Graphics pathway- week 4

Stop Motion Workshop

This week we carried on with our workshop rotations. On the Monday I had the stop motion workshop. I had never done anything like this before and so I didn't know what to expect. Luckily we got to work in pairs which was useful as I am not that good with computers.
However the introduction was very interesting with some fun examples of how stop motion can be used to produce creative videos with strong concepts.

Procrastination John Kelly

What I love about this piece is how he has used many different animation techniques to illustrate an amusing and relatable concept.

We had to base our animation on our continued global warming project and the United Nations climate change conference held from 30 November to 11 December 2015, in Paris, France. The animation also had to be an ident (like the previous week's project) so we decided that our audience would be children, where the ident could appear on a children's TV programme, such as "CBBC", to inform them about global warming.

After brain storming some ideas, we came up with a story line that included different factors of global warming which all linked together. However we were told early on that it would take too long to do all of what we planned in one day so we just chose two sections of it.

We were told that to create a seamless animation when working digitally you have to produce 25 frames per second. As we were instructed to produce a 10 second animation, 250 frames seemed like a lot for one day.

However after drawing up our ideas and putting the frames together we realised that they go very quickly and in order to keep the image on the screen for longer, more pictures needed to be taken of the same thing or with it slightly altered.

After we produce all that we wanted to do we realised that it was too short so we added more frames in-between making the animation more dynamic and easier to understand as each topic was on the screen for longer.

We then added sound effects to it, for example the sound of an explosion and the sound of a car's engine, however unfortunately these sounds did not transfer with the video when I copied it to my laptop so they do not appear on the video above.

Overal I was happy with the way it turned out but if I were to improve it I think we could have added more of our previous ideas to the animation because we ended up having spear time afterwards.

InDesign workshop

In the morning of this workshop we were given next week's brief of creating a logo for a brand to work with in InDesign. We learnt how to create different mood boards to help develop our ideas for our final design, such as colour, theme and research mood boards.

Having little experience with this application prior to the workshop I struggled to get the hang of putting pictures in the different boxes and moving them to the places I wanted, however I soon got the hang of it and found this a really useful way to gather ideas together.

After lunch we worked with type layouts which was fun to experiment with, however my knowledge of the different tools was limited so I did not produce anything that spectacular.

Calligraphy workshop

In this workshop we were given different styles of calligraphy to experiment with copying which was fun as sometimes as it didn't always go to plan...

Despite being told that it was better to draw lines as guides for the letter sizing and form, I found it easier to just go with the flow of the paintbrush and let the eyes guide the letter forms. I also found that the outcomes turned out more interesting using this method.

We also used our practice and inspiration that we found on the internet to write lyrics or poems in a calligraphic way. We could illustrate them and decorate around them to enhance their meaning. I found this exercise very enjoyable.

After lunch we experimented with type layout and how the positioning of letters on a page can be used to illustrate the meaning of the word.

Using examples from a book as inspiration, these are a few of my designs and outcomes:



I didn't find this as enjoyable as I felt that it was very restricting having to stick to the exact letter forms.

Graphics pathway week 3- degree projects

BA Motion graphics project

At the beginning of the week we were instructed to create a story board for a channel's ident this could be to advertise a particular tv show, time of year or theme, such as the ones for BBC2.

My initial ideas included having fireworks explode in the sky and then a "2" appear in the centre, perhaps for a fireworks night theme or new years.

For my other ideas I experimented with reversing video and speeding it up as at this point I had not previously done a giff or stop motion piece before. Alternatively I planned to film the real thing.

My first more developed idea consisted of making a clay "2", breaking it apart under a camera and then reversing it to make it look like the clay was reforming.

My second idea consisted of melting a candle shaped like a "2" ontop of a cupcake, filming it, reversing it and then speeding it up to again make it look like the 2 was reforming. This could perhaps be a Great British Bake Off themed ident.

I decided to film the second one of the two ideas.

To make the shot seem more interesting I added collared streamers from party poppers in the background and on the floor. Unfortunately the wick of the candle only carried on half way down the wax so I didn't get to film as much footage of the candle melting as I would have liked. However this project gave me the opportunity to work with iMovie for the first time, which after having watched a lot of youtube videos on how to create certain effects, I finally was able to produce something that I was proud of.

BA Graphics project

The second project we were given to do was to design a cover for a book written by a Nobel Laureate.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck was the only one I had read on the list as I had studied it for GCSE and so I decided to do that.

My study of the book for English literature became useful here as I could pick out particular quotes and their hidden meanings from the text and base my design ideas on them. As I am leaning towards doing illustration for degree I decided that I would illustrate some of my favourite quotes from the book and those which I felt are most important to the story and illustrate them.

Here are a few of my ideas:

When we were given the project I was a bit worried that I would not be able to produce a well designed book cover as I had never used adobe InDesign before. However after watching a few youtube videos and experimenting with different tools I was able to produce a simple design.

If we were given more time I would have liked to have learnt how to cut my illustration out on Photoshop so that it isn't sitting in a plain white square but is instead fully surrounded by the background.

For the background I also tried to go with the theme of earthy type colours that are present on the cover of my own copy of the book as I feel they go well with the story line. However my water colour wash seemed a bit too pink and perhaps gives out the wrong message. So if I were to improve it I would include less pink in the wash.

However given the time frame for this project and my previous limited knowledge of adobe programmes I was proud of how this turned out and the final layout of the product was better than I expected it would be. This was true for both of my outcomes for the projects.

Graphics week 2- Gallery Visits

The British Library- West Africa show

I found this the less interesting of the three exhibitions as a lot of the information was based on text and fact, however I did enjoy looking at some of the more illustrative pieces.

The Welcome Collection- Wellcome Collection (Euston) "Yellowbluepink" Ann Veronica Janssens

Ann Veronica Janssens's Instillation filled the room with densely coloured mist which made the viewer feel almost scared and claustrophobic but strangely intrigued. This rather bizarre combination counted for a thrilling experience as often you couldn't see where you were going or how big the room was and couldn't see another person until they were very close to you. I felt that it provided viewers with an almost escape from reality where they were transported into a mystical land where only happy thoughts were permitted with bright and uplifting colours. Although the insulation was slightly disorientating, the dense mist and warm colours was almost comforting, uplifting the spirits of all those in the room.

Royal Academy of the Arts- Ai Weiwei

(Photo: Royal Academy of the Arts)

Within this exhibition I particularly liked Ai Weiwei's Tree sculpture as it seemed that the Royal Academy of the Arts's courtyard was transformed into a fairy tale woodland, which made for a rather magical experience.

With typical boldness, the chosen works explored a multitude of challenging themes, drawing on Ai Weiwei's own experience to comment on creative freedom, censorship and human rights, as well as examining contemporary Chinese art and society.

Through art he is able to reveal the true oppressive nature of China, a state who's dictatorship imprisoned him for 20 years of his young life. I felt that his scaled down models of houses really illustrated the harshness of Chinese society and the maltreatment of its individuals, particularly under the leadership of Mao.