Applied Last Changes!

For the changes to my Discovery Channel Ident, all I had time to do last minute was fade the music out so that it wasn't so drastic. I think it has improved my animation slightly, though I don't think it was really necessary.

I also then wanted to edit the sound for my E4 ident. I was recommended to not fade this one out, instead try and find a sound that I could end the ident with. I tried multiple and really couldn't find one that I liked until this one, and even now I think the animation is better without it. I feel like it perhaps is distracting, especially when there is a lot of sound going on in the ident, like the electricity in the beginning. 10 seconds is a short amount of time, therefore I feel like having another sound at the end is a bit too much.

Applied Final Crit Feedback

I was pleasantly surprised with the feedback I got from the final crit session, as I was really dreading hearing what my peers had to say after already having disheartening feedback earlier on in the module. 

Most people really liked the colours I went for in both my idents, which really pleased me, and they thought that the sound was good also, it just ended too fast at the end, so this is something that I am willing to alter.

They also mentioned a few other things, like perhaps the Discovery logo should be lowered a bit more and the second bounce on the E4 ident should be perfected further, so if I have time this is something that I will try and do if I have time! 

Overall I am very glad there was no extremely bad feedback and I feel proud of the work I have achieved. 

Applied Animation OUAN406 Evaluation

The ‘Applied Animation’ brief was a surprising challenge for me. I love looking at campaigns and advertising strategies, so I immediately was attracted to this brief. However I truly underestimated the extent of planning and research that goes into even one ident. Though I enjoyed it, and learnt a lot from it, it was certainly an eye opener and made me realise that to make a successful ident, you need a successful, strategic plan.

I chose two channels for my idents that could not be more different, but this was exciting and when I started to feel uninspired by one, I could easily work on the other. One channel offered content for the viewer to feel a vicarious experience, and the other, plainly to enjoy it’s comedic value. So I had the best of both worlds. 

I had to extensively consider many values when making these idents, values that had often not even crossed my mind. From demographic to corporate identity, I personally found from observation and now experience to make a good ident, you need to consider the channel as a whole. What it offers to its viewers and what it hopes to achieve back. Therefore I tried to be successful in this area. I spent a great deal of time looking at comments from each channel’s audience and their statistic analytics before I began planning and I think this really benefitted me. I also looked at their websites, and social media in order to gain a deeper feel for the content of the channels.

Changing my mind after planning everything near the beginning of the brief was bittersweet for me. Though looking back now, I am happy with what I have achieved and I enjoyed it much more than to what I was previously doing, it did add a little more pressure. When I start to doubt my work, I want to change it immediately, therefore this is something that I am going to have to work on. I also need to work on taking constructive criticism lightly, as I was more sensitive to it this time around, though I know it was only for positive reasons.

Aside for some mishaps, I feel like I spent a lot of time on aesthetic and experimenting with different programmes and materials which I am proud of. I tend to immediately gravitate to Photoshop to make my animations, so barely using that programme here was an achievement for me. I feel like After Effects is a programme which I could become even more familiar with in the future, as well as Maya, which I am slowly starting to become confident with.

I also enjoyed the Model Making workshops as it was a nice change than being consumed by technology. Though I struggled through it, I did enjoy being in a relaxed environment where help was constantly offered, and I would definitely like to try it again perhaps next year.

Overall, this brief was the hardest for me so far as I encountered a few more obstacles than what I am used to. However I feel like that has only made me work harder and consider attributes that I wouldn’t have unless these challenges arose. I feel like now I have truly experienced working under pressure, which is a great way to end the year as i’m sure it is just a taster for next.

E4 Final Animated Ident

This is my final E4 Ident after all the adjustments. Again, I am also happy with the final result which overall makes me satisfied with what I have achieved out of this brief. I feel like I have experimented even further with this particular ident, using different techniques and skills I had never used before such as, stop motion, paint and animating to a sound track.

I also did a lot of research and testing for this brief, which I am very happy with and belief it has payed off in the end.

Discovery Channel Final Animation

This is my final ident for the Discovery Channel after all my adjustments. Overall, I am rather happy with it. It is the first time I have ever made a full animation in After Effects, as well as making components individually and animating them on separate layers. This animation took me the longest time to do, because of all the planning and adjustments, but I am actually glad I changed my mind and opted for this aesthetic instead, because I enjoyed experimenting with it. Lastly, I would like to strengthen my After Effects skills even further, now that I know how to use the program to a certain degree, sometime in the future.

       

E4 12) More Adjustments

Since my teacher and I both agreed that the intro that I made for my E4 ident was a little too 'digital' for the rest of the content, I thought I would go ahead and try again, and if that went wrong, then I would just shorten the first second of the ident, as after checking it was 11 seconds anyway!

I decided to make a watercolour textured logo for E4, and make it 'glow' accompanied with an electricity sound effect. This idea just quickly came to me, and aesthetically, I think it fits quite well with the rest of my ident.

I then did a few tests in order to gain the right amount of glow. This included trying to make the background darker, so the contrast between light and dark would be greater. I also tried making the saturation lighter in order for the logo to 'appear; brighter. And in the end I added it to the beginning of my animation and it ended up like this:

I am quite happy with it, and I feel like it matches the rest of the ident a lot better than the previous one I did. I also added a little jump/shake to the logo, barely noticeable, but just so much that it looks as though the logo is alive.

ALSO during this part of making adjustments I edited the second bounce so that it looks more in sync as opposed to bouncing backwards. This took me no time at all since I kept all of my image sequences!