Black & White plus 1 Colour?

As explained briefly in the previous blog post, since starting doing the storyboarding I have been toying a bit with how I could use black & white plus 1 colour within my sequences without it looking shit basically. I am never really one to be adventurous with colour and prefer a lot of thing to be black and white. I don't want to start and do things like having the outline of the letter black and the fill a colour then the background white as I think this would just look naff.

Whilst I was watching (quite a lot of) kinetic type examples to find one to use for the timeline workshop we did, one thing I immediately noticed which I have also noticed prior to starting this module when I have ever watched any, is that the best sequences usually have a nice coloured, slightly textured background to the video. I have included examples of this on my design context blog.

Therefore, I have decided that to solve the problem, I am going to have a nice white and blue background to my sequences and have the type itself black - that's then black and white plus 1 colour. I'm saying this before even touching a mac with any designs yet for this module so this post may turn out to be totally irrelevant in a few days time - we'll see. So now I have decided that, I spend a short while putting together a variety of possible backgrounds to choose from for the sequences.

I layered a few different textures up and played around with them a little and ended up with quite a few nice ones I could possibly use. I am not sure if I prefer the white and blue ones or the black and blue ones so this will be something I can try out  a bit more once I start to produce my designs on the mac.

More Type Safe Area Sequences

Following the feedback I received from the crit on 8/12/2011, I realised that I needed to sit down and not so much 're do' what I have done, but just push them a bit more and make more use of the space and what not as one of the key points that was realised in the crit (which I had also realised myself prior to it) was that I hadn't really been adventurous with positioning and what not - I think this was partly due to me wanting to get the worksheet done on time ready for the crit. Therefore, I drew up a couple more sheets and tried out some more sequences.

I found once I got into doing these I did enjoy doing them more than the previous ones that I produced. Looking at them now that I have just uploaded them on to this blog post, from a distance they still look a bit plain. I have certainly made better use of the whole frame area rather than sticking to just putting what ever idea I have into the center. What they are missing is colour, something which I have been toying with since starting these storyboards as the requirement is black and white plus one colour - which will be explained more in the next blog post. Even so, I found that without having the pressure of having to get the sequences done by a certain time or what ever that I spent longer considering what I was doing and possibly ways of doing things which has helped so for future storyboards I draw out I'll try and remember this.

Studio Workshop 4 - Storyboards Crit/Feedback

Also following yesterdays workshop with Lorraine on 7/12/2011, where we were set the task to produce the storyboards of our ideas, doing 5 ideas over at least 5 frames of 1 idea, today we had a follow up crit to this where within the crit group we got into pairs and pinned the worksheets on the wall and critted what each other had done. I paired up with Chloe.

For the first 5 minutes or so we didn't really know what we were meant to be saying to each other, but after a couple of suggestions I did end up getting some pretty useful feedback on what I have done and suggestions on how to push ideas more or try out a few different things. This includes:

• feeeeeeeeeeedback init

Question for Lorraine

Following yesterdays workshop, I was to come up with at least one question that I could ask Lorraine in todays session for her to answer for me. The question I asked was

• How long on average would it usually take to produce a 5 second sequence?

The immediate response I got was how long's a piece of string, which I anticipated as there is obviously not going to be a straightforward, set answer for the question but I am just wondering as sort of a ball point to know how to plan my time out effectively enough so I don't leave myself short towards the end of this brief and the end of this module meaning I'd have to compromise the quality of what I do in order just to be finished one time. She went on to explain that it does vary on how complex a sequence is, and gave an example how one of the third years last year decided to to a sequence that had a letter 'R' in it, made up of (I can't remember exactly how many) separate 'R's and had each individual one animated differently, and just the rendering on this took an hour and half. 

The main aspect I got from the answer for this, which is something she was saying in general and that was to allow myself an additional week of time than I anticipate I will need to ensure there's enough time for if something was to go horribly wrong. I will bare that in mind as I progress through the module.

Studio Workshop 3 - Type Safe Area Sequences

Studio workshop on 7/12/2011.

Tweening
The animators that do all the bits in between the animation

Key Animator
Doing all the important bits of an animation

Rules and Guidelines
On TV, the screen is cropped down. Using the guides given on PS and IL when setting up a document using the Film preset will help to keep this safe.


Typesafe Framing
Doing rough storyboards that are framed type safe using just letters, thinking how the frames will look at key moments in time.

Doing 5 ideas from the worksheets we produced in preparation for yesterdays workshop (here), I've to produce 5 ideas over at least 5 frames using just 1 word.

As easy as it was to portray my ideas across more frames, (I ended up doing 8 for each as you can see) I don't fully understand the point of todays workshop. I do understand that any type that I will use that I want to be readable needs to stay within the type safe area, but doing these sequences using the key frames of them just felt like I was doing the same as what I have already done but using more frames. Maybe I missed the point a bit? If I get the time I may revisit this task and do some of the more detailed ideas that I have come up with to see if it is more beneficial for these.


Task for tomorrow
Think about Aftereffects and how it works and come up with questions to ask about how stuff worked and what not ready for tomorrow. Bring in a written set of Q's - at least one.

Studio Workshop 2 - Timelines

Studio workshop on 06/12/2011.

Timelines
Timelines are the way to think away from the screen. They work in multiples of 60, and between storyboarding and time lining helps to get your head around what ever it is you're doing.

When working off screen we work in seconds, when working on screen we work in frames per second.

The timescale is something we can control, and sequence is when things happen.


Timeline 1
Splitting 1 line up on the worksheet and dividing the total time of the sequence I used to take the screen shots of (49 seconds) by 10, and marked these points across the line. This proved to be more difficult than it sounds as everyone had a different understanding of what we were meant to be doing so it took a while to get it. Once these marks were placed along the line, using the screen shots that I got I'd to place them in the right places along the line, using lines to connect them to the right part of the lines as all of the screen shots wouldn't fit into one line in the distance we have.

Once I knew what I was doing with this it seemed rather simple. It was east to position the screen shots in the right places once I worked out the measurements as they were at regular intervals.


Timeline 2
Using all 5 of the lines drawn on to the worksheet, for this one I'd to split each of the lines into 10 sections, and divide the total time of my chosen sequence to spread across them all. This took a bit of working out to do but was explained better so understood it quicker. Then using the screen shots of the sequence I chose of the frames that I believe to be key frames, I'd to position them in the right places along the timeline. I didn't write down the times for these so had to get the video back up to help me do this. Once this was done then we'd to cut up the worksheet so that it is one long timeline rather than over 5 lines.


timeline 2


Seeing this stuck on the wall it was easy to understand the fact that key points throughout a sequence isn't necessarily equally spaced and are usually scattered across the time line. This will be something I keep in mind whilst I produce my sequences.


Tasks to do for Tuesday 13/12/2011
Review this session and what we have got. Answer these questions

• What is a keyframe outside of aftereffects?
• What are the potential problems you will encounter when sequencing/time lining?
• How are you going to avoid these problems?
• What do you need to know to avoid it?
• How do my sequences relate to an idea of a timeline - how will they go on one?

Choose the best sequence from each of the 5 ideas I produced on the task that I did in preparation for this workshop and map on to a timeline using the 5 frames.

Re do what we have done today (at least once) to help get head around it better.

5 Ideas, 5 Sequences, 5 Frames

Using the visual aids I produced in the previous studio workshop, I've to choose 5 of these to work with and produce 5 sequences of each consisting of 5 frames using black and white and 1 other colour.

Here are the worksheets that I produced for this task.

Towards the end of doing these I found that I started to just do ideas for the sake of it, rather than because I thought they would work well or represent my word well so I'm not completely happy with all of the ones that I have done. Even so, I do think that some do work really well so I guess this balances it out. If I get the time I may sit down to produce some more of these when I don't feel like I have to rush to get them finished in time for the next workshop. We'll see.

Also, I will do what I did with the worksheets from the previous studio workshop and revisit them at some point to annotate them as I found this to be useful for the last time and gave me ideas on how to improve the sequences or come up with more ideas.

Kinetic Type Screenshots - Reservoir Dogs

After spending about an hour or so looking at a variety of different examples of kinetic typography, and adding them to my design context blog (here), from the ones I collected I decided to do the screenshots on the Reservoir Dogs example I found. I like that this is simple, but the use of colour makes it look better, and I like the typeface and the movement between all the frames so I think this one is a good example. If I get time I may try doing this on a couple more examples to see which is the best one I end up with.

Link to the video on my design context blog can be found by clicking here.

25 screenshots taken at regular initials

25 screenshots that demonstrate significant key changes

Studio Workshop Worksheets Annotation

The first task I decided to do straight away is the annotation of the sheets whilst it's still fresh in my mind what I did. Doing this has helped me to go back and re think what I was thinking, and already have new ideas on how I could do it better. It is definitely something I will hope to continue doing throughout the module - revisiting things after I have done them to see if I can think of ways to develop something more.

Studio Workshop 1 - Sequential Thinking

Studio workshop on 1/12/11.

Storyboarding
A process of visual thinking, not a flick book just works to key frames.

Task to do for 1pm
Using the research that we prepared in preparation for today, I'd to take one letter from each of my two words, I chose S and O. With these I'd produced (a minimum of) 5 visualisations on a sheet for each word to communicate my words. Producing quick sketches, one sheet for each word.

Tasks from 1pm
Using the visualisations that I produced ready for this afternoon, I'd to produce 5 x 5 frame sequences for each on a sheet of paper using specific requirements.

Sheet 1
Change of form
Dimension
Scale
Appearance
Visual quality or character

Sheet 2
Lateral  |  Vertical
Change of position
Change of orientation
Change of axis
Fixed form/fixed scale

Sheet 3
Change of form
Change of scale
Lateral or vertical +
Spatial/dimensional

Tasks to do for Tuesday 5/12/11.

• move on with silent movie brief
• annotate, review and rework what we have done today explaining what I was thinking whilst I was doing them. Put on notes, arrows, etc.
• use visual aids already produced this morning, choose 5 to work with. Can either use both words of get rid of one and focus on the other. For each individual idea come up with 5 sequences for each one consisting of 5 frames. Can now use the whole word, not just a letterform. Be of quality. Include a colour. Trace as much as possible to keep as true to the original typeface as possible.
• bring along a set of 25 mini screen grabs on kinetic type. 25 frames at equal intervals. 25 frames that demonstrate significant key changes that happen. Do on one video.
• research into kinetic type stuff and start putting it on the context blog for research.