AE3D Test Segment

This video is a small segment of what will be a much larger piece. My concept is to utilize the After Effects interface to create a 3D camera tutorial using the 3D camera tool. Information will all be connected in space and will fold out revealing the information needed to use and understand the tools, while giving an example of its possibilities. I will also be dissecting and animating many of the individual elements of the software.

I've learned a bit more on the limitations of the 3D camera and the spotlight tool, as well as having a more intimate feel for the structure and location of elements within After Effects. I have also learned the limitations in creating true 3D objects in the program.

INSIST. Final Documentation / Statement

INSIST. is an organization created to help people in the community understand that they have the right to insist on a receipt no matter where they spend their hard earned money. We believe that they should ask for their receipt to avoid the financial hardships that are possible without paper documentation of payment such as evictions, and duplicated payements. We have created the Receipt Keeper a portable storage device that contains an index file that will allow the owner to better manage their receipts on the go and also remind them to insist on their receipt. The Insist campaign is aimed at business as well as the customers. We believe that  businesses want to operate at a high level of professionalism and using Insist they can help do that by training their employees their importance of giving receipts to each and every customer. To advertise Insist we have created a logo that shows a receipt being torn off. The logo also forms the shape of an exclamation mark suggesting the importance of insisting on a receipt. The red and black colors represent regained financial security. Our bus ad will be shown on bus routes near partnering business informing them about the function of the receipt keeper, what comes with it and where they can pick it up. The pick up locations will be one of each of the three different types of pick up locations: Community Centers, Churches, and Community Banks. The box itself is an organizer containing an index and t-shirt. The T-Shirt is a special gift from the sponsor U.S. Bank. That people can wear with a sense of pride that will also spread the message. To reach the businesses we will be sending out a mailer that will appeal to the businesses sense of professionalism, teaching them the importance of keeping receipts. Inside the mailer will be a sticker that will be placed in the widow of the businesses to remind the customer to ask for a receipt  and remind the employee to remind the customer to get their receipt. 

WHAT THREE THINGS WOULD I DO TO IMPROVE OR EXTEND THIS PROJECT:

If I had a bit more time I would do the following to improve and/or expand this project:

• Consider and explore a Receipt Keeper Wallet option for men. Not that the box isn't or wasn't designed to be unisex but currently the box serves better in a purse or bag rather than a pocket. 
• Attempt to make the current Receipt Keeper Box and possible Receipt Keeper Wallet out of a sturdier material like some kind of polymer or plastic. 
• More customization options inside the Receipt Keeper Box to support other kinds of financial documents at the discretion of the owner. 

WHAT DID I LEARN FROM THIS PROJECT:

I'd say that firstly it was very nice having the experience of a "design for good" based project and to chase a problem down across a broader range of platforms/channels. Being able to experience the poverty simulation for this as well as a better understanding of the related social issues.

The other thing that I learned over the course of this project was the basics of communication theory. I can now, with some authority dissect a communication problem with the proper terminology. This is definitely helpful in better understanding a communication breakdown, which is obviously the base of every design problem. I also learned how to better manage a project of this nature across a particular time constraint. I don't feel as though we were particularly rushed durring the course of this project.

FINAL IMAGE OF FULL PROTOTYPE SET:

Receipt Keeper, T-Shirt, Letter, Stickers, Bus Ad.

Insist Presentation 2 The Problem:

People within the community are failing to insist on their receipts

Due to lack of education, apathy, or pride

This is resulting in unnecessary consequences to those who may be already financially unstable

Evictions, Property repossessions, Double payments

The Solution: 

Insist is an organization who wants to:

Empower the public to insist on their receipt

Give them an container in which to keep and organize their receipts

Insist on a higher level of mutual respect and professionalism between the customer and the employee

Branding:

Our logo represents a receipt being torn off.

The logo takes the form of an exclamation mark suggesting the importance of insisting on receipts.

The colors, from red to black, implies regained financial security.

Audience: 

The financially unstable and the business owners/employees

Insist targets each party with a universal message of the importance of receipts 

as well as a more tailored message to both the customer and the employee.

Bus Advertisement:

The bus advertisement will be displayed on the buses with routes near partnering businesses.

The ad will inform the viewer of the importance of insisting on a receipt.

It will also tell them about the function of the Receipt Keeper, what comes with it, and where to pick it up.

The ad will also reflect the three different community locations closest to that particular bus route for ease of picking up.

Location: 

The Receipt Keeper will be available for pick up at locations in the neighborhood:

Locations like:

Community Centers, Churches, Community Banks.

These are locations we believe to be easily accessible by bus, bike, or foot.

Receipt Keeper:

The receipt keeper is an organizer with an index for three different receipt categories that people can name themselves

The box includes information about the importance of keeping and organizing receipts on the inside

T-Shirt:

As a special gift from the sponsor U.S. Bank the receipt keeper comes with a free shirt.

Having this shirt to wear can give people a sense of pride and empowerment in asking for their receipts, as well as spread the message to others

Mailer:

Inform the the business of the importance of keeping receipts

Appeal to their sense of professionalism

Be polite in reminding the customers

Sticker:

Placed in the window of the business

Reminds the customer to ask for their receipt

Reminds the employee to remind the customer to get their receipt

Narrative Project Goals

For my proposed narrative project I would like to tackle the question of how to reveal new info using 3D space by giving a 3D tutorial on how to use 3D space in After Effects. This would both show the possibilities of the tool in a visually pleasing way as well as give a step by step narration on the process of basic set up and how to use the camera functions. Things to be explained would be the use of the different axis points as well as keyframes needed and angling tools. The elements in the video should be visually consistent with those in After Effects.

History of Motion Graphics!

So in response to the history of motion graphics video I can say I'd never have defined motion graphics as they did until now. The idea that the main line between motion graphics and film is whether or not a character is able to express themselves, had never occurred to me. The other thing that really struck me was the revelation of why I love motion graphics so much, or at least a sign as to why I should pursue them more. In watching this video and its reel of all of the more current animation pieces, a reoccurring thought came to me. Why did I not make that? More than any other thing I always try to analyze how motion graphic pieces are done. Probably a sign.

Logo Build

My logo build is for the organization For the Silent. Over five seconds the build expands upon the idea of the cage and the bird being released as a representation for the freeing of those enslaved in sex trafficking. The rotoscoped bird goes from footage to vector using a reverse choke effect into a unexpanded mask path. The composition is then set back to frame one with the wipe of the larger bird footage, making the video loopable. This is probably the shortest amount of time I've had to ever loop anything so it was definitely a good challenge for me to do that and not lose the narrative. Also I learned how to use the roto brush tool, allowing me to create the bird flying out of the cage.

Sketches, They are not Prototypes.

In the reading on sketches by Bill Buxton, he explanes the differences between sketches and prototypes. Sketches are made to elaborate on concept and not solutions. The prototype is a final proposal for a solution to a problem while the sketch is meant to explore concepts and not options.

INSIST.

Our campaign/organization, INSIST. consist of a system of four components. A box for the user to put receipts into with information on the inside slip describing the importance of insisting on and keeping receipts. A vacuum-packed t-shirt with a graphic portraying the complicated and stressful nature of receipt management (the t-shirt will be placed in the receipt box). A bus ad would advertise the main message and the route specific pickup locations for the receipt box. A mailer would go out to the businesses giving them information on the importance of giving receipts and assuming professionalism in doing so. The mailer would include stickers to place at the place of purchase and in the store window, reminding people to give/ask for their receipts.

For the Silent

For my five second logo build I would like to use For the Silent, an organization that combats child sex trafficking. This is an issue that I feel strongly for. http://www.forthesilent.org/

LUDEN'S!!!

The Luden's package is finally done. I've tailored the experience to the consumer as much as possible, adjusting from the original mode pathos mode of appeal. Originally the package sported a soothing, more old-fashioned style. You could just see the scroll like banner and the warmly illustrated honey and lemon, and begin to feel the implied soothing nature of the drops. I wanted to replace the pathos mode with a logos mode of appeal. I gave the package a more straight forward and logical representation of its two main flavor/ingredients. The iconography of both the honey and the lemon are represented in both the center of the box and in the pattern that wraps around it. Other than the color, the nature of the clean vectors is more neutral than the typical photograph or more detailed illustration. The high contrast colors actually really grab the eye on the shelf causing the package to stand out amongst others. The pattern on the box is more dense on the left side and the flow of the open space leads through the radiating lemon pattern. This guides you from the front to the information on the back. Altogether the new design may grab a newer audience that might overlook the product. Its just super fresh.

Package List

1. Does the package design stand out among competitive products on the store shelf? (shelf impact)

2. Is the brand name prominent enough to hold presence?

3. Does the package clearly communicate the identity and the function of the product? (functional attributes)

4. Does the brand image and design style target the right age group and create the right personality? (emotive attribute)

5. Has the hierarchy of communications been addressed for easy shopping? (brand, product visual, descriptor)

6. If there are many similar products, is it easy to differentiate among them?

7. Does the structure of package work well to contain, display, or protect the product?

8. Is the brand name or logo usable in places other than on the package, such as online, print advisements, or signage?

Sticks out on the shelf as far as brightness and style, but needs clarity as to what the product is. If it is in with other cough drops then it will stand out amongst the crowd. All of these will really stand out on the shelf due to the comparisons being made and the pops of color. The brand logo seems to stand out enough. The pattern interacts with the rest of the package which ties it together. It should target a slightly audience than it normally does. Since the product has been around for a long time I would like to target this group.

 The role switch is clever.

 People might not like the bee.

 The bear will hold a nicer connotation than the bee.

Stylistically it may not be fitting but the concept is there. The pairing may need to be reworked.

Modes of Appeal/Product Identification

Color Palette-
Logos: The color palette for a logos appeal could be any palette that links visual to the literal make-up of the product.

Ethos: Colors belonging to authoritative and pre-established groups or organizations.

Pathos: Color palettes with contrasting colors can suggest anger or energy. Cool or warm muted colors can imply a sense of calm. Reds and deeper warm colors can imply romance or passion. All colors have there own connotations: blue suggests intelligence or water, green can suggest natural qualities.

Type-
Logos: Type that is laid out to express the brand and other information without the aid of expressive alterations or color. If it is laid out in a statistical format it might only suggest qualities or ingredients of the product.

Ethos: In the same way as the color palette, the typeface used may already be associated with a notable/trustworthy group or organization. The typeface used could suggest the age of the brand for added validity, such as Trajan. Careful wording to appeal to the consumer can also add validity.

Pathos: Hand letter type can informality or playfulness. Script could be romantic and formal. Woodblock type can suggest antique or nostalgic qualities. Type can relate to culture and the feelings one associates with that culture.

Stylistic References/Rendering Methods-
Logos: Any stylistic reference and rendering method that is objective enough to not imply meaning beyond what is pertained in the product. Simplistic and straight forward.

Ethos: If the style references the appropriate culture that the product relates to. The style and rendering method could be something that the consumer would relate to and subsequently trust. Ethos can play on nostalgia in a way that implies longevity.

Pathos: The stylistic choices and rendering methods can evoke emotion if they target the appropriate emotion. Nostalgia can be employed as a means to tug on the heartstrings of the consumer.

Product Identification

Pathos: The overall feel of farming and country. Reminiscent of a home cooked meal. The color reinforces these aspects appropriately. The slab serif adds to the authenticity of this appeal.

Pathos: The bright color implies energy. The wings also support that sudden burst of energy.

 Ethos: The design references old style milkman service. As the tag suggests it has a reliable and old fashioned appeal. The color is very strongly associated with the older trustworthy milk service/industry.

Logos: Shows exactly what it contains, which is four cans of each flavor in a box. The type does not assume any other responsibility other than relaying that information. The color only loosely relates to the type of meat in each can. The stylistic rendering of the cat as a silhouette does little to affect the consumer in a emotional or ethical way.

Pushing Products

Luden's Drops (Pathos)

I felt that the packaging for the cough drops, with its lemon and honey and simple description, was very soothing. The way it is illustrated also enforces that. The consumer does have to flip the package around in order to get to more of the factual information. The sides only repeat the main label and on of the sides even has nothing on it. The tag line "Uniquely Good" on its old-timey banner gives it an air of natural authenticity amongst others. The audience should obviously be anyone who has a sore throat in need of soothing.

Audit: Remembered the honey drop and the fact that it was menthol. Pointed out the red stripe and didn't like the the plastic, wanting to get past the plastic to be able to feel the paper. Oral anesthetic was recalled before the tag "soothes everyday throat irritation".

Lidia's Marinara (Ethos)
I chose Lidia's simply because Lidia Bastianich is a renowned Italian chef and food critique, and a staple for great Italian food. The packaging seems to have a simple and seemingly authentic Italian feel to it with its repeating gold frame on a red background. You associate the message of "All Natural, Made With Fresh Ingredients" with the fact that this product is produced and backed with the approval of Lidia herself. The packaging, upon turning the jar, yields more information on who Lidia is and the breakdown of just how natural it is.

Audit: Did not like the way that Lydia was portrayed/printed. Felt she looked possessed or devil like. The contrast between her and the background was disturbing. The rectangle geometric shapes felt like going down a staircase. Visually the sound of the sauce moving could be heard. The name didn't strike him as Italian. Red.

Famous Blaster Small Engine Tune Up (Logos)
This thing is just screaming at you, and in more ways than one. The packaging is bright yellow and does catch your eye on the shelf with all of its descriptions, but in more of a "what the **** was that" sort of way. Its actually quite a battle in trying to figure out just what it is due to the fact that there is plenty of hierarchy but none that's actually helpful. Regardless of this the packaging is completely informational, and some of it is redundantly so.

Audit: Found reading the text in different voices and tones came naturally. Very confusing and excessive. Infomercial like. Liked the color. Text on the side was redundant. How it tells you how to use it but not where to point it was funny.

Grace Kelly (finess finess finish)

So for Grace Kelly I have ended up going with the antithetical representation of her by, showing her symbol interacting with a wintery scene and warming away the snow. Her symbol, the saxophone, is standing in for her warm/sultry tone that she achieves with both her sax and her voice. At the same time I wanted to elude to her youth and also appeal to a younger audience. This is what led me to make the smooth, flowing, playful, and graphic stylistic vector composition that I did. The way in which the type moves freely, echos the movement in the snow drifts, and this movement also leads the eye around to the saxophone. From there the snow drifts movement leads the eye down to the Folly Theater logo and other important information that resides in the banner. I believe I have successfully represented the Grace Kelly Quintet in a way that stays conceptually grounded in both my perception of her and the founding rhetorical tropes. Visually I believe the poster would be appropriate for a younger audience, but would not offend the older regulars of the theater. I also think that the pop of orange/yellow will grab your attention from the street and the rest of the color palette will be appropriate for the season.

This is my earliest success out of the earlier/later iterations. My biggest problem has been getting the color of the grass and the type correct. The type here is beginning to do what I want it to with the exception of the "featuring Phil Woods" line. The color of the grass is still clashing heavily with the color of the sax, but the sax has been more appropriately simplified from the one I had used before. The grass now also suffers from being too detailed. I begin to see the grinch hand problem stemming from that detail.

Here is the poster that I went with to show the people from the Folly Theater. Everything seems in order except fot the green in the grass is now not green enough, but...

I quickly solve that by warming up the green, while not making it too vibrant against the orange of the sax.

Here are the iterations for possible billboards, based off of the same poster.

Here is the final iteration for the billboard format.

A White Hunter is Nearly a Narrative.

Here are my typographical, temporal solutions to two selections from Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons. The base concept for my compositions is that I am trying to draw out imagery through typographic  hierarchy. These animated narratives are derived from that idea that with the fragmented nature of the poems still intact, the mind can still make order out of the chaos with only minimal direction. With the white hunter being nearly crazy at the end of my collection, and the way in which the members of that collection interact through the pages of my book I decided to have one video affect the other. The first video foreshadows the other, in the way the text begins to overlap, while the second video deals with the overlaying of text after of a whole collection of text/imagery before it.

Folly

This project is the third annual junior designing of the Folly Jazz Series posters. My artist for which I am deigning is the Grace Kelly Quintet, and also a special guest artist Phil Woods. The concept must be driven by a rhetorical trope (in my case it is antithesis), and it must appeal to a broad range of ages. The antithesis is describing her sound as a thing that is warm, effecting a cold environment. The direction I chose is that of a saxophone, which is indexical of her playing, that is warming a cold snowy area, producing green/spring grass around it. The image will either be photo manipulation, vector, or a mix of the two. This direction is likely more original than my other concepts which, while nice, have been done before. I would like to keep the style youthful and fresh since Grace Kelly is very young for her playing ability. I'm not worried about Phil Woods being misrepresented as anyone of an older caliber of musician would appreciate being associated with a younger crowd.

The metaphorical representation of her warm sultry sound feels dated and is not as original as my antithetical representation.

This last one will be the one I pursue further.

Folly Crit Checklist
Have you connected with the audience?

Yes, but it connects to two different audiences. (young adults/adults)

Is the message clear?
There are moments where the stylistic choices get in the way of clarity. (smooth flowing graphics are better)

Is it visible from a distance?

The darker compositions have more clarity from a distance, while the snowy compositions are muddy.

What is the visual entry point?

The grass is the entry point in the snow compositions. The red sax and the body form are the entry points of the two smokey compositions.

What is the second element you want to see?

Sax in the snow and in the darker compositions.

Do the visual codes connect to and represent the subject?
Conceptually they do. Still working on the formal side of it.

Are there any emotional cues?
The warming in the cold environment gives a warm feeling.

What makes it memorable?
The contrast in color. Original concept.

Are there any distractions?

The banner could be distracting.

Grace Kelly (sketchy)

These are a round of digital (which regrettably would have been more appropriate at this time, had they been done in pencil) sketches  for possible compositions. These are based off of the three main directions from the concept matrix.