LECTURE 04

The focus of this lecture was on identity, and my perspective of the lecture was the links between identity and discourses that can be achieved through successful branding. My most recent experience with identity design involved developing a marketing campaign for an up and coming NGO, part of this marketing campaign included developing logos, colour schemes, advertising mediums and the cultural associations behind the brand.

I could relate to the two definitions of cultural identity provided as it helped me to categorize the processes I use when brain storming ideas and concepts when developing an identity for the NGO. Cultural identity is important as it aligns the target market to the design and creates meaningful associations. For instance the particular NGO I am working with wants to align itself with young adults particularly young adults who are drawn to charitable causes, to promote the concept the NGO is holding launch party at a major valley club to attract this target market. For this to be successful I am working on design ideas and promotion campaigns which specifically appeal to this market drawing influences from successful fashion, music and current design trends.

The idea of an abstract corporate identity also appeals to me in that an abstract design is not limited to a single idea, but has the potential to branch off and diversify into different areas whilst being linked to an overall theme or concept. I felt particularly drawn to the channel 4 motion graphic examples given in the lecture, the concept for each of the graphics evoked calming, etherial and surreal emotions which created an overall abstract identity but the association with the tv channel was still prominent.

Week 3 Tutorial Exercise

For this piece I use a strong font as the speech delivered was quick sharp and fuss free and I felt that a stronger font would be able to translate these feelings visually. the motion used in the video incorporates short fast movements and rough and obvious film like edits to much the succinct words used in the audio track. There are also several instances where the animation matches the specific words, for example pattern and pandemonium use animation presets which are an attempt to visually represent the meanings of the words. I believe my approach to the video is a literal approach, however I believe a literal approach works best for this video as the pace and wording of the track is unlike regular conversation and instead appears to be a fast paced monologue.

The AE file is constructed completely in 3D with cameras used to position the words onscreen, there are also several animation presets used on the texts.

eight-prime. chameleon phonics. \\cifshare.ci.qut.edu.au\units\cdes\KIB105\ (accessed August 17, 2008)

QUT REFERNCING: HAVARD http://www.citewrite.qut.edu.au/cite/harvard/examples/other.jsp#artwork

LECTURE 03

Kinetic typography appeals to me because of my background in web and print design. My past experiences in designing with text has lead me to believe that text is as valuable as any part of the design as text is used to deliver the literal information to the target market. Therefore, text should adhere to layout and design principals just like any other graphic or designed image. With after effects, the prospect of designing motion text feels like an extension of what I have learnt from my past experiences.

During the lecture I found several keypoints which particularly interested me. The first was the brief explanation of grids which are used to distribute and align text in print, as I have been working with InDesign over the past couple of months I was interested to see how the use of grids in print/web layouts would translate into motion graphics. Laz used the center of the feild/frame to explain how grids can exist in much the same way in motion graphics.

The second point was the reference to Saul Bass's kinetic typography which had influenced the work of modern motion graphic artists. The intro sequence for 'catch me if you can' interested me in that the title sequence seemlessly integrated text to reflect the idea of a highly sophisticated version of cat and mouse across glamourous backdrops using simple info-design styled motion graphics. Se7en was also another video which I felt that the text had evoked the mood of the movie, the text was frenetic and consistantly inconsistant in it's style.

From the student examples I enjoyed the 'fight club' video for its portrayl of not only the spoken words but also the background sound effects. There was a dynamic use of camera pans which moved around the canvas to reflect the pace of the conversation with dramatic zooms which reflected the varations in sound volume. Another aspect of this video that I enjoyed was the way the text would animate as a reaction to crashes in the background. I also enjoyed the 'five' video for it's simple and elegant use of soft blurs and the use of connotations between the videos (for instance the pushups) with the word 'five'. I also enjoyed mark okon's work which emobided a surreal effect using an environmental/geographic image overlayed with softly animated text.

Week 2 Montage Exercise

for the montage i used five images and tried to achieve an electric feel similar to the tacky cut and paste montage styles used in some club advertisements and posters. Obviously this is a very rough and quick adaptation of the style.

LECTURE 02

Although I hadn't given much thought to animation previously, after the lecture my understanding of animation is that it is the impression of movement on each frame and between each frame, therefore encompassing a greater scope to include what the mind/eye processes when viewing animation.

I found the channel 4 videos used to illustrate the concept of interstitual animation effective (despite the voiceover). One of the things that stood out to me was that as a viewer, you only grasp the image of the '4' towards the end of the video, and when you do see a complete 4, the camera only remains on the image for several frames. I felt that the ocean/island video was obvious and that the effect was too obvious, however the sound/stage video had a far more seemless effect with the artificial beams and speakers which added to the realism of the effect.

Although morphology seems very theory driven i find that it does have practical uses in defining ideas as you could use space, form and time as a structure / outline in the development process. I thought the video for memisis was an interesting concept, representing the 1984/big brother approach to surveilance cameras and the potential evolution of security and the devolution of privacy, the motion graphics used were simple and easily achieved using the motion tracking function in AE. I also enjoyed the motion sequence / representation of time in the train video. I particularly liked the distortion of time where even though the background/ foreground remained linear the train's animations were non-linear.

The montage video that stood out for me most was the black and white/ new york cityscape video for its simplicity (a vertical pan) and it's engaging content. I felt that the composition with the grayscale buildings which sometimes contained a white shape cutout resembling a city in the negative space was also effective. The music choice was at a medium/slow tempo and the pace seemed to sync with the vertical pan and the content transition-ins.