Information Design | Final Project
05/01/2021 - Present (Week 1 - Week 7)
Naim Zuki, (0346615) | Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Fig. 1.01, Animate and Transform tab on After Effects
Fig. 1.02, Animation Outcome, 12/01/2021
Fig. 1.03, Weather Card designs, 26/01/2021
Fig. 1.04, Final Weather Animation, 26/01/2021
INSTRUCTIONS
Module Information Booklet: Information Design
Fig. 2.06, Final Project Outcome 20/02/2021
Week 3
REFLECTION
FURTHER READING
05/01/2021 - Present (Week 1 - Week 7)Naim Zuki, (0346615) | Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Information Design
Final Project
LECTURES
Introduction
Project 2: Animated Infographic is a continuous project
that starts on the first week of the semester and ends in the last week
of the semester. My groupmates and I are placed as
GROUP ONE where I am the
leader and my other group members are
Emma Hardy, Ariessa Jasmine, Hui Woan, Crystal Beh, and
Senta. The lecturers have planned that there will be a weekly
progression check in the form of presentations and we've chosen to
conduct these presentations with Google Slides. Therefore, the format of
this blog will fit according to the project's timeline, stretching from
Week One to Week Seven. Enjoy 😊
Lecture 2 | Briefing on
Project 2
After Ms Anis' lecture, Mr Faizal started his session by briefing us on
our group project: Project 2. For this semester, our given theme
is Disinformation. He explained that the final expected outcome of the project
is an animated infographic video, then proceeds to start by asking the
(already formed) groups to select their topics for their infographic
video. My group was placed as Group 1 and we chose the topic of
Disinformation on Covid-19 Vaccines.
For data collection, Mr Shamsul puts emphasis on the research process,
noting that the who, what, where, when, why, and how are important questions to ask when collecting
the data needed for our project. As for the aesthetics of an animated
infographic, there were loads of similar rules applied from typography
such as contrast, alignment and symmetry, consistency, and structure.
Lecture 4 | Animation in Adobe After
Effects
As preparation for the final outcome of Project 2, Mr Shamsul started with
a tutorial session on Adobe After Effects focusing on techniques used for
Kinetic Typography. Some of the important notes I've taken are the number
of animated effects available at our disposal, manipulating the positions
of texts, and composition simple typography animations.
Fig. 1.01, Animate and Transform tab on After Effects
Fig. 1.02, Animation Outcome, 12/01/2021
Lecture 5 | Animation Exercise
For this week's exercise, Mr Shamsul instructed us to create an animation on a weather forecast. The forecast was provided and our task was to execute the animation. I chose to use Apple's Weather app as my main inspiration for my designs and animation. The following is my process.
Fig. 1.03, Weather Card designs, 26/01/2021
Fig. 1.04, Final Weather Animation, 26/01/2021
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INSTRUCTIONS
Module Information Booklet: Information Design
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src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zVQyrXVQJ17k747mzJW0GVjcxwFry3Rn/preview"
width="640" height="480"></iframe>
PROJECT 2 | ANIMATED INFOGRAPHIC
During our first meeting as a family-friendly super wholesome group, we sat
down and discussed potential topics for our project then decided on the
topic of Disinformation in Covid-19 Vaccines. It appealed to us as a
relevant topic that could prove useful for the public to take note of in
light of the rising numbers of Anti-Vaxxers movement and their influence on
public health in the Covid-19 Global Pandemic. We quickly set up a Google
Docs document to keep track of our progress daily and meet the deadlines
then head straight to work.
Week 1 | Proposal & Early Development
In week one, we first did a little research into
Misinformation, Disinformation, and Mal-information to
understand the given theme better. Then we did more research into Covid-19
disinformation to further our understanding of the situation to better prep
ourselves for our final animated video. Finally, we pieced together a
problem statement, research objective, and research proposal to be reviewed
by Mr Shamsul.
Fig. 2.0, Week One Progression Slides, 08/01/2021
Week 2 | Data Collection & Narrative
In week two, we focused more on growing our research for the final outcome after it was approved by Mr Shamsul. Which afterwards, we discussed the narrative of the infographic and filtered our research efforts into an easily comprehensible chunk of information.
Fig. 2.01, Week Two Progression Slides, 15/01/2021
Week 3 | Scriptwriting, Storyboarding, and Early
Animated Infographic Concepts
In week three, we began writing our script and started on our storyboard. During this, we've also created a mood board, selected a couple of typefaces, and gathered animation references for the team to use when creating assets and early developments of the animation.
Fig. 2.02, Week Three Progression Slides, 22/01/2021
Week 4 | Finalising Script, Character Design, and
Animatics
In week four, we've finalised our script with all the necessary intonations and markings for the audio to be recorded. Initially, we suggested that the voice actress would be Senta, but we then later changed to Emma upon agreeing that Emma's voice fits the animation style better. We've sketched out some concept ideas for our assets and finished making the draft of the animatics.
Fig. 2.03, Week Four Progression Slides, 31/01/2021
Week 5 | Animatics & Assets
In week five, we improved on our animatics according to the feedback given as well as finished the asset designs. We've made a total of eight characters to be used in the final animation and came up with other important components of the animation such as text bubbles, titles, subtitles, graphs, and so on.
Fig. 2.04, Week Five Progression Slides,
Week 6 | Animation
In week six, we finalised all of our assets and began animating. It was a bit confusing to delegate the work evenly and made sure that the animation style was consistent throughout everyone's parts, so we each made our animation files malleable and flexible for future edits.
Fig. 2.05, Week Six Progression Slides
Week 7 | Final
Animation
In the final week of the project, I compiled everyone's work while tightening some screws to make the animation flow smoothly. The most time-consuming part of the whole process was, as foresaw in the previous week, making everyone's animation styles consistent. The details had all my attention and I took my time putting everything together to ensure that the final outcome is presentable. Thus concludes the seven-week project.
Fig. 2.06, Final Project Outcome 20/02/2021
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FEEDBACK
Week 1
The lecturers gave a positive reaction to our chosen topic of Disinformation in Covid-19 Vaccines; however Mr Sham noted that we should put a focus on addressing the current anti-vaxxer situation and doing further research to further solidify our topic goal.
Week 2
The reaction we received on our presentation was mostly positive, Mr Shamsul noted that everything was very detailed and elaborate. Although, he was concerned about the length of our animation; noting that our presentation was draggy at some points. He advised that we make our script concise and interesting so our audience doesn't get bored.
Week 3
At first, Mr Shamsul was worried about our choice of colours and fonts. With such a serious topic, he thought that these choices were inappropriate. However, once he saw the sample animation we showed on the slides, he got a better idea of the animation style we were aiming for. He then gave positive comments on our efforts.
Week 4
Mr Shamsul's commented on our animatics, saying that the voice-over style was a bit unfitting with the animation style. He then commented on the flow of the animatics, saying that some parts went too fast for the audience to grasp what was going on.
Week 6
Mr Shamsul approved of our assets even complimented them. However, he commented that our animation lacks flow and comprehension, to which he prompted that we work more on the speed and keyframing so everything flows smoothly.
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REFLECTION
Experience
Starting this semester with a group project had me wondering how we as a creative group were to function. Being a person with a more math-centric background, group works have always been more straight forward than creatively flexible. But I'm glad to have been working with my group mates, everyone was really supportive of the delegation of work and barely had much to complain about. What I liked most about this project was the time we get to spend experimenting with After Effects. I remember spending countless hours trying to figure out why my animation felt so one-dimensional, then discovering the speed graph module and having to spend more hours figuring that out before finally having a better flow of animation than before.
Observation
The most challenging part about working in a creative group is the fact that I have to balance the goal I've set for the team and their own individual creativity. Obviously everyone was more or less at different levels of expertise in both illustrating and animating, so I noticed that delegating the work according to their expertise seemed to create the best effeciency. However, I chose to delegate the animation work evenly in the final few weeks so everyone gets a chance to contribute their ideas into the final animation.
Findings
Although it was difficult for me who haven't had a design background to work in a creative team, it's encouraging that my teammates respond to my questions honestly with their well-thought opinions. Having a team of creative minds simultaneously putting inputs made our final animation rich with interesting ideas that stretches our topic further without straying far from the main narrative. There were loads of times when I'm blown away by their input and I'm glad to have been working with them for the past seven weeks.
FURTHER READING
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