Design Rationale
This travel poster animation series was inspired by visual storytelling and its ability to transport you to a particular time and place. The Australian iconic imagery brings a sense of nostalgia to the target audience of Brisbane based travel lovers. I focused on the travel destinations Sydney, Cairns and Melbourne that are most likely close to home and can evoke a memory or feeling of the past. Vintage design holds stories. The concept behind this piece is to uncover the stories behind these places and how they would be captured in different styles.
Using the application, Eye Jack, the Art Deco posters can animate and transform to Art Nouveau, to newspaper style then Fauvist/Impressionist painting style. These art movements help guide the shapes, colours and typefaces of the posters. The contrast in styles come together by linking the compositions and cross-dissolving layers in After Effects.
Trends in visual design change over the years, yet fundamental is the psychology of human behaviour. Even through different art movements, stories attached to a place will remain. This captures Australian heritage and lifestyle with a laissez-faire and enticing tone. With augmented reality, the viewer will be able to travel seamlessly through place and time.
Mood Board
A2 PROJECT TIMELINE
A2 PROCESS DOCUMENTATION
Palm Tree Style Experimentation
Sketches
These are the main compositions for the posters with different subject matter for each. All create a sense of interest with the depth and forms. The process of creating the different styles will mean I have to abstract the visuals as well as try to create true impressions from the photos (basis from National Archive Australia, non-copyright).
Inspiration
A major inspiration I found was the artwork from contemporary French artist Damien Clave. He creates vector artwork, mainly of beach scenes (website below).I find a mix of Art Deco and Art Nouveau style with leaning towards Art Deco with bright colours and geometric, simplified forms. However, here the organic long lines with the decorative wave swirls connects with Art Nouveau style.
Vector Illustrations
In Illustrator I created the Art Deco and Art Nouveau style illiustrations. I found it easier using Illustrator on my Ipad for the detailed Art Nouveau style and I used my laptop for the Art Deco simplified, stylised forms. These illustrations were created using multiple layers, clipping masks and gradients.
Final transition - Impressionist style
Procreate drawing using 'turpentine' brush then edited with oil paint filter in Photoshop to exaggerate the lines
Here, I experimented with adding painting effects in Photoshop for the 'Brisbane' scene. I ended up not going ahead with Brisbane and Byron Bay to focus on making a series of three strong animations.
Newspaper Style Experimentation
I began with trying to recreate the vintage VW adverts for the newspaper style. This would not work well within the animation with the imagery changing scale and the text underneath taking too much space. Instead, I then used Absolut Vodka as a reference as the image takes up the whole page. Also, instead of the pointilism/ scratchy texture effect, I want to create clean different scaled dotwork like the below vintage Chanel ad.
I did a visual search in Adobe Fonts to recreate the Absolut Vodka ad and this typeface resembles it well.
I used content-aware fill in Photoshop to expand the top and bottom of some of the images and added the type.
Using the above tutorial, it was quick and easy to create this effect. This was the exact desired visuals I was hoping for like old printing press.
Typography
After focusing on the illustrations, the type needs to be considered. I know I will be using the 'Prenton' typeface for the newspapers and hand-lettering the painting style scene. For the Art Deco and Art Nouveau, I drew some inspiration from Pinterest and Instagram.
I love the shape within the negative space of the first type and the circle that the 'a' forms around in the band poster. I also love the wavy, glyphs of the last image. Something like this would be good for the second Art Nouveau transition.
Above, I put together screenshots of different elements within the vector illustrations that pair well with the type styles. The top row is the Art Deco style which has geometric triangular shapes, this links to the vertex shape of the letter 'a'. The block form in general is rigid and simplified which is why I chose this 'Arnotek Ultra' for the Art Deco posters. The 'P22 Art Nouveau' is named after its style which is evident by the old 'Metropolitain' sign in Paris. This type is seen in many characteristically art nouveau posters with its curves and embellishments that connects to the linework within my illustrations.
I ended up changing it from the generic art nouveau type to this 'Pearl' type I purchased from Creative Market. It is refined and stylish yet has the core details of the Art Nouveau style. I love the wave in the letter 'e' crossbar and the dynamic line weight seen in the letter 'a'. The curves in the 'a' and the 'r' make it perfect for the organic style.
Colour
Whilst the focus of this project is vintage design, looking towards these contemporary designs is beneficial as the bold colours and 2D shapes that look 3D is what I want to create for the Art Deco posters. I will use vibrant orange for the Sydney Opera House likewise to this signage from Soh Creative Studio as it also links to the Australian ochre and will create more visual interest than white and the muted colours that the other styles have.
This draft EyeJack transition between the four styles is not successful. Firstly, the type has to be brought to the bottom to link to the newspaper placement. So, I have to adjust it so there is more negative space between the boat and less sky. The warm colours contrast well with the blue. I might change the harbour bridge to gold instead of yellow as Art Deco uses metallic colours (think Great Gatsby). The transitions need to be improved a great deal as currently it looks like the transitions are blinks between frames...
To the left, the previous artboards are seen. This had a set of five scenes and the working vector illustrations. To the right is the current illustrations, I updated and finalised the Melbourne posters as well and changed the Sydney cruise boat to be in line with the sail boat for when I animate.
These are the Art Deco and Art Nouveau posters before animation.
From A1, I wanted to create my own script for the place names and was inspired by this lettering video that had symmetry and gold, symbolic of the Art Deco style. This became too time-consuming to produce, however this would not have had the same effect anyway as my aim is to replicate the features of these art styles so I derived the type from Adobe Fonts.
I was inspired by the opening scene of The Great Gatsby to create a border for the posters or maybe mock up a gold frame. However I believe this might detract from the scenes. I ended up adding a brown paper texture overlay across the animations to get that vintage paper feel.
A key aid was my lessons from my previous unit Kinetic Image and Text to understand the keyframes and how to animate. I made the transition in type in After Effects and ended up using animation assist on procreate to transition with 'onion skin' layers. I also ended up using a cinemagraph for my showreel .
Another inspiration for the animation are these painting animations from the GOMA European Masterpieces exhibit. The small animations from the Fauvist to Impressionist style was inspired by the movie, Loving Vincent.
I animated the poster in Procreate instead of After Effects to overlay the different style posters easier and using animation assist. Below are replays of this process.
* FLASH WARNING - sped-up recording
After the animations were done in Procreate, I exported them into After Effects and used the below tutorial to make 3D layer for the initial Art Deco poster that triggers the animation. I had to change it to Cinema 4D, added a light and extrusion.
After that, I exported the initial frame to create the poster image and exact trigger image for the animation.
Process Video
Final Eye Jack Animations
PROJECT STATEMENT
This project is on Augmented Reality Vintage Travel Posters. This investigates the way in which visual design immerses the viewer in a time and place. This mainly captures beach scenes, but importantly a laissez-faire and enticing tone. Therefore, the Art Deco posters on display are interactive for viewers to immerse themselves within the different styles. Using the Augmented Reality application, Eye Jack, the posters can animate and transform from Art Deco to Art Nouveau, to newspaper style then Fauvist/Impressionist painting style.
The key objectives of this project is to create unique and enticing posters that depict vintage design, achieved through implementing my visual research and by prototyping. As an animation of old photographs, the objective is to pay homage to these places and time periods. The transition between these styles and use of emerging technology immerses the viewer and hopefully transports the viewer back in time through effective visual storytelling. Therefore, the goal is to create vintage style posters but go beyond surface level vintage design and transcend time through aging imagery.
My methodology was to approach the different styles and individual posters in phases. I began with Eye Jack experimentation before focusing on the subject matter to see how the transitions would be implemented. It took a while to select the photographs as I went through countless images in the National Australian Archive. I ensured that all the scenes incorporate a mode of transportation or people to create a sense of movement and depth. From this, I created the vector illustrations during weeks 10 and 11. I made more amendments and final adjustments in weeks 12 and 13 to the illustrations as I animated them together to ensure they match up. After editing and finalising the newspaper photos in week 11, I could quickly digitally draw the painting styles from them. I used an overlay using the animation assist in procreate so the placement was correct. I then created 3D type in After effects and blended the styles together with a cross dissolve of the keyframes. During these weeks, I presented my process and gained insight into strategies for improvement and implementation. After finalising the animations, I upload them to EyeJack.
The major constraints to this project is that Augmented Reality is an emerging technology and not always readily adopted. Some viewers may not feel inclined to download the app and scan QR codes. That is why I made distinct QR codes and directions for them to follow. Another constraint was time, that is why I followed my project timeline and kept track of the parts to tackle. I also often got stuck on the idea that the style was not exactly represented or the styles did not accurately represent the art movements timeline. However, there are obviously styles that have been ignored and this my individual take on key characteristics of some of my favourite styles. In essence, I believe the outcome is true to my take on vintage design by researching and gathering inspiration from a wide breadth of artists and designs.
PROJECT SHOW REEL
See below for YouTube Short of the Show Reel
References
Bass Droppah. (2013). The Official Opening of The Great Gatsby. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcEEhVenRiQ
CluboftheWaves. (2022). Damien Clavé. CluboftheWaves. https://clubofthewaves.com/surf-artist/damien-clave/
Edit Video Faster. (2020). How to Export a Frame. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqVimmhJ4aU
Fowler, G. (2022). Classic Volkswagen Beetle Vintage Advert Poster. InstaPrints. https://instaprints.com/featured/classic-volkswagen-beetle-vintage-advert-nomad-art-and-design.html?product=poster
Greyscalegorilla. (2018). After Effects 3D Text Animation Tutorial. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR4GHA5_J5Q
Kinetic Image and Text. (2020). Creating looping GIFS, compositions and cinemagraphs. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIIM2XoPBAc
Loving Vincent. (2017). Loving Vincent Official Theatrical Trailer. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRDSTw6mNwY
Maron, A. (2022). Day 14 of Lettering Style Challenge. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hFvWul3z0A
National Archive Australia. (2022). Photo Search. NAA. https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/SearchScreens/PhotoSearch.aspx
National Gallery of Art. (2022). Mountains at Collioure, 1905. André Derain. https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.61250.html
National Gallery of Art. (2022). Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son, 1875. Claude Monet. https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.61379.html
Odisho, J. (2018). Photoshop Tutorial: How to create the Dotted Halftone Pattern Effect. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usDDwwraaRk
TanType. (2022). Tan – Pearl. Creative Market. https://creativemarket.com/tantype/5567667-TAN-PEARL
The Golden Canvas. (2022). New York Print. The Golden Canvas. https://the-goldencanvas.com/collections/limited-edition-signed-prints/products/new-york-new-york-print?variant=40352554582131
Trove. (2022). Newspapers and Gazettes. Trove. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/155101681?