OUGD202 Evaluation

The OUGD202 module brought with it many new exciting and enjoyable experiences as well as a valuable learning curve in terms of my knowledge of software and project management.
The first few steps into the world of After Effects through the Silent Movie brief was the first time I had dealt with moving image and I was eager but also a little daunted when faced with getting to grips with it. During the first few weeks of After Effects workshops it took quite a while for me to understand things like key framing and co-ordinating even simple movements. Over the course of the Silent Movie brief however, when given tight restrictions on the length of composition, content, colour and theme etc of the videos, it enabled me to purely focus on the software itself and specific technical aspects which really helped me to start and understand it. I was pleased with my resolutions to the Silent Movie brief and got positive feedback but as soon as that project came to a close, I was eager to get started on the next thing and see how far I could push my developing knowledge of the software.
When beginning the Top 10 brief my initial thought was to produce a title sequence and idents of top cities to visit. But I had covered a similar theme in an earlier project and so decided to focus on Tokyo, which was the first city I had begun illustrating in accordance with the initial theme. Quite quickly I had style developing which then became a firm vision that I could see clearly working in the proposed animation. Having had to learn the software from scratch and then apply my existing design skills to it I think has proved successful and by having detailed storyboards and hand rendered, and then digitised assets in place, it meant that I didn't have to design anything within the After Effects programme and I could get on and play around with the assets at my disposal which helped greatly. Furthermore, the Top 10 brief helped me to work on my time management and organisation through developing a structured process in the way in which I work, also, due to the regular nature of crits and a consistent flow of feedback, I seemed to become more able to take on board any suggestions and found myself acting upon what I was told promptly. When looking back over the course of producing my title sequence and subsequent idents I now find it surprising to see how far I have come in such a short space of time. If someone told me to produce what turned out to be my finished piece back in December, I would of seriously doubted that I could have achieved it. Thus, Im very satisfied with the final resolutions to the Top 10 brief as they turned out very closely to what I had in mind when first sketching out my storyboards.

Attendance : 5
Punctuality : 5
Motivation : 4
Commitment : 5
Quantity of work produced : 4
Quality of work produced : 4
Contribution to the group : 4

Silent Movie Action Plan

- Try using and subsequently manipulating existing effects and presets.
- Try/test more typefaces and state why they have been chosen.
- Experiment with colour and document decisions I make on it's application to my animated sequences.

To be completed by Sunday 16th January.

Extend

Extend from Jonathan Finch on Vimeo.

Zoom 2

Zoom 2 from Jonathan Finch on Vimeo.

Zoom

Zoom from Jonathan Finch on Vimeo.

Flip 2

Flip 3 from Jonathan Finch on Vimeo.

Flip

Flip Test 2 from Jonathan Finch on Vimeo.

For this video I was trying to create the effect of the word 'Flip' being flipped by a tiddlywinks counter. Im fairly pleased with the result but I think I could sharpen it up on a second attempt and make the flips look more realistic.

Studio Development

During a studio development session with Lorraine we looked at how the frame of a video consists of title safe and action safe areas and designed an animated sequence over 25 separate frames with this in mind. From these frames, we then picked out which would effectively be the key frames in a video sequence and also considered what methods of transformation we would need to use to implement the effects we wanted.

Flip Test

Flip Test from Jonathan Finch on Vimeo.

Silent Move : Idea frame sequences

Quick frame sequences based on the 3 given words : Flip, Extend, Zoom.

5 frames per idea to communicate the 5 second time frame we are working within.

Zoom

Flip

Extend

After Effects Practice Video 2

Enter from Jonathan Finch on Vimeo.

Breakthrough in After Effects!!

Key frames, Interpolation, Tweening...its all starting to make sense...well...kind of

Silent Move : Initial Ideas

After Effects Practice Video

After Effects from Jonathan Finch on Vimeo.

Design For Digital : Silent Movie

Silent Movie Brief:

My three given words are : Extend, Flip & Zoom.

Create a minimum of four 5 second animated sequences that explore the visual communication of these three words through the use of letterform only.