30 Frame Sequences

Here are the 30 frame sequences for the 4 Manipulate animations.

Manipulate 1:



Manipulate 2:



Manipulate 3:



Manipulate 4:

Manipulate Animations

Test:



Manipulate 1:



Manipulate 2:



Manipulate 3:



Manipulate 4:



Overall, I'm not impressed. I still can't quite get my head around this program as quickly as other people but I hope to improve significally later on.

Binary Binary Binary

For the past few months I've had major drawing block. I started focusing everything on uni work and when I would come home (and do more work) I simply didn't have the energy to draw anything. (That, and every time I picked up a pencil an act of war was committed to paper)

And then that went away the other week:


Warlock from the Marvel title; New Mutants. Yes he's an alien robot. No he's not a transformer.(Though coincidently, they did come out in the same year...ekk)

On top of quick digital drawings I have also been trying my hand at digital painting:


No it's not David Bowie. I haven't finished it yet and it probably won't be done with for a few months. (slooow)

My illustration skills are not quite up to scratch, I need to work on them if i'm really serious about being an illustrative graphic designer. I still don't know what area I want to go into (whether it is character design I want to do) or narrative graphic design.

I have a few months to ponder that one out. I don't want to stick myself in a comfy specialised corner as I like all aspects of Graphic Design including this current module. obviously it's going to take me some time to get my head wrapped around After Effects, but it's proving very useful and I'm currently really enjoying the module.

Am I Good? Am I Evil?

New task today!

After looking over our condensed story boards, we where given a new task and it involved that handy little website know as youtube.

We had to team up and find a good example of Kinetic Typography. (For the animation, please look at my Design Context blog)

Today was all about looking at the pace of a animation and breaking down.

1: (JD and Chartreuse, handy for those rolled up pieces of work.)

The first treatment was taking a 30 second section of our clip and breaking it down into a time line. 30 second animation, 60 cm time line broken down for 2 second clips. (There where 16 screen grabs overall but we left off the last one because well...it didn't fit.)

2:

Then we had to take each of the sound clips and map them out a time line, with corresponding image grabs.

3:
I'm terrible, I've forgotten what this one is about.

Story Boarding Task

After Fred's workshop on Thursday, he set us a task to go away with. Before we had 3 treatments for our letter with 12 frames each. We had to condense that down to 9 frames. We also take those 3 original treatments and condense them to 18 frames on the same sheet.

I thought it was going to be tricky, but having only 9 frames to work with sort of helped with the planning.

Movement:

Horizontal & Vertical:

Static:

Combined 18:

Story Boarding

Today we had a story boarding workshop with Fred.

We could use only one letter and had some restrictions, such as in one the letter has to be static, in another it needs horizontal and vertical movement and in the final one it needs to move from front to back or any variation there of.

Also, they had to be to do with our chosen word. Mine is 'manipulate'.

Static:
My idea for this would be electric shooting through the letters, changing them from a serif letter to a san's serif. Shooting the serifs off, in some kind of Doctor Frankenstein making his monster kind of thing.

Horizontal & Vertical: (Please excuse my drunken image, I'll straighten it out later) Serif letter floats upwards, it's serif's are caught and fall back down. The, now san serif, letter floats back down.

Movement: Serif letter zooms out woods and comes back down as a sanserif with it's litter serif's tumbling back down.

Module 2 GO!

A new day, a new module. Design for Digital and I'm quite looking forward to it!

I did a year of animation on my ND graphics course so I'm looking forward to learning more about that.

But first, the return of the randomizer box! After the module briefing with Fred, we did a small brief in the space of a few hours just to get the brain going again. We where to pick 3 words from the box and visually represent them on A2 paper.

My words where: Manipulate, Tap, Open

So first, my doodle/idea sheet:


I just wanted to throw some idea's down first and then move along to actually putting them down on paper.

Manipulate:

This is my favourite one. It's based on a font I found on DA font, but I changed it to show manipulation. As you can see, the electric shoots through the Serif letters and zaps away their serifs, making them, eventually, san serif.

Tap:
I didn't just want to draw a tap, or anything related to tapping. So I made the Spinal Tap logo/font. I think this could be animated quite well, if you use a little imagination.

Open:
Worst, representation, ever. Seriously, it looks like clip art.

OUGD 201 - Print Evaluation

1. your ability to select develop and evaluate a range of appropriate source
material gathered through a breadth of appropriate research methods

At the beginning of this module, I wasn’t sure what I thought was good. There where things I could list of the top of my head but there was no real way to prove it. This is why I chose Dyslexia,, because I was able to research more into it than I already have done and find specific reasons as to why it is good, and not a hindered like most people believe.

My research methods included browsing the internet, looking through books I already have on the subject and general knowledge. (As well as speaking to dyslexia support that we have in the college.)

I focused on proving that just because a person has dyslexia, does not mean they can not do everything else a person without can do. I also tried to show that having Dyslexia is a positive thing as we learn very differently from a person without it. This type of learning can help with later career moves like becoming an artist or something that involves hand’s on learning and general creativity.

I believe I could have done more surveys in the class and to the general public. After one survey, the answers I received on Dyslexia where as follows: It isn't good to have because you can't spell and it's frustrating, also you get a free mac. I wanted to prove that having a learning disability isn't frustrating all the time because people develop coping techniques to deal with it.

I also want to make this brief fun and that was where my concept idea came into it.

2. The level of investigation and experimentation into appropriate production,
media,processes and technologies.

Overall I think I am now that little more knowledgeable on the print process than I was before hand. There were many things about different types of printing that I didn't realise before hand. This had been covered in my print booklet and is a main part of it. I decided to concentrate on different types of printing rather than different paper types ect, (even thought that is also relevant)

I know that writing white text on yellow paper will not be readable once printed, but it is on screen. If I was to make the full print process booklet then this problem would be looked at and rectified as not to blind my reader.

3. the breadth and quality of practical skills, ideas and design development.

I think this was probably the strongest part of my work, and I believe I have improved from last year. The idea for the concept came straight away, as well as my audience. The problem I found was that i was struggling with products to make. My first initial idea was a little bottle of positive dyslexia traits, but it had not context. (it was essentially a design floating with no where to live.) So I came up with the Dyslexia Depot idea after researching into the 826NY writing program.

I believe I could have looked into producing different products as well as different themes for the store instead of sticking with the fifty's. I chose that era because it was the age of discovery and development and that was something I wanted to bring to the store.

Overall, I am very pleased with the how the logo for the store turned out as well as the mock up product I made for the presentation boards. Even though it's simple, it works with the era I was looking at (as well as using printing techniques from that era.)

4. the documentation, organisation and presentation of your work for this module.
As it was started on the brief, I think I should have done more blog work than I have. Over the last two weeks, it felt as if I never left college which meant I was able to do even more work on my briefs. (which was a good thing)I'm finding it harder to work at home and easier to work in a studio environment. At home, I'm more tempted to leave the work and work on things I don't really have time for (like my illustrating and writing.)

The presentation work at the beginning of the year, (though not judged on graphic design quality) could have been better produced. I'm a designer, which means I should just be putting information into a power point, but really thinking about how it covey's with the audience.

I'm starting to see what kind of style I have and how it is improving and not this needs to follow through into my work.

5. the success of your final products in relation to the briefs.
I finalised the 5 A2 boards about four times until I was really happy with them. I like their overall outcome and feel as they convey exactly what I wanted to say. There could have been a few more slides in the PDF to cover a few bit's here and there that I'm only just starting to remember. (Like WHY I went for the fifty's theme), which isn't covered in either the boards of the PDF.

For the presentation boards, I should have booked my self into the print rooms but I kept changing them on a daily basis. However, I think they turned out just as good and it doesn't bother me too much that they don't quite have the professional feel to theme.

Overall, I'm pleased with how my boards and the print booklet turned out, even though I could have planned for the booklet a bit more. Layout and typography are not my strong points but I think it was delivered quite well in that respect.

I am pleased with what I have produced in this module, and I hope to improve with the next module.

The Big Picture

So I wasn't very happy with this design to begin with, it just seemed a little too miss matched for my liking. However, once I had the box made and the design finally printed onto the lid it didn't look so bad.

Please ignore the magic tape holding it together.

Einstein pulls those shades off so much better than Kanye...

The design was printed on sugar paper as I was hoping for a more recycled card feeling. The design it's self was supposed to be screen printed onto the paper but I didn't manage my time so well. However, as it's just a mock up I don't feel bad for admitting it.

If I was to make the product (and it wasn't for a mock) then yes, I would have booked myself into screen printing.

Logo Re Design

After having a small talk with Lorenzo about what I need to do for this project, we got onto the discussion of the logo. It needed to be more readable and easier to make out if shrunk down to fit on the side of a small box. So I spent the morning going back over the old design and tried to re work it with out completely re doing it.

Ok so here's the original Einstein character that I wanted to keep in the logo design. This is the bit that I didn't want to completely remake but I did make some small adjustments as you can see by the 2nd image. :
Right now it's not very ordered or logo-ish. I change the font to make it more readable and adjusted the size. It needed something to keep it together, like the original had a small banner/board with the text upon it.
I added a grey outlined oval just to see how it would over lap with the text. The actual border is black and it was hard to read the text with that running through it. So, some adjustments where in oder and I had the finalised black and and white image:
I deleted some of the border and even made a small indent around the characters arm and hand so it wouldn't be completely lost in black.
The colours are still pending for the design but here is this is the sort of coloured version. I still need to do some finalising.

And playing with textures and overlays is always fun:

I rather like the distressed look. (But it makes it look more western than retro 50's...but that was when the wild west was all the rage.

Logo 2

2nd of 3 store front logo's for the Dyslexia Depot. Again, I have no clue which one I want to go with yet but I'm less keen on this one than the first one. I think once I have the 3rd one up and done I'll know which one I'll want to go with.

The original slightly changed because every now and again my ability to draw hands goes away. I really should stop simply chopping body parts off or I'll turn into Rob Liefield. (shudders)

And the black and white version's. At this point I still think I'd go with the first logo but we'll see what colour has to bring to it.

Dyslexia Depot; Logo 1 COLOUR TIME!

Working with colour on this was harder than I first imagined. The first two colours are rather gaudy looking and both use more colours then I could afford (If we where talking about printing on a professional level.) However, the last one worked well for the style and era the theme is set in. (Retro/vintage/50's)

I still want to look at using colours from that era like dusty pinks and toothpaste aqua. (You know which ones I mean, old diners and such.)

Then I played with the opacity to see what effects I could get with a wood texture. I think it looks a little bit like spot vanish, not really useful for my project but I rather like the overall look.

(Looks like I etched him into a school table. Whoops.)

Dyslexia Depot; Logo 1

This is the first of 3 logo's I have developed from a sheet of designs. So far I've just worked with it in black and white. I'll be doing colour versions in a few but here's what I have for now.

Original:

Dyslexia Depot's poster child: Einstein. Why? Because he's iconic and was the thick child in school who had to sit at the back with the safety scissors and glitter. He was the father or modern physics and couldn't spell for toffee.

Four slightly alternated designs but I'm not so sure about this one just yet. I'm going to work on the other two and see which one is stands out.

Retro Font-GO!

Over on my Design Context blog I have looked into packaging and advertisement from the 1950/60's and general retro/vintage era. I want the dyslexia store front to have a theme and many iconic designs came from that era. Also, many crazy idea's where boxes up and sold back then and what's crazier than a shop that sell's you positive dyslexia traits?

So I've been looking around for font from that era and here is a small compiled list. I'm hoping to broaden this list but I have my heart set on "Brody" for the store front Logo. (I'll post up the mock up's later.)

(Click to enlarge)

The top four font's are exactly what I'm looking for but that era also used a lot of block capitals and bolded letters so that's something else I'll have to look into. Unfortunately, it was pointed out to me that the thunder bird font looks like it belongs in a western and not packaging from the 50's. I have to slightly disagree as many western films/books and merchandise came out at that time and just before space age really took off. My era's cross because I've been looking at space age and the time when everybody thought we'd be living on Mars by now.

Concept Statement

What Is Good?

Dyslexia Is good...

"Dyslexia is good because it allows us to be creative in unconventional ways. "

I am to design fictional products relating to the positive aspects of Dyslexia. These products will be for a store front for a Dyslexia Support Drop in centre.

The store front will be based on the same concept as used by the 836 writting company. Information on the Super Hero Store and The Time Travel Mart can be found on my context blog.

These Are Good

I've started to jot down anything I think is good, be it controversial or plain obvious to the aspects of my personality and hobbies.

I've narrowed down the subjects a little bit but I think I'm going to research more into Dyslexia. (obviously the positive aspects of having it. It's something that affects me and I don't find it a hindered like people without it perceive it too be.

What do I personally think is good?

Trying to figure out what I personally believe is good was a bit of a struggle at first. There was the obvious stuff like comic books, reading and drawing and then there was some controversial stuff (A.D.D and Dyslexia.) My reasons are my own, just like my opinions but I'll try and list a few things and a reason why I believe it's good.

Comic Books: Because they're everything in one. Graphic Design, Illustration, Story. Maybe because I've been into this stuff nearly all my life, but I don't see myself tiring of it any time soon.

Darwin: This man is my God.... The older generations of my family are quite religious, I'm...not. I believe in science and that we all came from one single organism billions of years ago. Yet some people find this very hard to believe. But Einstein said Science with out religion is blind. Religion with out science is lame, so who knows.

Dyslexia: I think I'm in an Einstein mood today. It's often been known as the "strange genius disease." Not that I'm calling myself a genius but noted people such as Einstein, Alexander Bell, Thomas Edison, Leonardo Da Vinci, Andy Warhol, Walt Disney all had or were noted to have Dyslexia on some level. These people are noted genius' within their profession. Dyslexic people are intuitive, highly intelligent and creative individuals who are visual, multi-dimensional thinkers. But because they think in pictures, they have troubles when it comes to letters, numbers, symbols, and written words. I love reading and writing....I just can't always do it right. Hello miss read sentences and typeanesse.

Dinosaurs: Who doesn't like the idea of great big lizards once roaming the Earth?

Peanut Butter: Whoever decided to mash up peanuts into a paste was a genius. Many nut allergy suffers would disagree.

Submerged computers: Building a computer inside an aquarium and filling it with mineral oil (a mild laxative), using that as a cooling system so the computer never over heats. It's brilliant, it works and I'm saving up to make one myself (They cost about £150 to make but if you can get the parts cheap or for free...yay!)

There are hundreds more that I could write about all day but for now I'm just generating ideas.

Group Work

New Brief: What is 'Good'?
Part 1 - Research & Concept...

To get a feel for what we personally think is good, we where spilt into small groups. The thoughts and idea's are mixed and there are several things on the list that I didn't personally think was good. However, it has helped kick start the brief.

Summer Postcards

The first brief back after the lengthy summer break.

Task: From the summer Taxonomy work, design 4 postcard (A6) size compositions as detailed blow.

- A full colour image, photograph, illusion.
- A 1 colour pictogram representing an activity.
- A 2 colour logo fictitious or a real organisation.
-A "word" 3 colour max (with tints)

This brief has mainly being able to understand basic colour systems used in the print process.

As I spent my summer in a comic book shop working, my Taxonomy book was about the comics and trade backs I "borrowed" from there. (with all the good intentions of returning them when I've finished reading them....)






At first, I started generating words from my summer project along the lines of, books, words, chapters, authors, comics, shop, work ect. From there, I began to make rough sketches for each post card idea.




I've been told in the past that I don't keep things very simple. I try to go for the extreme and bold. This time I didn't and it worked out really well.

I've based the postcards around "Ok Comics" the shop I worked in.

(The Word)

(Pictograms)

(Logo)

I started with the orange and turquoise colour theme purley on a whim and tried different covers. After asking around, my original scheme seemed to be the most popular so I stuck with it.

Purely fictitious, I'm yet to see the guy's at the shop. I think they rather like their logo, it's clean and easy to reproduce. This was just to kick me back into shape.

Through the crit we had last week, I was able to take a distinct direction with my work. I've also looked at artists like Roy Lichtenstein whose own work was heavily influenced by the comic industry. (More information about that over on my Design Context blog.)

Over all, I'm rather proud of what I have achieved in such a small amount of time and I hope I'll be able to keep this up over the next year.

(TADA!)