1/9/2022 - 2/12/2022 / Week 1 - Week 14
Lui Hsiao Hui (Tressa) / 0342003
Design Exploration / Design Extension
Design Exploration / Design Extension
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Task 1: Project Proposal
Task 2: Project Development
Task 3: Portfolio
Task 4: Final Project
INSTRUCTIONS
Our project for Design Exploration is to create an innovative vision of the
SDGs expectations shaped by current design trends and emerging creative
technology. Our task was to choose one of the SDGs and produce an output
based on that issue to spread awareness and generate action from audiences.
Task 1: Project Proposal
Fig. 1.1 Design Exploration Task 1: Project Proposal, Week 1-5 (1-29/9/2022)
The SDG I chose was Good Health & Well-being and I decided to focus
on the mental health issue of anxiety. I thought I'd make use of my
struggles and experiences with anxiety and turn it into an artistic
expression, using this project as an outlet to spread awareness.
The output of my project will be an animatic, as I'd like to explore
something a little different from my specialisation. I think it's also a
good way for me to keep my animation skills alive after 9 months of not
using After Effects.
Beginning this project, I conducted some research on what anxiety is about
(besides drawing from my own experiences and personal knowledge), along
with looking at various short films and animatics about anxiety for
reference. next, I worked on the art direction of the animatic and
collected art references from Pinterest to form a moodboard. Once that was
done I began to work on the title type (Typography) and draft out the
animatic.
Fig. 1.2 "NEVER MINED" - draft animatic, Week 4-5 (21-28/9/2022)
Task 2: Project Development
Fig. 2.1 "NEVER MINED" title typography, Week 2 (10/9/2022)
The title type was first drafted in Adobe Photoshop and then digitalised in
Adobe Illustrator.
Fig. 2.2 "NEVER MINED" title typography, Week 2 (10/9/2022)
This was made in Adobe Photoshop. I was having fun experimenting with the
display of the title type.
Fig. 2.3 Week 9 updates, Week 6-9 (7-27/10/2022)
I first standardised the size of the animatic to be 3K 3072 x 1307
(aspect ratio of 2.35). I chose a film aspect ratio because I wanted it to
look cinematic.
Colour choices:
I used blue for the 1st act because blue is a melancholy colour, it was
to represent Xeno dreading going to class as she knows her anxiety will be
triggered again. As it progresses to the build-ups, the glitch colours
start coming in, and then red dominates the latter of the 2nd act and the
3rd act.
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Fig. 2.4 Changes in illustration, Week 6-9 (7-27/10/2022)
Changes:
There were a few changes made throughout this project. In my proposal, I was
going for a messier and glitchier art style. However, I found that it wasn't
really practical and it lessens the impact when the music does build up. So
to have a better contrast, I went for a minimal sketchy style and reserved
the mess for the build-ups.
The other change is the way I approach this project development. In my
original project timeline, I proposed a method whereby I'll illustrate
and animate section by section. But I decided to just focus on
illustrations first then animation. I thought if I illustrated and
animated section by section I'd have the risk of having not enough time
for the last 3rd act. It also helps me to ensure the visuals of each
section have enough differences to show the switch in pace.
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Fig. 2.5 Usage of text, Week 14 (29/11/2022)
Besides, that I decided to incorporate more text in the animatic for
parts that felt needed. Another change was the shortening of the
animatic due to time and my struggle with art currently.
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Fig. 2.6 Illustration progress, Week
6-14 (7-30/11/2022)
Some frames' progressions took a few trials of tweaking to get the
desired look and 'extraness'.
Fig. 2.7 Animation, Week 12-14 (16/11-2/12/2022)
To make my life easier, each section was colour coded along with
numbered frames. I used mostly the frame-by-frame method of animation
and made use of text and glitchy effects. I had to relearn a few of these effects as I've forgotten how to do them over time.
Task 4: Final Project
Fig. 3.1 Design Exploration Task 4: Final Project, Week 6-14
(7/10-2/12/2022)
*Visuals and plot explanations are included at the end of the presentation slides.
Fig. 3.2 "NEVER MINED" - animated short, Week 6-14 (7/10-2/12/2022)
"NEVER MINED" - illustrations:
*File is too big to embed on Blogspot.
FEEDBACKS
Week 1: The challenge is to match your art style with the narrative's
mood. Research anxiety/mental health short films, pinpoint trends and see how
you can make yours different.
Week 4: It will be challenging to portray anxiety feelings through
drawing. It's great that you're exploring typefaces as well.
Week 5: Great proposal and ideas. Great choice of music and pacing.
Week 9: Having different colours for each section is a good design choice. Changing the approach of completing illustrations first is also a good idea
because it ensures you create enough differences for each section.
Week 14: Very impressive, not what Ms Anis expected it to be. Once the animation is completed start thinking about how to promote it to spread awareness.
REFLECTION
This project was,,, at the cost of multiple breakdowns. It really challenged my will, mind and fading passion. But I'm glad I got through with it and actually revisited animating and got to maintain my animation skills. I also brainstormed a lot on how to translate feelings through symbolism with illustration, as well as solving the time constraint issue by coming up with an
alternative way of conveying the plot - which is to use symbols to tell the story instead of drawing the actual subjects of the plot.
It is odd, in a way I'm grateful that I've gotten to chance to make something personal with this project, but it's also slightly uncomfortable for me to be sharing it. I overthought a lot about my choice of visuals and storytelling till the point I got stuck many times.
Anxiety isn't easy to convey through visuals, and it
relies on how people perceive such visuals. Because mental health
experiences are subjective, my experience may not be relatable to others
dealing with the same issue. Would I have done something related to anxiety again, I probably would want to explore it through glitchy graphic design or better yet fashion. If I'm going to be living with it forever, I might as well make some art out of it.
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be nice