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1. Accenture Research
2. STEM Motion Graphic examples
3. Gender Gap in STEM (1)
4. Gender Gap in STEM (2)
5. Animation styles

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For research purposes we thought it would definitely benefit us to look into what Accenture are working on at the moment. I have signed up to their weekly newsletter, so we can keep up to date with new upcoming stories within STEM that might be of interest to young females.
In addition to their website they also have a news room where they post articles informing viewers about all advancements in STEM. It is news stories like this that should interest and motivate females. However, they are very lengthy paragraphs of texts that will be overlooked. By using motion graphics, girls will be more attentive to the information and stories we are providing them with.

A lot of the articles on Accenture at the moment are in relation to cyber-attacks and how we can create technology to build a metaphorical fire wall, to block out hackers and online attacks. This is a topic I personally feel, as a female, would interest me. A very large percentage of women use technology on a daily basis and use several different social media platforms each containing a large amount of personal information. To help motivate women, through the motion graphics we could put it into perspective for them, for them to consider how they would feel if they were at the receiving end of a cyber-attack. Females may be motivated by this as they can relate to it on a personal level, and would encourage them to want to make a difference, and contribute to protecting businesses against cyber-attacks. Also, there is a high demand for cybersafe technology, and it has been proved that people involved in developing the software massively benefit financially. This is just one of the news stories I want to consider in the lead up to brainstorming storylines for the animations. I think it is a good idea to explore a variety of different non-fiction stories to make sure we create the right composition for the message we are trying to present.

Following this research we will look into STEM motion graphic examples to try and stimulate more ideas for a strong storyline,  and different drawing styles.

- Leah Dennis

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We decided it would be beneficial to look into existing motion graphic videos revolving around the promotion of STEM, to generate some ideas, and give us a clear understanding of how to structure a STEM video. A lot of the STEM promotion videos consisted of interviews and short video clips of laboratories. This made it harder for us to find videos that had been constructed using motion graphics. Eventually we came across four different motion graphic STEM videos; each one consisted of different drawing styles and techniques. By analysing the technique and structure in each video, we were able to properly explore the different directions we could take with the storyboard and stylisation of our own motion graphic animation.

Animation 1 Analysis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqcI8WQCo6M
The first animation we looked at consisted of 2D motion graphics, and characters that had been constructed using solid block colours. The character and object design within this video is simple yet effective. There is a good distinctive colour contrast between the objects and background, which avoids attention from being diverted and the moving subjects from morphing into the background. The storyline behind this animation was effective as it put STEM into a specific perspective that a younger audience would understand. For example, one section showed a young boy playing video games and as he's playing his television suddenly disappears into thin air. This represents how video games would not be possible if people hadn't decided to pursue a career in STEM and develop a code for gaming. There is a spoken word audio that runs over the duration of the video, verbally filing in the gaps to support whats being explained through the motion graphics. This was our favourite animation out of the four examples we found, as it had fluid movement and clarity. The story was very easy to follow, informative, and was definitely suitable for their target audience; young individuals who are still in education.

Animation 2 Analysis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH5iLx_jCUk
The second animation we looked at consisted of an equal divide of motion graphics, and short video clips of STEM professionals at work. The structure of the animation didn't really have a storyline unlike the first video. The motion graphics were used to explain statistics. This was an effective use of animations as it allows large amounts of information to be explained using a more captivating method  to avoid a loss of attention. The drawing style in this video was also very different to the previous animation. The characters and subjects were created using a more rough oil pastel drawing effect, as opposed to full block colours. It works accordingly, however it could be argued that there was minimal effort put into the character creation in this video, as the characters are basic outlines with no facial features. Its important for us to create a motion graphic animation that appears well developed and constructed. In conclusion, this style of animation works well for this video, however we don't think it will work effectively in accordance with our design/style aims and objectives.

Animation 3 Analysis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRV28EOCGGo
The third animation we looked at adopted a more academic and informative style. In the animation you are able to see the artists visibly drawing the motion graphics throughout the duration of the video. By doing this, the audience automatically follow the the hand, as it continues to sketch the motion graphics. This increases the level of the audiences attention. One of the major faults of this animation however, is the exceeding amount of audible information and statistics. Despite the graphics being well detailed and engaging, its not enough to keep the audience entertained throughout the video. The motion graphics that are being drawn divert the viewers attention from listening to the informative audio. The animation doesn't have a playful storyline which is a very important aspect, especially considering the target audience the video has been aimed towards. Young teenagers will find an animation more captivating if the audio and visual match up to create a useful source of information that is enjoyable to consume.

Animation 4 Analysis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GWhwUN9iaY
When watching our final animation example, there was an immediate reaction to the style of the audio. The audio was incredibly monotone, and not at all interesting to listen to. The audio relayed paragraph after paragraph of information and was not at al engaging. Like Animation 2, this video also consisted of both motion graphics and real life videos. These videos however were of children in laboratories and school classrooms. This is a idea that we were instructed to steer clear of because of child/data protection issues. The motion graphics used in this video are very simplistic. They are incredibly basic and don't really have a lot of purpose with in the video. They should have been used to their advantage to explain less interesting pieces of information like statistics. However, the motion graphics used are very static and have been sporadically placed throughout the video. A lot of the motion graphics only consist of words and sentence transitions, which doesn't grasp your attention. Overall, this animation gave us an insight of what sort of styles and artistic approaches we should avoid as a whole. It has helped us gain a clear understanding of what works well to keep an animation engaging to our target audience.

-Leah Dennis

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1. Character Proportions
2. Character Shape/Styles
3. Character Rough Design
4. Background

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To touch on statistics on the gender gap Microsoft held a study to explore the reasons behind the inbalance of the current gap:

Studies in the US indicate that girls lose interest in coding and programming, as they get older due to lack of confidence.

A factor in guiding girls of this generation into a career in stem is the impact of female role models. The more women interested in graduating with an academic career in stem, the more likely they are to become an inspiration/role model to the next generation to come. Further more adding to this, a successful career in stem is would advertise and reinforce this ideal.

The majority of girls found themselves leaning towards other subjects that were considered more creative. It showed that very few girls deemed careers in STEM as creative.

Girls who take part in extracurricular activities and outdoor clubs have demonstrated higher confidence in taking on a stem related career.

Encouragement from parents and teachers also pose a factor in girl’s interest in stem, those who discuss stem subjects outside of the classroom show higher interest in pursuing further study.

Why aren’t girls studying physics after the age of 16?

From October 2008 to April 2009, a total of 5,642 year 10 students from 137 UK schools took part in a questionnaire that would investigate student’s confidence and performance in physics. This survey compared the commonalities between boys and girls in their response and attitude towards physics.

Findings from a large UK survey illustrates the following:

● PB- boys wanting to participate in physics

● PG- girls wanting to participate in physics

● NPB- boys not wanting to participate in physics

● NPG- girls not wanting to participate in physics

Results from this survey demonstrated that girls showed less intention to take on physics for further study (post-16) even around a supportive circle of teachers, parents and family than boys. Although, there were a subgroup of girls who held an interest in studying physics after year 10. These girls displayed having higher extrinsic motivation, a more positive approach towards the subject

and encouraging teachers and lessons. The group of girls also held specific character traits such as being competitive and introverted.

All in all, girls showed equal, if not better performance in exams in comparison to boys in science GCSE exams. Though sadly, the gender gap is still remains the widest in physics than in any other STEM subject.

This has shown to hold relation to the theory that boys typically possess psychological traits boys such as being goal orientated, dominant, independent and competitive. As opposed to girls which have been likely to display attributes such as being responsible, cooperative, cautious, calculative and person orientated.

Therefore perhaps lessening the feel of competitiveness in class can encourage girl’s participation and performance in their post-16 studies.

Building on this viewpoint, it is believed that the characteristics that allow STEM to be seem appealing to boys, is the power of high pay and status which doesn’t create the same effect on girls.

Instead girls have typically shown to associate STEM careers with the opposite gender due to this subjects appealing to males so much.

In order to encourage girls to take an interest in STEM subjects, alternative approaches should be put into practice. There is evidence that girls are prone to choosing a career in science if the subject resonates and relates them to a person who’s inspired them to hold a positive outlook towards that subject.

Studies show that single sex schools have more of a positive view on physics in comparison to mixed school this may be due to girl’s perceiving the subject to be more masculine, thus showing girls appear to hold a more positive attitude towards STEM subjects when in a single sex environment. In fact, both genders show a higher probability in taking on a science subject in higher tier KS3 in same sex schools.

Natural and intrinsic motivation appears to be attained from a feel of genuine interest and amusement when practicing that subject. The basis being that formulating an interest and satisfaction in physics can heighten the drive towards their studies.

In the questionnaire, students who established a genuine and fundamental appreciation for physics indicated an actual liking, finding it to be their preferable subject. Although having an appreciation for the subject did not necessarily mean that students viewed physics as a potential career path but possibly just a hobby or passion.

A gained desire construct touches on student’s intentions behind studying physics due to the material and practical gains they shall receive in pursuing a career path. This reveals there are two indispensable measurements to extrinsic/practical incentive- choosing stem subjects for social advantage e.g. to hold a better reputation socially and obtain a more secure financial status.

-Jenna Rahma

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After watching numerous 2D animations on Youtube, and researching a variety of contrasting 2D character visuals, we were able to identify the different artistic features that would best suit our visual aim for our animation.

I began by creating 3 different 'sausage and egg' diagrams of the human form. Doing this would allow us to view different styles of body proportions we could potentially utilise for our character for  e.g.  either a character with a large round head but a small body, or one with a long thin body and a small head.

Experimenting with proportions is very important when creating a character for animation. The proportions contribute to the stance and posture of a character as well as influencing how it moves around the frame and corresponds visually with the story that is being presented.

-Leah Dennis

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When it comes to the research behind the gender gap in STEM there are so many statistics that support the movement. There are many reasons as to why there is a problem with the levels of gender, firstly more boys choose to study STEM subjects than girls when at school and university. Through-out the last few years the gap has decreased between the two however there is still a significant gap between them. When asking girls at University of Kent why they chose to study non-STEM related subjects, more than half said that they were more likely to gain a job from their chosen course and felt they were not capable enough to go into areas of STEM. Because of the fewer women in STEM jobs this means the current girl students have fewer role models than boys do. Society and history play a major role in the reasons for gender discrimination, because of the way women are portrayed within our society girls feel they cannot be apart of STEM subjects, they feel they must stick to the way things are now and to stray far from the norm would not do well for them.

-Neena Mistry

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The shapes that make up a character have a massive effect on the overall style. There are many directions you could follow in the stylisation process, however they will lead you to a different outcome depending on the types of shape you decide to use.

A lot of 2D motion graphic characters adapt a more box shape approach. These characters are very simple but yet effective. They are easy to manipulate during the animation process as they do not consist of layers of facial and body features. Using a more basic character with fewer layers means there aren't as many opportunities for errors to occur.

The simplicity of this type of character can still be applied to a more rounded and realistic figure, we just have to make sure that we stick to block colours and avoid bombarding our character with very detailed features. Not only will it increase the number of layers we have to work with whilst animating, but it might ruin our visual objective.

I decided to sketch out three contrasting characters, based on the three previous proportion sketches, and the different styles we had picked up on during our research. Doing this helped us to judge all of our three potential characters up against one another, and identify the postives and negatives of using the character for our animation.

We came to the conclusion that the tall character sketch wouldn't benefit our animation. The head on this characters body is quite small and we want our animation to present clear facial expressions. Therefore, we felt our characters face needed to be larger avoid any animated expressions becoming lost in the scene.

We were left to choose between two similar size/proportioned characters, however they were both constructed using different shapes.  We needed to take into consideration our target audience, and which character they would find more visually pleasing. Having two younger sisters the same age as our target audience, I asked them which character they would rather watch in an animation. Both of my sisters were in agreement, and preferred the rounded and slightly more detailed character on the left. They said that there would be more opportunites to use the different facial features to help tell the story of our animation. It was also said that the other character was a more uninteresting, basic visual, and that style of character is more common in motion graphic animation; so would be nice to see something more original.

2D Character examples: https://www.pinterest.at/pin/352195633347345808/

-Leah Dennis

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I had a meeting with Blaine today to discuss our girls in STEM video. We discussed our initial idea and we came to the conclusion that it isn’t practical or ideal to include interviews with KS4/5 girls in our video. It will be a lot of hassle trying to get all the interviews cleared with the ethics department at the university. This means that the entire video will be a 2D motion graphic video instead. I personally feel like this will be a lot more engaging for our target audience and is better suited for the message we are trying to project. Following this meeting, as a group, we are going to begin by doing more research into different motion graphic videos regarding STEM in general. Doing this will broaden our ideas about different artistic directions we could take when creating the characters and backgrounds in our animation. We’re also going to look through Accenture’s website to see what they’re working on right now, as it will be beneficial when piecing our own video together.

- Leah Dennis

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There are 12 principles of animation

01. Squash and stretch

An essential technique used in animation to give all objects and characters realism is the squash and stretch utility. It is one of the 12 employed and one of the most important and most frequently used. It can be best visualized when thinking of a rubber ball in slow motion hitting the ground when thrown, on impact it would quite simply squash and when it bounces off the ground resume its original shape. When an object is either squashed or stretched it important to demonstrate this in correlation to volume either wider for when squashed and thinner for when stretched. This gives weight to the appearance in terms of movement and takes into consideration all the necessary elements with regards to gravity, weight, mass and flexibility. It is therefore important to give the individual object its unique volume and consistency.

02. Anticipation

Another technique to show realism and naturalism to movement is the application of Anticipation. It is the connection displayed before the movement of, for example, jumping upright. You must even momentarily display the connection of having to bend ones knees in order to do so, an otherwise impossible action, another good example, would be the action taken by the arm in preparation to throwing a ball, i.e. pulling the arm back, all done in the name of creating animation that is life like as opposed to demonstrating stagnant poise.

03. Staging

Staging is an important factor in limiting the unimportant features in the narrative and focusing on important imagery. In this way staging and focus directs the gaze focus of the viewer, insider to restrict the movement of the background narrative, for coherency maintaining and ensuring the primary attention on what is important to the narrative, much like an artist deploys in composing a narrative in his artwork.

04. Straight ahead action and pose to pose

Two different approaches can be taken in the drawing of application and are often both utilised. Pose to pose drawing is the creating the first image and the last intended image and the filling in the gaps in a less cohesive manner and can be utilised best for dramatic effect as this narrative intended for drama would be prioritised. The other approach straight ahead action uses a step by step story motion telling proposal to each frame from the beginning to end, intended for fluidity and realism with all aspects of the movement narrative cohesively laid out.

05. Follow through and overlapping action

To apply further principles of realism in the animation of moving objects, different parts of the object or people will move in different ways, speed and directions, for example, a character running may have arms and legs running in different directions and speed, similarly those concept is followed through when coming to a standstill for example the runners feet may stop before the arms come to a standstill. The runner’s hair to express realism may also move in different ways and actions may overlap throughout the sequence.

06. Slow in and slow out

To best begin a sequence depicting motion starting and ending frames can be increased and decreased respectively, to depict for example a car starting up, frames would be increased and evened out during the movement and then decreased further when stopping.

07. Arc

Following the principles of 'arc' physics, objects movements are set on a course in motion and you can apply these same principle when drawing out the sequence of moving objects in animation. For example the trajectory of a tossed ball in the air, taking into account gravity natural effect.

08. Secondary action

Although narratives are drawn out with emphasis on main actions, secondary actions simultaneously act to give depth to the narrative of characters and objects. They are often subtle supports that should be carefully considered to not take away focus from what is most important. For example the gait of a characters walk, expressions whilst talking or moving, the motion of hair, even the effects of how objects primary and secondary ones react to one another. All though out carefully to give primary actions the most focus.

09. Timing

So much in animation looks to physics and how the real world works especially with regards to movement and reactions timing is another element that must be considered. It must be done in the same way if it is to be believable although there is artist licence in the realm of the imagined although consistency in this would best if this were taken.

10. Exaggeration

To enable your animation of characters and object to take on dynamism and avoid being dull and static, you should experiment in ways to make the characters or object stand out by exaggerating certain features. In this way you step outside the norm and the animations will stand out.

11. Solid drawing

Being able to deliver believable drawings or interesting animation, you must have knowledge of how to draw, including drawing in 3d, knowledge of form and anatomy, regard weight and volume, lighting and shadowing. Again exploring these principles with regards to experimentation and artistic licence may taken, however, consistency should again be taken to achieve cohesiveness. A world with a warped perspective and misshapen doors should remain so until the end of the animation.

12. Appeal

Whilst there is no magic formula in getting your animation just right in order to appeal an audience, you must try to reach them with a clear message. For the narrative to direct itself as successfully as possible the realm you create must include appealing characters and this may have more chance if their characters are further developed, with good story telling in your animations that will include the objects in this world all subjects therefore will possess personality in their own right and should have solid drawing in this capacity with comprehensible designs.

-Jenna Rahma

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1. Mind Mapping
2. Story Board
3. Scripting
4. Audio Correction

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Having created our first initial character, we needed to adapt it to create a variety of different characters whilst maintaining the same style throughout.

Thanks to having our storyboard, we are able to detect the number of characters we are going to require for our animation. There are eight females in our animation, and one male character. Having this knowledge definitely benefitted me, as I was able to use our initial character design as a template and adjust facial features and clothing to create the eight other characters present in our animation.

Despite our project only requiring us to have a section of the animation fully completed, we still need to design each and every character for our rough sketch sequence. We also found it beneficial to trial colours on our characters, this is to see what type of colour scheme were leaning towards, and whether we want to go down the direction of pastel or more vibrant colours.

After blocking four of the characters in colour, we instantly loved the visual we had created using the more vibrant colours. Using these colours created a more interesting composition, and they worked well in unison with the overall appearance of the character.

-Leah Dennis

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Following the research on existing STEM animations, we created a rough mind map of any ideas or themes that instantly came to mind.

From this, we took our favourite ideas and created a clear structured mind map and established how each section would run and how it connects to the importance of female figures within STEM.

-Leah Dennis

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For the background in our animation, we want it to be very simplistic. There is a nice amount of detail that has gone into the creation of the characters, therefore having a very detailed background will only divert the attention away from the animation. In terms of colour, we all agreed that very light pastel colours would perfectly compliment the vibrancy of the character artwork.

We experimented with a few different ways we could make the background appear more interesting but remain subtle within our composition.

We trialed a 1D perspective room design up against a plain pastel coloured background. The perspective room added a bit of depth to the animation, however we didn't feel as though we were as attentive to the character as we were when the background was a plain pastel colour.

So despite our best efforts we decided to keep the background as different pastel colours depending on the scene. We found in doing this increased the clarity and cleanliness of our animation.

-Leah Dennis

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Using the ideas from the mind map I was able to plan out a detailed story board, with diagrams and annotations.

-Leah Dennis

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We started scripting our audio by looking at our storyboard and noting down different voice over ideas for each section of the animation. This helped us to see how long certain sections of the visuals needed to be depending on the duration of the voiceover.

We then composed a final script from our draft script, and published it in PDF document. This benefitted us massively, as we were able to use it as a reference throughout the entire animation process.

- Leah Dennis

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1. Rough Sketch Sequence of Animation
2. Complete Section of Animation

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This is our full rough sketch sequence animation. The sketch sequence is an insight into the entire animation without the fully rendered graphics.

For this rough sketch sequence, I have decided to include the voice over and copyright free music audio. This is beneficial as it adds to the clarity of the visual, and presents a better understanding of our animations end result.

- Leah Dennis

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Store photos and docs online. Access them from any PC, Mac or phone. Create and work together on Word, Excel or PowerPoint documents.

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-Leah Dennis