Date: Week 10 - Week 14
University: Taylor's University
Instructions
Project Brief
- For the Final Project of this course, you are required to create a poetic, life-lesson animated video with caption.
- The duration of the video MUST be between 15 – 20 seconds.
- You are required to create at least 3 sequences of animated illustration based on a script.
- The scripts are included in the next slides. You DO NOT NEED to create your own scripts.
- You can start by breaking down your script into few parts, and plan the visuals of each part.
- You MUST include sound, audio narrative and caption of your script.
- For your Final Project, the dimension will be:
- Height: 1920 px
- Width: 1080 px
- Orientation: Portrait / Vertical
Your final submission will consist of:
- Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop File/Files – .ai&.psd format
- Final Animated Video – .mp4 format
- Sound
- Background Music
- Animation
- Script Overlay
- Documentation – .pdf format
- Description of inspiration
- Moodboard
- Storyboard
- Script
- Detailed information
- Rationale
- Self Reflection
Chosen
Quote:
Description of Inspiration:
I am inspired by this quote as I relate to it personally and find it very motivating. I love to freely explore new ideas and the world, which makes me feel happy when someone understands to follow your own heart. I want to make a short story, showing how the person would feel stuck and regretful if they continue living their life they don’t want, but later, express how they just took that courage and went out to actually live their life however they want. Since I love fantasy and love exploring new things and areas, I wanted to mix this character’s story to be like how I fantasise my story to be like and include fictional things like floating ships and islands. After changing my idea from a more realistic approach, I drew inspiration from Treasure Planet, as I love their fantasy world building and the idea of exploration and freedom displayed.Mood
board:
Story board & Sketches:
2. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour – person walking outside the door, transition to outside/stepping on the ship
3. Catch the trade winds in your sails – person on a flying ship in the clouds, going to a floating island
4. Explore. Dream. Discover – person out in nature, looking at the fireflies/stars in wonder
I started making the artwork for storyboard 2-4 first, as I
couldn’t quite get 1 right. After finishing each animation illustration for 2-4
with some changes from the original storyboard, I decided to change the sketch
for the first sequence. I focused on making 2-4 as my main animated
illustration, with others in between to make the story flow better.
Rationale:
Being inspired by the quote, I wanted to reflect my personal values and aspiration into the animated sequence. Since I love stories, I wanted to incorporate a short story into this video, while trying to be clear and to the point. At first, I didn’t want to make the story literal, but after some consideration, I just went with what I wanted to do, which is to illustrate a fantasy fiction that tells of dreams and freedom. This quote from Mark Twain resonated with me with the fact that I believe we all should do what we want to really do in life, instead of following what society says we need to do, or else we would regret it. The part where it says to throw off your bowlines and sail away is an indication to go away from your comfort zone, so that you can fully live life to dream endless possibilities and explore new things.
Since this reflects my personal values, I wanted to create a character that, in a way, reflects me too. A thought suddenly sprung in my mind mid-drawing, to give the character a disability, and why not prosthetic legs to show it more literally? It is a metaphor that shows how people can get stuck in their comfort zones, or even prisons, where they think it is impossible to get out and achieve your dreams. But with a small determination and a little courage to even take the first step outside, that in itself is a big accomplishment. Follow the wind and enjoy the journey, wherever it might take you.
Animated
Illustration:
1. 1. “Twenty years from now, you will be more
disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”
I changed the first part of the animated
illustration to something simpler, to have a better flow and connection to the
story. However, I didn’t have much time, so I decided to showcase a metaphor of
how feeling stuck with not doing anything you want in life.
2. 2. “So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from
the safe harbour.”
I wanted to show a determined look from the character, that no matter what circumstances, they would follow their own heart to live their life without any regrets. I want to show him taking the first big step, metaphorically and literally, from outside their comfort zone to the next destination. The character is seen walking out from his home to the ship which would bring him to his destination. When drawing the illustrations, I suddenly had a thought to give him prosthetic legs, as I want to draw them in the past and I couldn’t, but now, it fits the context of the story. I wanted to show that no matter what weighs a person down, it is always possible to take that step out, find a way, and live your dreams.
3. 3. “Catch the trade winds in your sails.”
Inspired by Treasure Planet, before I
wanted to draw a plain ship to an island or at sea, but after, I decided to
expand my imagination a little more and go towards the sky instead.
Additionally, for me, the sky holds more meaning of freedom and endless
possibilities, as it seems to hold a bigger wonder for me than the sea.
4. 4. “Explore. Dream. Discover.”
I wanted to show the character exploring
the island and freely discovering new things with joy. I was inspired by stars
and fireflies in the sky, as he stands in the middle to admire and stare in awe
at everything he's never seen before. I want to show the happiness and how it
can feel so fulfilling when breaking out of the comfort zone and experience
freedom.
Video/Animation:
Orientation: Portrait
Voiceover: Liong Xenyi
Background Music: Dearly Beloved Kingdom Hearts II Version
Platform used: Adobe Premiere Pro
- Drew sketches
- Created outlines
- Coloured with live paint tool
- Created shading and highlights
- Created compositions based on the rule of thirds and golden ratio
- Made the foreground, middle ground and background for the composition
- Applied effects like gradiant, blur, warp and grain texture
- Made different artboards and exporting with screens
- Changed the opacity and blending options for certain effects and texture
- Edit the video with Adobe Premiere Pro with video and audio transitions
- Different art-styles for Adobe Illustrator illustrations
- How to create shapes for shading and highlights
- Create my own voiceover in Adobe Audition
Reflection:
I had a problem reducing the illustrations to only a few. Before this, I had a long storyboard. I realised that I love to tell stories in any shape or form, but only being limited to a few illustrations was difficult for me, as I wanted a more coherent and better flow. Nevertheless, I managed to shorten it, and after several changes of the storyboard, I finally got a finalised idea for my illustrations. It was difficult pacing the time to do this project, as sometimes I get stuck on how I’m supposed to colour or draw a certain illustration, as I’m still finding ways to draw on Illustrator. However, I feel like I gained a better understanding on how to colour and use the tools to create a better artwork. As I love to edit videos, the last part was fairly easy for me, and really fun, as I get to do my own voiceover, add effects, and choose one of my favourite soundtracks to add.
I find that my strength is being able to come up with ideas, but it takes longer and it’s harder for me to make the illustration. I can adapt and learn different ways to make the artwork, as I learned how to use shapes and colours to come up with the shading and highlights. I used whatever skills I’ve learned in the past to create the illustrations. I first sketched, made the outline, and used the live paint tool to create the basic base. Later, I used a variety of shapes and colours to make the shading and highlight. Even though there is still a lot of room for improvement, I think it turned out well when I was trying to experiment in different ways. I used different effects like blur, warp and grain tools to make certain effects and textures, with some playing with the opacity and blending options. After learning Adobe Premiere Pro, I could easily edit the video with video transitions and audio transitions in play.
I will continue to learn how to make different artworks on Adobe Illustration and express certain feelings and emotions better. This project has pushed me to limit the time to each artwork, as there were many I had to make in a short time-span. As I struggle with sometimes adding too much details and stay stuck in one artwork, this has been quite difficult, yet at the same time more fun as I get to make different illustrations instead of staying on a singular artwork. I find it the easiest to edit works like videos, but hardest to create illustrations from scratch.
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