My rationale has remained the same throughout this module; I have continued to focus on branding and promotion across print and motion. However, my statement of intent has changed, in particular the briefs I intended to do at the start. I had to drop the Fashion Branding due to the client being slow in getting back to me, which has been an issue across a lot of the live briefs I’ve worked on.
The Yearbook and St Martin’s brief have been the most stressful, which is down to the clients. For example, the St Martins brief was extremely slow due to the client not being able to pick who she wants to work on the branding, resulting in re-pitching several times. Even when she picked Maya and I, we still had to pitch one more time, in the end; we have had to produce some of the other deliverables outside of the FMP due to it holding up our schedule and individual deadlines we had. Thankfully, this did not affect the working relationship between Maya and I. This is a slightly different situation with the Yearbook brief as there were group tensions from the start, but we have ended on a positive note and can look back and learn from errors.
I have learnt a new program this module also, for Brief 04 – E4 and Brief 03 – ITV2, as the kind of visuals I had in my head were not possible to produce in After Effects so I started to learn Cinema 4D end of February, beginning of March. At first, I was wondering if this would mean my ideas would be inhibited slightly due to a lack of knowledge, but it actually set me free. I was able to produce whatever ideas I had written down, and I am really pleased with the colours and quality of the finished pieces. Especially the E4 deliverables, I think the music really refines it and makes it more final than my ITV2 idents where I would have liked to have had a narrator talking over the top, but finding somebody without a strong accent, who would be willing to record audio may be more hassle than its worth.
I am glad I did the E4 and ITV2 brief, as it was a chance for me to do what I wanted to do and enjoy, and it is something I would be proud to have in my portfolio, plus it gives me more content for a showreel. I am equally as glad I did the other briefs as they were a chance to work with clients, one on my own, one with Maya and one with Nick Morgan, Natalie Jackson and Kirsty Hair, so it gave me an all round experience.
As always, I think time management has been a weak point, writing this evaluation now, I can think of many things I should have done, which unfortunately at this time is tough, as I can’t have another go.
Relating to the issue of time is the motion graphics work itself, as much as I have a real passion and spark for creating this kind of work, especially in Cinema 4D where it has that high quality, glossy look, this is disadvantaged by the time taken to render and work with it. For example, to render my Discoball Ident for ITV2 with a duration of 10 seconds, it took 2 hours to render.
In terms of my boards, I am pleased with the way they are, they show what I have done for each brief, and I am actually surprised at how well the motion briefs turned out as the images came straight from Cinema 4D which is RGB, as when I changed them in Photoshop to CMYK, they became murky. An error with the printer and paper stocks has resulted in me having 3 different stocks for my boards.
With respect to my final products, some of my St Martins work was water damaged when I wasn’t in the studio, so reluctantly I have handed some in. This was the same for the Indiependent brief, a few deliverables were ruined but they have been photographed, although they all needed reshooting after advice from the Final Crit.
Without the chances to work on live briefs this module, I don’t feel I would have been ready to work with clients straight after university. The learning experience from these briefs have prepared me in a way I wouldn’t have achieved without the Final Major Project on this course.
Looking back over my work, from the past three years, I am shocked at how my work has developed, and how my pathway within Graphics has changed. I started the course interested in type and layout for campaigns and posters, and now I am more image based interested in motion graphics, for branding and promotion.
My blogging has really let me down this module, there is a lot of development work missing for Briefs 3 and 4, and I am worried this will have a huge effect on my marks.
I feel I have worked to the best of my ability, with the exception of poor time management, and I have learnt a lot about myself personally and professionally. I walked in to the course, naïve and unconfident, and now I feel my confidence has built up and I know what I want to do next. Touch wood, this is a positive end to the year, and the course.
Wednesday 30 May 2012
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Brief 05 - Final Boards
Brief 04 - Final Boards
The E4 brief was great
fun to work on, it’s work I can look at and smile, I enjoyed it from start to
finish. From researching to the designing part, although I must say rendering
can be extremely tedious.
The brief really came
together when I added the sound to the motion graphics, it really rounded it
off and made it seem more credible. It is something I can imagine seeing on E4,
I might enter the next E-Sting competition.
For this brief I had
to learn Cinema 4D, it was the only way I could get the look I was going for,
which isn’t achievable in After Effects. It was a challenge, but that made me
all the more determined to learn. After my previous module, my tutor told me,
he felt my ideas were being held back by my software skills, therefore this
module, I have done everything that I wanted to do, even doing proposals in
cases that may have been slightly more tricky. The Lord of The Ring E4 ident
was a proposal, as I was running out of time, and was finding it hard to
animate the ring suitably, which is a shame as I love how authentic the ring
looks, it almost looks like the exact ring.
I liked the broadness
of this brief, I had my motion deliverables, packaging an event and printed
material. The printed material I didn’t actually print as I am not sure I could
achieve the look as the ideas were doing in Cinema 4D, so they were in 72 dpi
and RGB, even when you change it in Photoshop it isn’t exactly the same. The
popcorn packaging I did make, but it got damaged in my final crit, some kind of
splash marks appeared on it, so I photographed it for the boards.
Brief 03 - Final Boards
Open publication - Free publishing
Evaluation:
Another fantastic brief I thoroughly enjoyed working on, in terms of evaluative points, this will be similar to E4 evaluation. I enjoyed learning Cinema 4D and pushing myself to learn a new piece of software in order to get the effect I was looking for. I know there would have been no way I could have achieved this refined, three dimensional look in After Effects. It was great to see the ideas going from my terrible storyboards, to some bright and colourful motion graphics, how I imagined them in my had is exactly how my final products looked, this has never happened in a motion brief before, normally I say, ‘Well I would have liked it to look like this but…’ What is shown in my final graphics is exactly the look and pace I was going for. I am not sure I pushed the brief in terms of deliverables but then I thought to myself, ‘Why am I wanting to do prints? This work is for screen and that’s where it should stay.’ However, I would say it’s still a substantial brief due to the time that went into the project. Its great the amount of control one can have in Cinema 4D, my first board, my Brief/Concept page has the high impact grass image with the ITV2 logo. There are 24,900 pieces of grass in that area. You can control length, width, their gravity, which way they lean, how they behave in different conditions, lighting. With Cinema 4D it is so much more than creating a single image, you are crafting a world. There are lighting conditions, camera angles etc. to consider. It is a beautiful yet technical world. When I look at the motion work I did last year, I cannot believe this work belongs to me. Last years work is the equivalent of one of the paintings you did at nursery which you did when you were 3.
Brief 01 - Final Boards
Open publication - Free publishing
Evaluation:
The Yearbook brief has definitely been the most challenging brief to date. The brief began with myself, Amy Leigh, Natalie Jackson, Nick Morgan and Stephanie Ogelsby. Steph left the group within a few days, but this didn’t make too much difference. Amy and Natalie were the original group members so we were briefed on their concept and we helped to develop the concept further ready for the first pitch to the Fine Art team.
It was clear from the beginning they were not happy with this concept – I must admit it was quite sexualised. Looking at the final design, I can see just how far away we were.
Amy took on the role as the project leader, which became difficult at times due to not being able to get hold of her, or not turning up sometimes. The next concept was underway, I was never fully behind it, as it seemed too literal, but I grew to like the idea. The group were having problems at this stage, as we had been delegated jobs, which left us doing the harder work while Amy was responsible for the flyer. As I am new to publication design I found it very daunting to all of a sudden be responsible for a quarter of the layouts.
We agreed on a grid and begun working to this to come up with layouts, it was tricky as Fine Art were supposed to supply us with statements and images, but were slow in doing so, it became tedious for me to have to mention at every meeting we were still awaiting images.
At this time we were still developing the second concept we called the ‘glitch’, it was a glitched students image for the front cover. We were struggling in our weekly meetings as Fine Art didn’t appear to be happy about the ideas we were coming up with which made tensions rise between the groups.
Amy left the group and all of a sudden the concept dilemma didn’t matter any more. Down to just four people, we voted we wanted to come up with something new, something that was ours, rather than the idea of one person. We still carried on part of the concept which was the stamp. We had to work quickly as time was ticking. While I was in charge of images I realised over half of the images didn’t match the spec. I did state at the start to send over 300 dpi TIFFs but this was ignored and overruled by my group – which lead to problems with images later on.
We finally had a concept that we liked and Fine Art liked and this really uplifted the spirit of the group, and it became more enjoyable. It made Fine Art more cheerier which is always helpful.
I definitely learnt to bite my tongue in this brief, we all did. Towards the end Sheila was extremely rude to us, and refused to see us when we desperately needed her to sign the design off to avoid missing our deadline.
We are all happy with the publication, although I wish I had a more design role in the end stages, as I was more admin, and sorting out images. I was involved more with the beginning design development, but I guess not everyone can do the design.
After Amy left, there wasn’t a real sense of leadership from anyone, Natalie was the main point of contact and organised meetings but she didn’t lead. It was more of an equal effort, which appeared to work for us.
Brief 02 - Final Boards
Evaluation:
The St Martins brief
has been a challenge for Maya and myself from day one, and not always a healthy
challenge. The first part of the challenge was to win the pitch, which
initially the client should have picked the successful pitch, this didn’t
happen, and Maya and I were still pitching in April. Three months to pitch one
logo isn’t healthy. This put Maya and I quite far behind with our deadlines,
and we were beginning to worry. In the end we decided to speak to Camilla after
we had handed in as it was becoming an issue, a few tutors also noticed this.
I am really glad Maya
and I were picked for this brief, it would have been devastating to not be
picked after 4 months of pitching, which
made it unfair for the other person who was competing for the pitch. I know
life’s not fair, but 4 months of pitching to then be told your idea isn’t being
used is rather unfair.
It was hard to
‘design’ for this brief as once we had the initial logo, the NHS guidelines
were that strict, some of the deliverables just felt like we had ‘stuck’ the
logo on, but we didn’t even make the decision of where it could be placed, it
was from the guidelines. I had some freedom with my app, but I tried to keep
that corporate feel, I think this is was a really good idea, and I am glad I
carried it through.
In terms of working
with a partner, I think Maya and I made a great team. We get on really well
which means we are able to comfortably say what we feel without affecting our
friendship and professional relationship. It’s funny how one of my first ever
projects at Leeds College of Art was a partnership with Maya, and one of my
last ever college projects is with Maya.
I think my boards
represent our work well, and successfully communicate the ideas we have worked
with. I was going to do a concept development board, but I felt that the final
ideas were more important than the development, which I think we would rather
forget now as it was stressful.
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