Week 10 Day 2: Character Sketches

These are my sketches from Wednesday's brainstorming session.  I included main characters generic fish hero, robo-shark villain, & wise old dolphin (with complementary fu manchu), though it was later decided the dolphin may just provide tips throughout the game.

Also featured are fun little gimmicks we discussed as a group, a starting screen with the angler fish standing in for the flashing light (& countdown) & a "game over" screen with smiling shark teeth & a hint of the mechanical eye.

Week 10 Day 1: Group Brainstorming Activities

Today, as a group, we did three brainstorming activities to help broaden our ideas for our video game concepts.  First was a mind map, stemming off our idea of a strategy-based, academic adventure game.  Second were these fun dice called Rory's Story Cubes; we "played" three rounds to create three different stories.  Lastly, we created a list of all the retro video games we could think of.  

Complete documentation can be found on our group's blog.

Week 9.5 Outside of Class: Video Game Concept

For our video game project, each of the group members are submitting a short proposal on the video game concept, characters, & landscape.

My concept is the journey of an older gentleman seeking his umbrella that he left behind somewhere.  Beyond the treachery of the landscape itself (a winding park trail), he faces obstacles such as trees, frogs, ducks, and maybe even a giant Monty Python-esque hand.  The scenery would include the park path, bushes, benches, stones, & the obstacles as stated above.

Week 9 Day 2: Game Design Groups

Today we broke into our groups for the game design project that we'll be working on for the rest of the semester.  First order of business was a team building exercise in which we were all on a plane that had crashed into the ocean & had to survive with 12 items from the plane on a nearby desert island.

For the rest of the class, we watched a PBS special on the history of video games.

Week 9 Day 1: End Tag Critique

Today we had full class critiques of our end tags/kinetic logos.  The biggest critique for my project was the use of sound, which I knew would be an issue.  One person suggested I cut it down to one or two separate clips, instead of three.  I'm also considering, if I redo the piece, to find or compose (I wish...) a piece of music that would fit the animation & theme.

Week 8.5 Outside of Class: Final Wired Endtag

Over the weekend I finally brought my design into After Effects & completed my endtag.  The only thing that didn't go as well as I hoped for is my audio. For whatever reason Audacity wasn't reading my audio files, so all my audio was edited within After Effects.  I definitely think it could be spliced better, so hopefully sometime I can find out what was wrong, then go back & fix the audio.

My audio contains three files.  The first plays while the circuit board grows & becomes the W.  I wanted this to be a higher pitched, almost omniscient,  yet still conveying computer or digital.  The remaining letters I wanted to come in a typed keystrokes.  Lastly, I wanted "Video" to wipe in on a kind of sparkly yet digital computer sound.  Overall, I was able to find fitting sounds, though I do feel the first one could use some editing, or maybe I just need a different (but still similar) sound.

While working on this project, I was constantly inspired by the opening credits of Inception.  Not the actual title credits, but the credits for the production companies.

There was something particularly in how the light shines through the Legendary logo I found quite fascinating & what to attempt to work with a similar concept.  Thus came my growing circuits within the rotating circuit board. 

Week 8 Day 2: Layering my Design

As I attempted to bring my design into After Effects, I realized I would need to put all the circuits in separate layers if I want to mask them for growth.  I went back to Illustrator & spent a large portion of class moving the individual circuits into their own layers. 

I also began to think about sound I want in the background.  I'm not too sure what I want at the moment, but I've been looking into free sci fi-esque & mechanical sounds.

Week 8 Day 1: Exploring Depth

I felt all class that my design looked a little flat, so I decided to explore a little.  I looked for tutorials on how to create an effect much like in the one version of the Inception promo poster.  It has such a subtle but powerful use of depth.  I couldn't find anything that specific, so I decided to play around with gradients, glows, & shadows before moving on to any heavier (& probably time-consuming) stuff.

Due to time constraints I may just settle with this.  I started looking ahead into tutorials on how to animate objects in After Effects to make it look as if they are growing.  I want to attempt to do that, having the circuitry grow or carve in & the frame follow it around the W before it fades in.

Week 7.5 Outside of Class: Completed Storyboard

Above is my pretty much completed circuit board-esque W for my WIRED kinetic logo project.  I still want to look into how to add more depth & make it more dimensional, much like the Inception logo from my last post.

Above is my completed storyboard.  It's a rather simple progression: having the circuitry grow in while the frame pans out, when it's completed have the W fade in & then continue to pan out as the circuitry fades, finally revealing the remaining letters one by one.

Jessica Hische Lecture

Thursday I had the distinct pleasure to attend Jessica Hische's Society of Design lecture at the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg.  I have been a fan of her work for the past year or so, so this was an especially exciting lecture.

While a portion of her lecture was focused on type design (& of course an obligatory portfolio showcase), she had some great things to say about life & career as well.  One of the biggest points she brought up (& something she is somewhat well known for) is procrastiworking.  Procrastiworking, she says, is a guide to your calling; not to be confused with procrastinating, procrastiworking is the work you do while putting your other work off.

Some other great points she brought up included...

• Diversify your projects to avoid burn out
• Diversify the things that satisfy you; don't put all your eggs in the same basket
• Find what you like about your job now (whether that be your actual paying job or what you do as a student) & find a way to do that more

Week 7 Day 2: A New Direction

I finally finished my robot on my storyboard!  Two whole frames down.

After talking with my professor more today on my ideas, he urged me back to the growing wires idea. I searched for images of circuit boards to get a better idea of their ornate design.  My idea would be to have these crowded pathways grow around the outline of the line, & then as it pans out, the wires will slowly fade & the letter (rather the black box) fade in.

Looking at circuit boards for a while, it started to remind me of the one Inception title design.  I hope to use this as inspiration as to how to make the wired pathways grow around where the letter should be.

Here are two sketches I worked on during class.  I prefer the second one; it uses less sharp angles.  For my actual rendition, I want the pathways tighter & maybe less of the beginning/end buttons (greater pathway to button ratio).  But maybe motion & panning out will make it look less odd.

Week 7.0 Outside of Class: Animating Storyboard

Between classes I took sometime to brainstorm any other alternatives for my WIRED logo.  Below I attempted some conceptualizing for a literally "wired" theme, in which I'd have wires or networks grows across the logo, forming the letters, & than the actual letters would fade in.  I eventually scrapped this, feeling I wouldn't have to time or skill set to make this look real good.

So last night I returned to storyboarding for my kind of "flip book" of images I feel encompass WIRED's content.  Illustrating is taking a lot longer than I expected, so it's just going to take time to churn out.

Week 7 Day 1: Sketch Critique & Further Ideation

Today we critiqued our storyboards with our rows.   I didn't get as much feedback as I would've liked, but my classmates & professor did suggest changing my idea to show the whole logo for the entire end tag, & I worked with them towards the idea of maybe portraying the history of technology as told through WIRED.  Unfortunately, WIRED has only been around since 1993, so that sort of flew out the window.

Throughout class I worked with my classmates' critiques to further my concept for my WIRED end tag, though I still feel pretty stuck.  I haven't changed the idea too drastically, still using the "flashing" images but showing the whole logo with the images flashing within the W, R, & D boxes.  The W box contains culture-related imagery; the R, computer/communications imagery; & the D, futuristic ideas.

After meeting one on one with my professor, I'm just really questioning.  I thought I knew what WIRED stood for, but now I'm not sure if I'm conveying that effectively.  To me, WIRED is about being "wired in" to what's going on--tech-wise, culture-wise, even future-wise.  It's about being tech-savvy, cutting-edge.  Again, I just feel stuck or as if I can't effectively communicate all the meaning I wish to.

I'm going to try a couple more ideations (my professor suggested a conglomeration of images making up the box around each letter), but if it doesn't yield any major improvements, I may create some ideations for the companies I originally considered.

Week 6.5 Outside of Class: Wired End Tag Sketches

After many rejected company ideas, I finally decided to create my end tag project for WIRED magazine.  I was & still am rather weary of creating for a company with an already well-established series of end tags for any of their web shows or other videos on their video page.  

I chose to focus my design on WIRED's key focuses: technology, science, politics, & geek culture.

Week 6 Day 2: Opener/End Tag Exploration

Today we began research for our next project.  As a class, we watched a few TV network bumpers, a montage of bumpers by Trollback+Company, & the projects of students from past classes.

On my own I continued to look at bumpers from more TV networks, as well as music festivals, publications, non-profits, & research & development firms.  I considered doing my project on AK72, my fictional cafe I did branding for last year, the Long's Park summer concert series, or the Bowery Mission.  

Week 6 Day 1: Kinetic Quote Final Critique

Overall my critique went very well.  I got many good comments on how I was able to bring meaning to all my motions.  Someone did suggest that at the end my reflected "REALITY" should be slightly lighter to allude to a reflection, which I thought was a great idea.  My professor also suggested repeating some of my specialized elements, such as the underline that leads from "PROGRESSION" to "ILLUSION."  If I add back in the clause about each choice leading to a new path ["to go to work, to stay home..."], I could most definitely use that there as well.

If I could do anything else different, given more time, I would apply that former comments of course, but I'd also want to make that reflected "REALITY" swing down, rather than fade in, & "ILLUSION" vanish in a puff of smoke, rather than zoom & fade.  Additionally, I think I'd want to give my "general" transitions more meaning; right now they just kind of enter stage right & exit stage left (or vice versa...it's been a few years since my theatre days).  Perhaps I could allude more to the technique of the actual opening, with the words coming in from the foreground & disappearing into the background.  I think that really deepens the atmosphere.  The only problem would be some of my effects work best on a "flat" atmosphere, but if I could learn to translate them into the 3D it would work wonders.

Week 5.5 Outside of Class: After Effects Kinetic Quote Final

After a long weekend of countless hours spent in the lab, I finally have the final product for my quote in motion project.  Overall, I'm very pleased with how it turned out & how much I was able to do with only 4 weeks' knowledge of After Effects.

Week 5 Day 2: Bringing the Quote to After Effects

Today in class I worked on bringing all my elements together into After Effects--my quote, the typography, & my background--to begin animating.  I did end up adding a little vignette within After Effects to add a little more depth & dimension.  I only got about 10 of my 49 estimating key frames done, but I'm really excited to buckle down & complete it this weekend.

Week 5 Day 1: Creating the Background

Following the tutorial I previously referred to, I was able to make a Fringe-inspired background that I am quite happy with.

And just for kicks, I did a little practice with my type as well, adding a little opacity to better match the title sequence.

Week 4.5 Outside of Class: Storyboarding in Illustrator

Here is the digital version of my storyboarding.

I am currently also working on a background, based on the title sequence of the show this quote comes from, Fringe.

I was unable to find a texture online I was happy with, but I did find a tutorial on Cute Little Factory to create my own in Photoshop.  It's not perfect, but it's pretty close.