A Table, project 5, final

before

history of motion graphics

narrative personal project goals

my goal
-Now that I have a better understanding of After Effects I want to revisit my Tender Button's animation. I really want to capitalize on what I now know and what was said in critique. I want my typography to be more dynamic in the composition. I am not sure how I want to go about this yet, but I know that I want to it have a more delicate and purposeful placement like the music does. I am going to work on A Table were the music is random and I want to do my best to make the type and music work together better, but still have the moments of serendipity.  

LOGO BUILD: FINAL

digital story board

what I learned
Throughout this process I really enjoyed working with Karen and talking to her about her branding ideas. I learned that there are often these moments that one (Karen and I) had when these "light bulbs" went off. Meaning I (possibly her as well) would have a realization and of certain aspects. Such as I was really working with the timing of when PEAK should appear and I went to talk to her she said that the brand is read "405 PEAK" all at once which clarified something that I was making complicated much more simple. I also learned that I enjoy this quick way of animation. It is like challenge to see how affective I could make the information given to me work together in such a short amount of time. I am also glad that my original idea of pouring the wine came together. I was not sure how I was going to complete it, but I learned how to mask a video which created the exact look I wanted to achieve. Along with that I had to edit the color a lot on my video. I found that you can do some amazing things with color adjustments in After Effects.  Being able to manipulate the wine color was a challenge at first because I was not sure how to take it from the dark dark red (looked black) to a red maroon wine color. After doing this I have a lot of ideas brewing in my mind of things I want to do next. I think it is kind of amazing to see that I learned all of this from creating a 5 second logo build. 

To see Karen's final 405 PEAK brand book click here. 

UNION STATION: interactive timeline, the last one.

So this is the latest update on our time line.
We presented at Union Station today and I was very thankful that our video came together the way that it did. The overall timing of things was correct, the size was correct, images clear, and video smooth.
We had many troubles but thankfully it all came together!

LOGO BUILD: sketches first round

I decided to go with Karen Villalba's brand 405 Peak. 
These are my first sketches for the five second logo build.

UNION STATION, finally comes together

We finally got our video to come together. All of it's parts. It is still not perfect, but we are overall please with the outcome. There are a couple of aspects that still need fixed such as some timing issues, but that is to come.

MOTION GRAPHICS STUDIO REPORT

Prologue Presentation

Videos from the last slide-
 

UNION STATION- final thoughts

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED


 I would start by saying how important filing systems are, especially when working with a partner. Matthew and I used a great system that consisted of folders labeled with images, video, graphics, scans, that were all contained within his folder and my folder on our hard drives. Our system worked out swell and when we started in After Effects we used a specific folder, so that everything would link up when we placed our files on each others computers. That's when problems began. Once we started placing other After Effects files within another, links started disappearing and the timing started to change on things. I am sure now we would go back and possibly do something different. 
As far as After Effects goes it was the first time I have experienced putting video footage into a project. We had to also figure out how to edit the video. We changed the video to black white and also figured out to speed up the video when we show the walking parts from place to place. It was really fun experimenting with the video when type was being placed within the composition. 



Union Station, Amtrak Photo Narrative from McKenzie Marston on Vimeo.

UNION STATION: in color

 

 

For our next step in the process we were to create two parts of our time line narrative to show color, typeface choices, and rendering methods on how we want the different parts of our time line to look. Matthew and I went in to different routes one that just focused on imagery and the other being more vector shape based. We wanted to maintain this rich color palette but having small pops of color like we did with the orange on the time line in the first example or the small train on the time line in the second. As far as the typefaces go the first one doesn't really hint at any type of time period it is a neutral sans serif that could be introduced in any time period whereas, the second one is more stylized, so we are now making decisions on if that type treatment will work for the every time period including the 70s. We want to marry the two together in the way of using the tags and space given of the second example, but still using the rich colors layering of the first example.

Union Station: wireframes

first idea

second idea

 

Matthew and I have decided to go with the top option which was our first idea. Doing these wireframes really helped us figure out the step by step and even the little details in between those moments that will need to be figured out. It was like putting together a alphabet and how we would get from A to C... what will step B be? It is nice to see the overall layout with no imagery or text. Seeing where we will place things on the stage and if it will even work or not.  

UNION STATION: interactive timeline

We have started our second project! I am  really excited for it! In partners we are creating an interactive timeline for Union Station's 100 year anniversary. There are ten pairs of partners and we each got a specific decade to work with. My partner and I have the 70s. We have been researching and coming up with concepts in which to take our timeline. We have decided to make our timeline experience more of a narrative for the viewer. We want them to feel as if they are in Union Station when learning about the history. For instance, if they are reading about how Amtrak took over Union Station during the 70s and we are giving information about the trains, we want the viewer to be out on the tracks. We want them to have the great experience you feel when you enter into the beautiful station and the history that has built up over time.


We started coming up with the user's experience and what steps they would take to get from place to place when going through our timeline. Starting with basic concept and layout. 
This is our first rough sketch-

TENDER BUTTONS, ANIMATIONS

A Table from McKenzie Marston on Vimeo.






MY CONCEPT RESPONSE
    Inspired from my printed version of the Tender Button poems, I decided to call out words and have a certain type of movement throughout the piece. I wanted this almost "light" arrangement with the type appearing in and out of the frame. Only letting certain words obtain a certain movement. I went in with a plan of knowing what I wanted and an overall vision, but one thing I have noticed through this process is that things are subject to change at all times. These poems changed constantly when placing the type and when I would create transitions for each word. I am creating this "scene." Although the scene is probably not obvious with the two poems becoming somewhat of a series I hope that A Table and A Cup and Saucer create this idea of being at a table with coffee or tea cups. It's hopefully a somewhat personal experience. I think that Gertrude Stein's poetry is sometimes so abstract that it was what each individual person takes away from it. I think that her poetry relayed this intimate experience for me with the objects and food. When reading it it reminded me of a personal experience I had already had and I wanted people to take that experience away with them
WHAT I LEARNED 
  I not only learned the basics of After Effects but also if anything that when in the motion graphic world the designer has the ability to control the viewers experience. When designing on the printed page I have the ability to create hierarchy  but essentially where the viewer wants to start reading is up to them. When working with motion I have the control as to what I want the viewer to see. 
MUSIC 
I really wanted to incorporate music with these two poems. Music seems to always make things better and hold the attention of the viewer. I worked so long and hard on these that it was the cherry on top. I feel that this whole experience was a huge serendipitous moment. I wanted to create my own music for these and I knew I would need to use Garage Band. I have had no experience in this program and my friend Devon, a singer and songwriter, to help me out. She started to explain the basics to me and then we went over to the piano and she started to play. She just watched my typography coming in and off the screen and just started playing along.  She played on the piano what she thought as she watched. Then we took some cups and saucers and created the noises you might hear while being in this scene. The piano and the slight noises in the videos create I really enjoyed this process because this project me describing an experience that I had and then it passed along to another person as she watched it through the music. So it is two personal experiences coming together as one. Serendipity.

NARRATIVE SOUND & MOTION// FIND & SHARE

29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo.

MiND Promo: The World is Your Canvas from Kristy Graybill on Vimeo.