The two styles I researched into were grain motion graphics and neon-retro motion graphics. Once we had all done our research into our respective styles we chose to move forward with a mixture of fluid transition motion graphics and grain motion graphics and also kinetic typography being used as well. 

 

After we decided to move forward with these styles I began researching into how we would animate in these styles and work out what aspects needed to be maintained in the drawing of the scenes so they could be animated in these styles. For this research I looked at multiple different examples of animations, in particular the animator Ben Marriot, who has extensive work in his portfolio working in grain motion graphics.

https://www.youtube.com/user/benmarriottart

https://www.benmarriott.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmrcRUGy1uM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5wq9DsQ_Lc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doSmYieyIgw&t=2s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8JiaUHmdUA&t=9s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbq1bwMdFbA

One key aspect I learnt from this research stage was that layering of the designs whilst in Illustrator was key to achieve the desired style in After Effects whilst animating. 

Jay Grimmer jg657 

 

Once we had created our first style frame of the city we decided as a group we needed to pick a colour palette which would follow through the animation. We went away and selected a few different colour palettes and then changed the colours we had used in the original style frame to a selection from these colour palettes. 

 

We then had four versions of the same scene, all using a different colour palette. To decide on which we should use we set up a survey on Google forms. On the form, I set out three questions for those taking the survey, firstly, how old they were and whether they were within our target audience, secondly which of the four style frames they liked the most and lastly, whether they would stop to watch a video on the environment. 

 

From this survey we had thirty-nine responses, of which 92.3% were within our target audience of 15-23. From these responses, we were able to see that one style frame was preferred more than the others, with a winning majority of 33.3% and we were also able to see that 56.4% of the responders would watch a video on the environment and another 41% would watch the video depending on the style. 

 

After we collected the data from the survey we discussed the results and agreed that we due to the topic of our video the style frame that those taking the survey picked as their favourite would not necessarily be well adapted for each of our scenes. To address this we decided that we would create our own colour palette, taking the majority of colours from the survey winner but also from two of the runner up style frames so that we could then have a mixture of colours which would be broad enough to be adapted to each scene of the animation. 

 

Jay Grimmer jg657

 

Once the scenes were drawn out and coloured in Illustrator I began work on the animatic. One initial problem I encountered was that the scenes that were drawn in Adobe Illustrator were in A4 dimensions whilst the composition for the animatic was in 1280x720. This meant I had to transfer each layer of the scenes in Illustrator into a new file so that I could put the Illustrator file directly into After Effects so that I could animate each layer of each scene separately. 

 

Once I completed this I put the scenes into After Effects and began animating them. I created a main animatic composition with the audio file we had been given and where I planned to place each scene’s composition into to then edit together. 

 

The idea for our initial animatic was to get a rough idea of how the scenes would fit together with each other in a sequence and with the audio. With this in mind I kept the animation for each scene to a relative minimum, giving an idea of what we had in mind for the scenes animation but not putting it all in at this point.

 

A lot of the animation was done through changes in position and scale of the layer and assets from Illustrator. The smoke and fire animations were created through wave warp effects. Once I had animated a scene in its own composition I would then place that scene’s composition into the larger animatic composition and line it up with the audio track.

 

Once I had finished work on the animatic we sent it off to receive feedback. From this we decided to add to some areas of the sequence that were blank and needed scenes to fill them. We also decided to adapt and change some scenes and also remove some of other scenes. 

 

Jay Grimmer jg657 

 

For the initial animatic we decided to solely focus on the flow of the scenes with the audio so did not include any transitions. Once I had completed the animatic and we had received feedback and suggestions on some transition ideas I began work on adding them into the sequence. 

 

Due to the speed of the audio track the transitions had to be very fast so the visuals could keep up with the soundtrack. As a result of this, a lot of the transitions were zoom effects, created through animating the scale and position of scenes. We would transition from one scene to another by zoom into one area of the composition which was the colour of our next scene until it filled the screen and then the next scene would begin. 

 

Another style of transition we used was having the newspapers that were flashing on the screen of the television at the beginning of the sequence cover the screen. The newspapers then fell away and a new scene was underneath. 

 

For the factory scene near the end of the sequence we matched aspects of the bad factory scene with aspects of the good factory scene so as the camera moved through the scene following the text I changed the backgrounds whilst the viewer’s focus was on the text. I then had the camera zoom out to reveal the change in the background. 

 

Jay Grimmer jg657

 

This was a challenge but once I was able to get each frame to flow onto the next and the vehicles moving across the screen and transforming into each other I added grain to the smoke and dark clouds as well as wave warps to fire and smoke as well. 

 

Another change for the final animation was to remove the television scene from the beginning of the sequence, from our feedback it was clear that we were not achieving what we wanted with this so removed it. Instead we changed the movement of the newspapers coming onto screen so they were less linear, using easing in and easing out on the graph editor. 

 

After I had changed this the initial screen still seemed quite empty before any of the newspapers came onto screen so I added the kinetic typography to the very beginning of the sequence. 

 

From the feedback we received, another idea discussed was having four plumes of smoke in the factory scene and when the 50% drifts off two of them fade and stop. This was another change we added to the final animation, as well as adding grain to the smoke plumes. 

 

Once the sequence was all together and we were happy with it, I went through and changed some of the animated opacity so the animation was not as linear, using the graph editor again to ease in and ease out the key frames. 

 

Jay Grimmer jg657

Tools that I’ve found most useful within this project have to be the guide lines I set up after viewing videos and tutorials of designing fonts. This helped me keep the scale of the letters similar, meaning they all fit together and didn’t need much correction with resizing. 

I wanted to create a font using a single line as it would impersonate a handwritten font as well as allow my group to choose the stroke level on the letters adjusting it to the rest of the animation.

To create the letters I mainly used the pen tool in order to get all the curves and angles of the shape. The uneven straight lines were created on purpose as the font was meant to look rough. 

Add and delete anchor tool allowed me to have more control over the points on the lines. Direct selection tool meant I could change the shape of the letters entirely. One of the problems I came across was when the lines weren’t connected to each other properly, (in letters such as P and K). When changing the stroke level the two points weren’t aligned and created other unwanted misfits. I managed to overcome that by making sure all the points were jointed and grouped together.

After getting a good idea of what fonts already exist, I decided to carry out a test of other peoples handwriting. I’ve asked members of my household to each write letters and numbers in capitals there fore making the survey (if you can call it that), fair. I then compared the letters to one another to see the differences in the style of handwriting, this led to me to picking out and combining the letters and different shapes into the desired font. 

These are the result of the font that I have created, and screenshots of different frames of the final text being put into the animation. I really like how it turned out due to the different sizing making it eye-catching for the viewer as well as fitting in with the overall style of our animation.

Michal Sobolewski ms2110

Setting out to create these sounds from scratch was tricky. I had to come up with a creative idea of imitating these sounds like they do in professional films in later sounds production. One of the biggest challenges I faced was, recreating the sounds of a static TV noise. I set out by exploring with a shower head and seeing if the noise of many water droplets would give me the wanted outcome. After recording I went into post production and started editing those sounds, adding reverb, reducing the low-end frequency and many other settings still didn’t give me the final sounds I was looking for. I didn’t want to give up and getting all my answers from the internet. 

Adding crunched up tin foil onto the bottom of the bath gave some great results at first but after running the water for more than three seconds, little pools started to form and change the sounds completely. Therefor I had the tin foil under an angle so the water would ruin of quietly onto the bath floor not creating other unwanted noises. This gave me a great outcome as the tin foil made more of a static sound straight away. 

After implementing some of these sounds within our animation, aligning the timing and noise levels to fit in better with our animation, as a group we decided that it did actually take away from the overall experience. We came to a conclusion it was too disturbing and random for the viewer, taking away their concentration from the important audio about saving the planet and focusing on the animation too much. 

Michał Sobolewski ms2110