Reflection
In undertaking the Kinetic Image and Text Design unit, the second assessment task required the development of two motion design pieces for a chosen brief. This specific project fulfils this assigned task by responding to the Music Festival brief through the creation of both a music artist line up promotional video and an animated event ticket. More particularly, this is for the chosen target market of young (Generation Z) pop/ punk music lovers, at a hypothetical music festival called 'Sunset Valley Live'.
In the process of researching and developing ideas for this project, numerous challenges were overcome as were lessons learned. For example, since copyright requirements were identified as an issue in the previous assessment task, this was avoided this time around by sourcing music and audio files from the Creative Commons network. However, the challenge of importing Adobe Illustrator files and working with rasterised vectors in After Effects was new to me. This particularly presented the issue of blurry vectors which I later found to be the result of my unique artboard/ composition size of the animated ticket, which was not compatible with After Effects video formatting. This issue was however resolved by multiplying the original composition size by 10 and the rescaling all vectors using the 'continuously rasterize' function.. In future, this will be avoided by first checking that composition dimensions are scaled large enough in After Effects.
Regarding the physical design process, the first concept of an animate logo (as seen in research) was later changed into an animated ticket to better incorporate an interactive element for the intended audience. The initial transferral of concepts from paper to digital seemed to progress a lot faster in comparison to the last assignment, which proved to myself that I was in fact learning new skills and had the potential to incorporate new technology and ideas in my designs, as I already had figured out the basics of Adobe After Effects. This is where the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) and the testing of complementary software (i.e. Aero and Eyejack) were considered. While I was aware of the time constraints in having to produce not one, but two pieces, I still wanted to implement an interactive aspect to my project to respond to the brief as best I could. Thus, Eyejack was used to produce piece 2.
In addition, various design principles, design strategies, and technical approaches from the KIT Bootcamp tasks, discussions, and earlier units were considered in the development of both pieces (B. Fyfield, personal communication, April 6, 2023). For example, the manipulation of type, space and time through imagery and typography over time, was achieved primarily through the design process, whilst keeping in mind factors of human-centred design, interaction design and evolving technologies. This expanded upon the knowledge and skills previously gained in the semester; however, as both a Business and Design student, this allowed me to combine my accumulated interpretation of marketing and visual communication topics, to achieve the best final outcome, for the brief and desired target market. Ultimately, this experience will in future, lead me to better solutions in the scenario of developing digital marketing content for potential employers. Hence, the rest of this document will elaborate on the application of these theories and principles through the mentioned design project and process.
Research
Visual
This video is the daily award winner for May 1st on the daily award platform of 'Motion Design Awards'. The reason for selecting this motion design work to reflect on as visual research is that it gives a good representation of the current trends and standards within the industry. For example, the showreel highlights the trends of bright colour palettes in conjunction with bold, sans-serif typography and bouncy yet smooth, innovative transitions. It also demonstrates a culmination of numerous design techniques including animation, film, photography, and more. This is obviously appropriate in this instance as the material is specifically promoting 'designers'; however, it depicts how effective combining different forms of design can be. This knowledge of combining different design areas and techniques can therefore be incorporated into my own response to the design project brief.
This next example is a Website Header Animation for Buff Animation that was built in Adobe After Effects & Adobe Illustrator, rendered using the Bodymovin After Effects extension in .json format. While this design example is a lot simpler compared to the first, it is still dynamically bouncy and smooth with the incorporation of bold and colourful typography. This reiterates the current trend in modern motion design that would be useful to mimic in my own work.
The next example is of a well renounced Motion Designer instead of a specific instance of motion design (Boom, 2020). That designer being, Eva Cremers. While Cremer's designs are just as bouncy and modern as the last two examples of motion design, her designs are quite innovative and unique in the way that she manipulates 3D components to achieve a different style of animation. This creates an eclectic bubbly and fun vibe that is present in her collaborations with various brands ranging from H&M to Chanel. This gives me great inspiration and insight as to how I can potentially utilise 3D animation in my own work as a designer, specifically for the purpose of this project.
Mood board
This mood board represents the general desired aesthetic for this project. For example, the combination of bright pink, purple, blue, yellow and orange hues establish the colour palette while the typographic elements reflect the earlier discovered trend of bold, sans-serif text. The vibe or feel is quite modern with an eclectic mix of bohemian and decorative embellishments to create that sense of 'fun' at festivals.
Direct Inspiration & Context
This Music Festival Line Up Promotional Video is an example of the type of animation material that I wish to achieve for my first Motion Design Piece of the project. While the example is one simple, continuous shot, it has an element of collage that allows for a variety of motion as it pans from the sky to reveal the festival grounds and all the attending music lovers. This idea of incorporating a collage inspired animation in one seamless shot will likely be used in my own design to achieve the effortless fun vibe of the brief.
For the context of this piece, the made up line up will involve more modern musical acts, and therefor the content will be used on primarily Instagram and TikTok. This is because the event itself will garner a more youthful demographic, and research shows that Generation Z is mostly interacting with these mentioned platforms (Roberts, 2023). While YouTube is the most used platform for this demographic, its algorithm prioritises longer content which allows for longer watch time(approximately 10 minutes minimum), with the exception of YouTube Shorts (Singh, 2023). YouTube also makes it a lot harder for users to view content unless they are already frequently viewing the accounts content or are subscribed. Thus, the content will be made with the Instagram Interface and features in mind.
The second Motion Design Piece for this project will be a Logo Animation. Hence, the example below. This particular example may not relate directly to the context of a music festival, however, its general animation and simplistic typographic elements are of great inspiration to my own design. For example, the rotational transition of shapes into text could be used by transforming confetti pieces or light strobes into my developed logo/ text. This would of course use the earlier discovered colour palette and design trends through research.
Technical
In regards to technical research, current software and technologies were explored to decide what would best suit my response to the music festival branding brief. For example:
Adobe Capture was considered for the design process development of this project. While Adobe Capture is not necessarily an AR developing software, it does utilise AR components to assist users in designing. For example, it's ability to detect patterns, colours, shapes and more from the user's surrounding is quite useful when developing ideas to incorporate in bigger projects, such as this one. Since I already have experience using Adobe Capture in previous assignments, I will likely use this tool in my work again to see how I can expand upon what I already know.
The Eyejack app and related Eyejack Creator Tools were considered for the development of one of my motion design portfolio pieces. Since I already had some experience with using the Eyejack application for mobile devices in previous assignments, I thought the familiarity with the functions and interface would make it easier to incorporate the element of Augmented Reality into my design. Upon further research into existing projects which utilise the design technology, I found that designers were even creating far more immersive and interactive experiences tan what I previously had seen. Such as the 'Breonna's Garden' project which demonstrated how the app can involve users in a campaign by including their messages in the design, ultimately delivering a sense of community and a safe space (PheOnix, 2021).
The Adobe Aero app and software was also considered as it is shown to allow a more seamless workflow between desktop and mobile. Specifically with the Instant Aero app depicted below. While Eyejack has the advantage of previous experience, Adobe Aero would be a good skill for myself to learn as a designer, simply because it comes with the design industry standard package of Adobe Creative Cloud Suite. It would also be a good challenge to learn yet another software after Adobe AfterEffects.
Other software that were briefly researched include Spark AR (MetaSpark, 2023) and Blender (Blender Foundation, 2023). After browsing both software's feature and community pages, I found that Spark AR's may be of assistance in developing stickers or filters that pair well with Instagram related content. With this information, Spark AR will be considered for this project. Blender, however, appeared to be too technical and Animation specific, which potentially goes beyond the scope of my assignment brief and my desired specialties as a designer. For these reasons, this program will likely not be used at this point in time.
Work In Progress
In creating both motion design pieces for this project, both Adobe Illustrator and Adobe After Effects were used. For example, the vector files were first constructed in Adobe Illustrator and then imported in Adobe After Effects for animation (see image grid below). While Aero was considered in the development process, due to technical errors surrounding the pixelation of the animated ticket, time was unfortunately lost, and therefore a software program that I already had some experience in was chosen instead. Hence, the development of the animated ticket in Eyejack.
When developing the promotional line up video, a number of technical approaches were used to create the final outcome in After Effects. For example, the kinetic image component was achieved by manipulating the basic rotation, position, scale, and opacity functions of the within the space and time of the composition. For instance, scale was used to mimic the loud booming of the bass in the speakers while position was used to make the crowds jump and move to the music and rotation to move the light beams that surround the stage. Similarly, these techniques were used to add liveliness to the band on stage. Other technical aspects involved included the implementation of effects and presets such as the "CC Bend It" tool which was used to add swaying motion to the trees, as well as a light glowing effect that was added to the sun behind the stage. It is also worthy of mentioning that the trees and crowds of people were initially drawn and then imported into the designs using Adobe Capture before being manipulated in colour, size and motion.
Regarding kinetic text manipulations, this was kept minimal by utilising distortion and transition techniques such as the wave effect for the title and animating the line up description text with opacity and offsetting to make it appear as if the text is being read along with the audience. The wave text was selected to mimic the stylistic choices found during the research process, as well as the fun and laid back nature of a summer music festival. The second text animation however, was selected with the target market of 'Instagram users' in mind. To elaborate, the Story function on Instagram is often looked over or skipped if the audience is not engaged. With the idea that the line up of a music festival being a main selling point for the event, this was taken advantaged by slowly revealing the full line up to ensure that viewers are actually watching the whole story to get their desired information. The concept of interpolation was also considered, which is why the keyframe assistant of 'easy-ease' was applied to most keyframes (Taylor, 2020).
For the animated ticket, similar techniques were used. For example, rotation, scale and opacity were used on the record vinyl element to reveal the developed logo underneath. Position was also used to add movement to the pink hills in the background and to reveal the yellow background behind the hills, to create a 'sunset' effect, which of course relates back to the name of the music festival. To combat the orange text not being lehible on the yellow background, all text was animated using the colour fill option to change to black, similar to the concept of a silhouette as used in the first design piece. The wave effect was also maintained in title and subtitle text within this design to create a sense of continuity of brand across both touchpoints. The reveal text with opacity and offset settings were also used for the address line for this same reason. However, additional kinetic text techniques were also used such as the tracking and scale used to stretch the word "ticket" in addition to the position and offset animation of the date "SUN 05.11.23" and the blur and offset animation applied to the remaining text. This was for the reason that the AR animation component is interactive and fun in nature, rather than informational.
In creating the second motion design piece, pleasure theory was also considered (Tiger, 2000). For instance, having the AR component be the animated logo over a physical ticket was intended to bring back the nostalgia of sending physical tickets by mail that is associated with the fun of preparing for a music festival. This nostalgia factor focuses on that aspect of designing for people as taught by human-centred design (Brett Fyfield, dvb301_23se1 week 9 lecture, 2024) as it is empathetic and takes a psycho-pleasure (Tiger, 2000) approach by appealing to Generation Z's emotional need for the past. This generation has even been reported to currently be experiencing the strongest 'nostalgic phase', evident in today's trends (Harlow, 2023). By implementing an interactive/ AR/ digital touchpoint with the resurrection of physical touchpoint of mail delivered event tickets, this shows to the target market that their desires are being heard, thus, responding to the specified brief's component of creating promotional material. Comparably, the first motion design piece also appeals to this psycho-pleasure need in a way, through the music, fun and creative sunset themed colour palette (Chapan, 2021), and the contrasting silhouettes of the crow, trees and the band to create the overall vibe and atmosphere of the music festival.
References
MOTION GRAPHIC PIECES
felix.blume. (2022, July 19). Pump jack closely recorded, squeaking metallic noise and impact, loud motor buzz and varied motor noises around in Taft California by felix.blume. Freesound. https://freesound.org/people/felix.blume/sounds/642440/
Smith, C. (2019). R08-24-Large Crowd Screaming and Whistling.wav by craigsmith. Freesound. https://freesound.org/people/craigsmith/sounds/480725/
whynotme. (2023). punks | Openverse. Openverse.org. https://openverse.org/audio/fe5e5a17-06c7-4d54-8329-a1dad54aee44
Shwartz, C. (2020). Los Feliz | Adobe Fonts. Adobe.com. https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/los-feliz
RESEARCH
Superbeing. (2023). Motion Design Showreel 2023 - Superbeing. Motion Design Awards . https://www.motiondesignawards.com/project/1252/motion-design-showreel-2023-superbeing
Anton, M. (2017, February 25). EyeJack Augmented Reality App Is Bringing Hand Drawn Illustrations to Life - TechTheLead. TechTheLead. https://techthelead.com/eyejack-augmented-reality-app-bringing-hand-drawn-illustrations-life/
PheOnix, L. (2021). Breonna’s Garden. Eyejack.io. https://www.eyejack.io/projects/breonnas-garden
Adobe Aero. (2023). Adobe.com. https://www.adobe.com/au/products/aero.html
Meta Spark Community | Facebook. (2022). Facebook.com; Facebook Groups. https://www.facebook.com/groups/SparkARcommunity
MetaSpark. (2023). Meta Spark Features for Creating Augmented Reality Experiences. Facebook.com. https://sparkar.facebook.com/ar-studio/features/
Adobe Capture. (2023). Photo to vector converter app for iOS, Android | Adobe Capture. Adobe.com. https://www.adobe.com/au/products/capture.html
Buff Motion. (2019, June). Website Header Animation. Behance. https://www.behance.net/gallery/82203209/Website-Header-Animation?tracking_source=search_projects%7Cmotion+design
Boom, C. (2020, August 6). 23 of the best motion designers to follow for visual inspiration. Creative Boom. https://www.creativeboom.com/inspiration/23-of-the-best-motion-designers-to-follow-for-inspiration/
Cremers, E. (2021). meet my fun clients. Evacremers.com. https://www.evacremers.com/projects/
Pinterest. (2020). Music Festival. Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com.au/Marjani333/design/music-festival/
Splendour in the Grass. (2021). Splendour in the Grass Music Festival 2022 | Full Line-Up Announce [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOryYAswv9Q
Gorbunov, A. (2023). UX&I - Simple Logo Animation. Dribbble. https://dribbble.com/shots/16791438-UX-I-Simple-Logo-Animation
Roberts, J. (2023, January 27). Gen Z’s Social Media Usage in 2023 | Later. Later.com; Later Blog. https://later.com/blog/gen-z-social-media-usage/#:~:text=According%20to%20Morning%20Consult's%20survey,t%20too%20far%20behind%20either.
Singh, C. (2023, February 15). A Complete Beginner’s Guide to YouTube Algorithm in 2023. SocialPilot. https://www.socialpilot.co/youtube-marketing/youtube-algorithm#:~:text=They%20prioritized%20considering%20videos%20that,longer%2C%20increasing%20their%20watch%20time.
Motion Design School. (2020). The best Adobe Illustrator to After Effects workflow — Tutorial [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVKspknn1hQ
Harlow, S. (2023, March 2). How are Gen Z and millennials driving nostalgia? Trends - GWI. GWI. https://blog.gwi.com/trends/nostalgia-trend/
Tiger, L., (2000) The pursuit of pleasure. New Brunswick
Shedroff, N. (2009, January 10). Experience Design. Revolution Lullabye; Revolution Lullabye. https://revolutionlullabye.wordpress.com/2009/01/10/shedroff-experience-design/
Taylor, A. (2020). Chapter 4 Animation. O’Reilly Online Learning. https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/design-essentials-for/9780240811819/012_9780080953922_chapter4.html#ch4.3
Chapman, C. (2021, May 20). Color Theory for Designers, Part 1: The Meaning of Color — Smashing Magazine. Smashing Magazine. https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/01/color-theory-for-designers-part-1-the-meaning-of-color/
Appendix
Early Sketches
Storyboards
Screenshots
Music Artists Line Up Promotional Video
Animated Ticket/ Logo