strong sense of direction and conceptually I am working on it the correct way. 

During class, I edited the photos of the written texture I created yesterday. I first removed the paper background and paint brushed the writings in black. I lost a lot of negative space with this approach and it also didn't use the blue color so I tried a different idea.

 I added the blue background first and then changed the color of the written text to white. 

I think the white will work well because it is similar to the original blue and white and I can still camouflage the design in the white. 

After making a copy of the first animation I completed, I started to work in After Effects. Another direction I wanted to add was an unsettled glitch effect to the design. I found a tutorial on Youtube that uses a stock video and creates a glitch effect to the type.

I am going to mix the texutred background and the glitch affect to really push the uncomfortableness of the design.

Week Seven : A

I am continuing to grow on what I created before. At the start of class we began with critiquing a few volunteered classmates designs. I realized after viewing their's and hearing their feedback that I can definitely grow beyond my idea. My professor said it wisely when he reminded me that I don't know if an idea will work until I try. I need to try my ideas first beyond just a storyboard to see if the idea will work. The time constraint of only 3 to 5 seconds is what is limiting me, but I need to try and adjust rather than not attempt at all. 

So I took some time to think of an idea and direction to go.

During that time I began to think of another idea. I went back to the photos that I was hesitant to try before since I struggled before with choosing which characters to use or if I should use them all, so I tired to think of another option. The channel is called YES Theory so I could use the YES from their logo alongside their mantra. Both their "YES Theory" design and "Seek Discomfort" both are recognizable identities of their brand, but by using the YES I do not need to try and choose which characters to use from "Seek Discomfort". 

Another change I could adapt is usinga clip from their video rather than still photos. This was the video can be a transition into the animation and appear connected to the specific content in their video. The animation is still going to go at the end as a closer to restate their yes theory and seeking discomfort philosophy.   

I am going to incorporate my animation into the end of this video. 

Below I have a rough sketch of an idea addition of the frames with the "YES" masking idea.

The next step was to research how to mask a video in After Effects. I found the video below that gave a good explanation that I could use. 

Outside of class I am going to begin to continue to work on my animation and to share with the class on Wednesday.  

Week Six: Outside of Class

After class on Monday, I continued to think about my project and the direction I want to go. I watched more videos and tried to think more about how to use the photos in my animation. I found another video that my animation could go into as well.  

My next step was to create the layout in Illustrator and then begin finding the photos to use. will need 12 photos that I will screen capture from their videos on YouTube.

Here are some photos I captured from their channel.

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On Tuesday I finalized the second attempt of my storyboard in Illustrator. The design uses the photos I screen captured ending with the type transitioning. Towards the end, I added a little more to the explanations of the characters transitioning. 

When I started I was really excited about using the photos because they would be able to show the intensity behind the wild adventures they do, but after talking to some fellow classmates and thinking about it more the photos are going to be going by to fast to register what they are. I tried to find photos from some of their crazy adventures such as bungee jumping out of a helicopter over the Grand Canyon and polar plunged in Alaska, however, their adventures always grow and change to bigger and greater things and I don't know if using a few photos captures everything they have done. I understand the need to grow beyond just moving the type around, but I'm not sure yet of a definite direction to go.  

Late Tuesday night, I continued to try to pinpoint a direction and an idea. I watched some videos on logo animation to get some inspiration on what I could do. Of my ideas, I find the ending of the fourth version interesting because of the letters transitioning together and overtime not just one-by-one by frame. I wanted to still elevate the idea and as I was searching for inspiration I found this video on "25 Creative Motion Logos" and the first one in the video I found interesting.

The design fades in/appears but it's the flashing disappearance that I think could be interesting as a transition for my animation. Once again I went back to the drawing board this time focusing on an interesting way to move the characters and how that can be transitioned into a video.  

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Thursday night I finally finalized a direction. I combined the end of my fourth storyboard with a similar ending as the video I saw above. I'm happy with this direction because it is back to the 3-second duration I originally wanted but is more than my original idea then just the characters appearing reversed without transitioning. 

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Saturday afternoon I vectored my storyboard in Illustrator.

I then worked on creating my animation in After Effects. I started by creating a layout of the transitions making multiple layers of the different characters. I will have to do more research on how to mirror an object through keyframes and how to bring an object from Illustrator into After Effects. Below is a screen recording of the layout I had completed so far. 

The frames where it is only the characters will be transitioning through the video with the other text on the screen, but for now, I just wanted to separate to see what I needed to transition.

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Sunday morning I continued working on my animation. I started by researching how to transition objects to mirror. I found the video below that I was able to use to help me. 

I adjusted the scale of the character to flip horizontally and appear mirrored and used position to keep the character in its original place. I began with the "S" and then continued with the other 3 characters. 

The next thing I have to work on was how to get the arch of the "K" from Illustrator to After Effects. I thought I would be able to copy and paste the shape into After Effects, but the path only appears not the entire filled-in shape. Through some trial and error of other videos, I found this one which was very helpful.

I then worked on creating keyframes to move the arch out during the transition of the other characters. 

For class Monday we need to have at least 2 seconds of the video completed to share, but I wanted to get my complete idea finished so I can show and receive feedback of the entire animation. 

Week Six: A

We began class with a critique of our vectorized storyboards. In small groups, we shared our chosen logos and our animation ideas. My groupmates had a lot of positive feedback with the transition of the characters and the changing of directions, but to me, I felt like there wasn't enough. The channel is about trying new challenging adventurers or situations and the group go one and with the type simply moving orientation I feel like it can connect more with the videos they have created.

My professor gave the suggestion of using imagery with the design rather than just the typography. I am going to go back to sketching and research and look more into how to move beyond just type.

I began with the research. Yes Theory has "Seek Discomfort" as a manta and as a second company. "Seek Discomfort" is a branch of Yes Theory growing from simple YouTube merchandise to a complete online clothing company. I found a video on their "Seek Discomfort" about page posted on their YouTube channel that was a runway launch of their first collection. I think that this is a good video to place my animation in.

The video is the build-up of their launch and gave me more incite on the vibe, the process, and the creation. 

During class, I created another storyboard this time focusing on the images that can be added. The ending is similar to my first storyboard, but the letters will appear broken apart with images from adventures they have gone on in the background. 

I am excited about this direction because it will represent their brand more with a catalog of crazy adventures being showcased. My only concern is I don't want the photos appearing to look like a cheesy slideshow. I'm hoping that by lowering the opacity of the letters they will still be visable, but the intensity of the photos can still be seen.