1531QCA
Making Visual Media
Assessment 4 – GIF
This assessment requires students to create an animated square GIF file which portrays a message to their future selves (a year from now) within the current context of the
COVID-19 situation.
Concept
I wanted to create a simple, understandable and relatable sequence of positive and uplifting things one should remember in light of the situation currently unfolding with the pandemic and also in the future as life returns to normal.
In my concept sketch below, I have (in black colour) created five little scenes that I want to loop through, each with a message that will be displayed through text in the GIF. In grey I have noted some ideas on how I could animate the transitions between the scenes.
The brief given to students highlights the main features of a GIF, saying that they are encountered on "physically private but socially public" screens and are used, created, posted and shared casually as a form of identity-making. Usually a GIF is short, silent, looping and untitled. I wanted to ensure the GIF I eventually create features all of these properties so it may best suit the space and uses it was designed for.
The GIF below represents the rough style I want to aim to replicate in terms of the animation techniques. It is smooth, simple, geometry-focused and is pleasant to view multiple times. I believe most viewers would also appreciate how seamless and playful the transitions are.
Morphing sequence of animated icons
Imaged sourced from https://www.uplabs.com/posts/morphing-icons-icons
When thinking about what kind of visual style I wanted my scenes to have, I was immediately reminded of the video campaign Metro Trains in Melbourne, Australia created to promote railway safety. Called "Dumb Ways to Die", it was released on YouTube and generated $50 million of media value for a fraction of the traditional cost of TV advertising and saw more than a 30% reduction of accidents in the year that followed (Moses, 2012).
What I like about the visual style is (again) its simplicity, pastel colours, charming characters and humorous scenes. The text is also not too intrusive, yet critical to the experience of the game. In my GIF, the text will serve to portray a message alongside a scene which will be meaningful on its own.
Various screenshots of Dumb Ways To Die 2
Image sourced from https://www.naldotech.com/download-dumb-ways-to-die-2-with-new-levels/
Draft
To begin animating the first scene of my GIF I started in Illustrator to create the vector art before importing it into After Effects. I wanted to build upon my Face Icon I created in Week 3 of the course and use the same visual style for this assessment. I created two people holding hands, a slight variation of the hugging stick figures I sketched in my concept.
This was because upon first playing around in After Effects, I realised it would be quite difficult to animate true 3D characters which could walk and exist in all three dimensions.
I instead opted for a flatter, 2D look and focused my efforts on subtle, extra animations that would add some visual interest to the main parts of the scene.
Below is a screenshot of After Effects, in which one can observe the imported Illustrator artwork on the left hand side and the timeline editor toward the bottom of the frame. Whilst it is possible to edit shapes and paths, as well as add fills and strokes, it is preferable to first create the artwork in Illustrator and import it afterwards to be animated.
At this stage, due to time constrains and other demanding university assessments, I was only able to animate the first scene. As per the concept sketch, there will be four other scenes that will appear in the final GIF, all designed and animated in the same visual style.
Final
This assessment was thoroughly enjoyful for me to complete. I was happy with the final outcome of my artwork, however as always seek to improve the quality of my work during its creation. Due to the time constrains of other university assessments I wasn’t able to add as much ‘polish’ as I would have liked but am pleased with the result.
What took the most time was the animation in Adobe After Effects. I have used this program before, however this was a long time ago and most of the things I’d learned (mostly about a typical workflow) I had forgotten. Simple things like keyboard shortcuts and the location of menu items for crucial tasks I had to look up constantly. I did pick it all back up and more than I had originally learned and toward the end of my work on the assessment item, I found myself easily able to navigate the interface of the program and get things done quickly.
My final artwork contains both messages relevant to now (in the midst of the COVID-19 situation) and my future self. I wanted the messages to be simple and uplifting, which is why I opted for cartoon-style animation. I am also pleased I was able to build upon my face icon I created in Week 3 of the course, using the character and ones I created based off this character in multiple scenes in my final GIF.
The assessment has inspired me to look into other courses available at Griffith University to further enhance my animation skills. It is certainly an area which I have discovered a passion for and am grateful to have done so.
Moses, Asher. "Aussie viral video, 'Dumb Ways to Die', lives on". The Age, accessed 17 May, 2020, https://www.theage.com.au/technology/aussie-viral-video-dumb-ways-to-die-lives-on-20121129-2ahm0.html.
Hodges, Giles. 2011. Seamless Denim texture.
Freedesignfile. 2015. Cloth texture seamless pattern.
Adrian, Tudor Antonel. 2020. Green leaf seamless texture
Images have been referenced according to the Griffith University Library’s website directions for online images, in the format below:
AuthorLastName, FirstName. Year. Title: Subtitle if Any. City: Publisher Name.
