Design For Digital Module Evaluation

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Through this module I have developed skills in software - After Effects; Final Cut Pro; iWeb as well as organisation skills for design for digital. Other skills includes project management and story-boarding for animation. I felt I have applied these skills effectively in some areas but still need to improve in others. I think I've developed my skills further in After Effects and visualising concepts via mediums such as story-boarding, but my project managing skills still needs improving, anticipating the animation process takes time, I have given my self enough time to develop / making of the animation but falling short on the iWeb side of the project.
This is the first motion graphics project for me to work collaboratively with someone else in charge of sound, it has been another learning curve for me.

2. What approaches to generating work and solutions to problems have you developed and how have they helped?

I approached this project with great enthusiasm, the subject matter interested me and acted as my drive through this project. I learned to act quickly upon ideas with animation, because the actual making process always seems to take longer than anticipated. I encountered numerous problem during the animating process, I learned to know my limits within the software and work around problems to communicate my ideas. over the length of this project I have went through many tutorials online and self taught the software skills that was needed for my animation. I picked up on how to look for information and answers regarding my design problems, I have gradually developed my own work flow methods for digital design. I found keeping digital files updated and archived is a must when it comes to working with digital media.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I find that I prefer to work with image, and especially motion graphics, I can quickly visualise my ideas to show on screen and look for effective solutions to my problems. I have learned to make decisions quickly and be more proactive with the development process, which resulted in giving myself more time for realising my visual solutions and making things happen more quickly. Being more decisive has become my strength which I have benefited from this project, I find that I had more time to experiment with the software and creating more polished final products, which I had problem to produce before.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?

Even though I did allow myself more time by making quick decisions early on in the project, I still found myself getting lost in the software, trying to learn 'everything' has lead me to many wrong turns and distractions, where I would spend many hours experimenting elements which had little to do with my initial ideas.
Experiment and expanding my skills is important but without restriction it could lead to time wasting. I may have felt that I learned a lot by doing so but it may have affected my focus on this project.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

- I would like to present my project more clearly, by becoming more organised with my work flow and getting a better work habit, instead storing ideas and findings in my head, I would like to put them on paper and screen more in the future.

- I would like to be more in-depth with my development of ideas, I felt with this project I forced myself to produce work quickly I over looked the development stage, which I feel if I worked more in detail I could've benefited more from it.

- I would like to be more efficient with time, this issue with time comes up every time, but I felt my time management has been the best as it had been so far, I was able to complete work within my own sets of deadlines, but there's always room for improvements in this area.

- I would like to be more prepared for crits, I felt that I was never really ready at crits, I struggled with showing my development and getting the useful feedback I required. I would like to plan ahead more with crits and try to get the most out of them in the future.

- I would like to learn to be more organised with design for digital, as I felt this is the area in graphic design I would like to go into, I want to improve my skills as well as effective working habits, digital media requires well structured thought process and work flow, which I see can benifit me in other area of design.

The Battery Menace

Final Edit - Top 10 Monster Movies / Title Sequence / E4

working progress 2

Lessons from the art of storyboarding

Here is a good short video reviewing the art of the storyboard as it's used in story development and production in the motion picture industry. Storyboarding as we know it may have been pioneered by film makers and animators, but we can use many of the same concepts in the development of other forms of storytelling including keynote presentations or short-form presentations such as those made popular at TED. The storyboard process allows you to flush out themes and look for patterns as you apply your creativity toward presenting your content.

Storyboarding is a great way to begin to visualize the story of your content. (In animation) storyboards are used to develop the story. A great storyboard artist is a great communicator (not necessarily a great illustrator/animator). Walt Disney developed the use of storyboards in the 1920s. Storyboards allow film makers to see a blueprint of the movie before going into production. You tack them (your sketches/ideas in visual form) up on the wall so you can see the entire sequence, flow, continuity, etc. Storyboards are an effective, inexpensive way to develop the story. You can "board it up" on the wall and see if it works. Because ideas can be changed easily and quickly, storyboarding works. The key is to put down in your storyboards the minimum amount of information that gives a dynamic and quick read of the content (and the emotions) of the sequence.

A good storyboard artist is a good storyteller. The drawings do not have to be pretty, but they must have the meaning and the feelings behind the idea. A good storyboard artist is a good pitchman. Walt Disney, they say, was an amazing pitchman/storyboard artist. Walt's great ability was his passion and vision behind the pitch. The storyboard pitch is one of the great performance arts developed in the 20th century at Disney (yet no one ever gets to see it). The use of storyboards is one of the reasons Walt Disney's early films were so remarkable; the practice was soon copied.

Walt Disney: "At our studio we don't write our stories, we draw them."

With storyboarding you tell the story in the simple form (storyboard reels) before entering the more complex form. The storyboard lets the whole team in on what's going on with the production. The storyboard is "an expensive writing tool, but an inexpensive production tool." The storyboard can cut out a lot of unnecessary work. Storyboards allow you to see what is not working (and toss the bits out that don't work).

Kevin Costner: "If I can make things work on paper, then I can make them work on the set."