PHOTOGRAPHS- that are better..

Packaging for my DVD- photographed in the plastic wallet, with the price on it.. I think it has photographed well, it almost looks freshly packaged..

Photographed out of the sleeve.. I think the colour works well, and is very eye catching..

Inside the comic.. I have made it like the pages.. just simply showing a few powers, with the disc that slots in on the right side..

I have made what the disc SHOULD look like, as the one in the photograph don't look good at all..

The back of the packaging.. not too much on the back of it.. just carried on from the front page and added a speech bubble..

Front and back.. the actual packaging is hard back.. if I had organised my time better, I would have re-made the packaging, making sure I didn't use PVA on the front and just sharpen it up a bit.


Below are photographs of what the disc would look like inside the comic packaging.. I made a blue and a red version.. but I feel the red works better.. as there's a lot of blue in the comic already.. I want the disc to stand out..

EVALUATION- ougd202

Overall, I am really pleased with my animations and my packaging.

There are, however, still a few changes that I would like to make that would improve the product.

I think that I should have done more storyboards, as I found it helped a lot in the previous ‘silent movie’ project. But I found it difficult to decide where to begin with a 50 second animation and I decided to draw up small sequences that I could put together to create the title sequence. 

At the beginning of the module, I had never used after effects or done any kind of animation.

I took to after effects quite well, and was able to do the basic rotating of images, scaling and changing opacity.

When I started to do the idents and title sequence, I had more layers in after effects. Grouping the layers together using colour really helped and saved me a lot of time.

I also made use of the parenting technique that was shown to us, as my layers had to move at the same time to the same place.

I think the subject I chose was difficult not to make too 'animatey', and I was very conscious of this, but I feel that my animations aren't too animated and has a good balance.

I did have quite a few problems with saving my work, with files going missing and also my USB stick wasn’t working properly, which didn’t help.

To make sure this didn’t happen again, I got another USB stick and made files within, that was just for after effects, which I found made life much easier and I didn’t have anymore problems with losing files.

For my packaging, I decided that I wanted it to look like a comic book. I measured a comic and made my DVD case the same size. I really like how it looks all in all, but the crafting of it could be much better, if I had been more organised and left myself more time.

I made a bad decision to use PVA glue to stick the back cover onto my 'comic' and it's made the surface crinkly. If I was to do it again, I would use spray mount.

I would have liked to experiment more with the layout and colour of my packaging, to see what would have worked better.

The plastic sleeve makes the 'comic' look more like a collectables item and that is how it would be seen, if it was out in store.

The images that I used in my animation changed a lot from my original idea. If I was doing this project again, I would like to look at using the illustrated images and change my audience back to 18+. I think that the animation would look much different to my final pieces.

From working in group crits, I have made adjustments to my layout and animation. I feel that I have got a lot out of this module, for example, I have improved with my organisation of layers in illustrator/photoshop/after effects and saving my work in a sufficient way. 

I really enjoyed doing motion graphics, and I hope that I will be able to use this again soon. 

COLOUR GROUP..

I found that grouping my layers by colour helped ALOT.. It made it easier to find the layer I wanted, as sometimes I found that I forgot to write what layer was what.. 

I also used the 'parenting' method we were shown by Mike.. this was REALLY useful, as my images were always moving together, but without the parenting, it would take AGES to get all the layers to move in the same place at the same time..

FINAL DVD PACKAGING:

The size of my packaging is the same as the comic book I bought..  I wanted my packaging to be like a comic book.. I needed it to be brightly coloured, with my target audience being children.

I also put it into a comic book collectors sleeve, which I think makes the overall packaging look better..

The actual craft of the packaging, however, I feel I could have made it much better. I think it was rushed and I used PVA on the front and back cover, not thinking, and this messed it up. Stupid mistake!

Also, I wanted to do a sticker for the dvd disc, I have made some up on illustrator, to show what it would be like..

FINAL IDENTS:

My final title sequence.

The music is from fantastic four, I think the music works well with the images, and allows for sound effects to be added.

I like how the music is quite quiet at the beginning of the sequence, but after the 'POW' the music kicks in and sounds more 'actiony'.

My only real problem with the title sequence is that I didn't fade the music at the end of the animation, so it just cuts off.. this happens in a couple of my idents too.. I would have liked to go back and change this..

I have kept the same music with the idents.. I really like the ending of this animation, with the 'explosion' at the end.. looking at them all together now, I should have kept this the same with the other idents.. 

Again, I left the music to just cut off.. which is BAD.. That's what's letting down the animation.. it's a horrible heading..!

I forgot to add the motion blur onto his arms, this would have emphasised his power more and how quick he is.. LET DOWN.. however, I love the ending and the dead stop with the music. 

Not much really happens in this ident, and I unsure if it gets the power across effectively.. I think there could have been lots to experiment with here.

Also.. the text that comes into view at the beginning can't be read very well, as the character comes down too quickly..

FINAL - no audio

One main problem with this: The 'faster than a speeding bullet' comes and goes too quickly, and not able to read it.. 

AFTER CRIT..

We had a crit, and from my feedback, I have made the decision to change my background, as people have said that this doesn't work..


They also said that the purple animation ideas looked good and should think about going back to them.. however, I have decided that I don't want to go back.. It felt like ages I was working on it, and it kept going wrong, and I really didn't like it myself..

MORE ADDED TO TITLE SEQUENCE..

DVD CASE..

This image is the kind of idea I'm going for.. I want my packaging to look like its a comic book.. I have a sleeve from a comic book I bought, and I think it would be ideal for this..

I want to do my case as if it was a comic.. like a collectors item..

The rough image above: Not this exact image AT ALL.. but.. the characters close together, posing and the title at the top of the image..

it will be the same dimensions as a small comic, in plastic sheet casing..

NEXT PART..

This is the layout of the next page after the front page flips over..
Characters will move a small amount.. slow motion.


First area:

One of the super powers is SUPER STRETCH.. This kid can stretch.. Just stretching his arms out in this part of the comic.. I don't want to keep 'zooming' in and out of each area, as this may be too complicated too busy to do it each time.. maybe only on one area.

Second area:

SUPER STRENGTH.. showing off his strength by throwing a car..and someone hears him.. Not much will need to be moving.. only arms, car and eyes.. 

Third area:

Showing another section in the 'comic'. Only small movements, but easy to see whats going on.

 Fourth area:

Pretends to fall off the top of the building.. but..

HE CAN FLY.. to space.

The idents are taken from the title sequence, and changed slightly to fit..

THE AUDIO:

I can't really find music to fit my animation yet.. still looking but no luck yet..

I am going to look more into kids superheroes and see if any fit a bit with mine..

There are enough sound effects for the 'fighting' parts, so those will be used for part of the animation.

BEGINNING OF TITLE SEQUENCE

I have changed the look of my animation, as I thought the other 'purple' animation was too animatey, and I was making things very difficult for myself, trying to get the character to move in a certain way..

This is the way forward..

Front cover of a comic, and the characters etc.. come into it.
The next part of the animation will be the comic 'opening' and will show more animation inside..


The next part hasn't been put up on vimeo yet as I have had problems with my saved work and after effects.. bla bla bla the usual!!


It will be up by the end of the day though :]

COLOUR EXPERIMENT

The type: where should it be placed.. On many comics, the title is at the top or partly hidden by the characters.

I decided to place the text in the middle of the page, so it is a part of the characters, I think it just works better with the composition.

I like the blue, as it goes well with all the colours.. also the blue makes me think of superheros.. probably the red and blue together.. SUPERMAN!!

Too bright, and would hurt the eyes when seen bigger.. tooooooo much!

I tried having the words 'pow', 'bang' etc.. in block colour, and I think it was too much on the page.. it looked very busy so I just used the outlines of the letters and this works much better!

STORYBOARDS

 
Some quick storyboards.. ideas.. not really in any particular title sequence/ident.. I just drew them down so i could put them in which ever...

COMIC BOOK BACKGROUND

For the title sequence, I want to have the comic book as the background and then turn to an animation after a little time static..

This is what I have been working on in illustrator.. I have bought a comic, and when I looked through it, I realised that on the double page spreads, they had a colour theme.. with the same colour but different tints, to make the comic flow better..

After my tutorial with Lorraine, she told me about comic layouts, and looking at the layout I have.. it doesn't work in the slightest.. so I had to change that immediately! she also reminded me about the action and title safe.. so I need to bare that in mind too..