What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I have learnt a new piece of software (After Effects) and a completely new set of skills to do with motion graphics, as I have never before worked with time. To begin with I found the software incredibly complicated, there were so many small tweaks that could be made to a composition, and at the start it took a while to get my head around how to even place a key-frame effectively, however the Silent Movie brief I started to get the hang of the basics and found the whole program much more enjoyable. I now understand and can work in 4D. In this program I have learnt how to use layer masks, different variations of speed, layer effects and how to accurately match audio to movement. Over this whole module I have learnt how to storyboard and use this as a backup for when my ideas go wrong on after effects. It helped me to think about the beginning, middle and end effectively as well as the pace of how the sequence would go. I think that one of the main skills that I have developed over this module is organisation. I have found that this is the module where even the slightest slip in organisation can be detrimental to your sequence. I now label every layer, photograph, illustration, vector and file, something that I never did before – this is a skill that I will now carry on for the rest of my career and can apply to every part of my life and work. I have also learnt to render every part of the composition weather it is good or bad, it is the same concept as showing all the work that I have done for a project weather I like it or not. This is something that I was not doing most of the way through the module until I realised that without rendering every experiment in After Effects, I would have no evidence to show.
What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
I have a boarder understanding of motion graphics though researching and looking at videos online and on TV and always thinking about how they enter and leave the composition, what effect they have on the composition and how I can integrate this technique into my sequence.
I have learnt how to story board effectively, and through this I have a clear backup plan for when and if my work goes wrong – in the early part of the module (for Silent movie) I learnt how to explore every single option there was available to even the smallest type of motion. Although I found story boarding for images and longer compositions slightly harder in the Top 10 Brief, I still understand the importance of this method.
What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I feel that my research into different types of videos and how text and images come together has been stronger in this module than another other, but there is always room for improvement. My organisation skills have really improved over the course of this module and it has really helped every part of my work. I feel that I am thinking more about the target audience in this module; something that I have always not focused on so much in pervious modules. I also find that I am now a lot more aware of the 3D space around the frame. I think that I chose an effective colour scheme that was relevant to my subject matter.
What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
Storyboarding was my main weakness of the Top 10 project. I Started the whole project with the idea of creating a similar video to all the festival promotion videos – however the difference between them and my project was that they were all showing footage from the festival and not still images. I kept having mental blocks about how to start and end a sequence, I think this was because I was trying to make my ideas far too complicated and not have a defined style. Due to there being too much going on, it meant that when I was thinking about how my indents would go, the start and end would be completely different and I could never join the dots on what to put in between. Another reason why I feel I didn’t do so well with the storyboarding was because I didn’t grasp how short 10 seconds really is, I kept trying to story board for the 60 second title sequence instead of breaking the designing down into manageable chucks. I found it incredibly difficult to begin with (with the top 10 project) to think in motion and how one piece of text and image would flow / move into the next. This wasn’t a problem for the silent movie brief as I was just working with one word and trying to portray one motion.
Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
- Define a style of working before I start the project – I need to chose if I am going to do just type, type and image or just image before I start working as throughout the project I found that I kept changing my mind. To start with I wanted to work with a predominately image based sequence, however my strength and interests are in typography – this is something I should have played. Even if I had decided to chose to use mainly images, I feel that my Photoshop skills also let me down when trying to change photographs.
- Research more techniques that I have learnt in the after effects sessions and ask for more help about the program – I found that because I was in such a muddle for what I wanted to put in the sequence that I spent a lot of time trying to story board out my ideas which then didn’t leave much time to create the video, this then panicked me and so I just used basic tools in after effects. If I had more time I would go back and master some of the more advanced effects so that my video would look more professional
- Keep it simple – from the start to the end of the top 10 project I was trying to bring too many pieces of information / ideas / photographs together to try and make the project more complex but in the end it just made the compositions look cluttered, unorganised and not very clear.
- Time management – I spent too much time worrying and attempting to story board rather than selecting the appropriate media, testing out, rendering, getting feedback and making adjustments to my idents and title sequence. This meant that I soon began to run out of time and I feel that I may have rushed the last part of the project.
- Planning ahead – always have a clear plan of what I am going to create, how I am going to create it, the time it will take to create it and leave time for any improvements. This will make my projects more professional and finished in my opinion.
