Studio project 2 - Roald Dahl Literary Estate- Character selection

I looked into some fantastical creatures that I could Illustrate. These included the BFG, Oompa Lumpa’s and the insects out of James and the giant peach. Out of these, I decided that going for the BFG. This is because it is seen as such a classic, and has recently made a comeback to the big screen which was an absolutely amazing film in my opinion. I think it is better to continue with the BFG as the younger generation of today will more likely know about the story because of the new film.

Out of the children I decided to go with James Henry Trotter as it was one of my favourite books as a child and I think that a really nice illustration can be produced with the peach in the background. I originally thought that charlie bucket would have been a good choice, however after picking the BFG because it is so well known, i thought that introducing a character that may not be as well known to those who have never been introduced to the Roald Dahl series would be a good way to peek the interest of perspective readers. 

Finally for the villain i decided to go with Miss Trunchbull, the headmistress from Matilda. I think that the plump, terrifying character will work well with the style that I intend to go down. 

Process and Production - Working with hand-drawn images, textures, loops and boils

In todays Process and Production with Sara, we looked at another technique within after effect, however this time round, we were to incorporate some hand drawn aspects into the animation. The technique we would be learning is called boiling. It looks as if the image is boiling over like water. This effect is produced through the use of images that are slightly different added to After Effects in an image sequence.

I decided to draw there variations of the same tree. After doing this, took the images into photoshop, changing the levels and curves. This was to make the black blacker and the white whiter, thus making the lines I had drawn stand out more off the page. This also created a cleaner look to the image, which would come in handy when multiplying the finished result later on in after effects.

After the images had been edited in photoshop, I saved each as a JPEG named 001, 002 and 003. It is crucial that you name the files in this way, as this is how After Effects can pick up the order of the sequence. I then added these three files to after effects though importing them as multiple files, however changing the options to image sequence.

Once the image sequence has been added, I then right clicked the layer in the project window and selected interpret layer. I then changed the loop from 0 to 100 which was exactly 10 seconds which matched the composition.

I then created a mask over the tree and generated a stroke. I then made the stroke large enough to cover the moving lines and keyframes the end option to make the path move. I selected reveal original image. This made the image I had drawn appear as the mask moves over it.

I then added a background to the scene, making sure that the line drawings where on multiply. This is the final product.

Boiling from Jack Pomfret on Vimeo.

It was an interesting workshop, and a very useful technique to know how to do. I may incorporate something like this into one of my future projects. I believe that if a lot of time is put into this technique it could create some excellent results.

Studio Project 2 - Roald Dahl Literary Estate

Illustrations based on the original characters out of my favourite Roald Dahl books from childhood. The illustrations must look like they are part of a series.

After the recent rebrand of Roald Dahl literary estate, where his works which has created a common bond between many books, films, musicals and even digital apps, the way they want to be perceived is;

Masters - of invention

Makers - of mischief

Champions - of good

My challenge will be to illustrate a series of iconic scenes from Roald Dahl's incentives. None of the illustrations should be boring/safe. Any style is welcome.

The target audience is 5-11 year olds both boys and girls. Maybe they aren’t fans of Roald Dahl fans however they may become so after getting into the series because of the new rebrand and illustrations.

I have the option to illustrate between 1-3 scenes, however if i move forward with this brief, i will do three, each based on an individual character, however create them all in the same style, therefore you would know it’s part of the same series. I need to illustrate on child character, one villain and one fantastical creature.

I like the idea of illustrating characters and scenes in my own style as illustration is something that my work has been veering towards for a while. I would identify myself more as an illustrator more than anything else. I think that this brief could be a very exciting prospect.

Studio Project 2 - Orchard Pig Live Brief

I chose to look into the brief Orchard Pig, as the "craft beer" like cider is an interesting concept and a good USP to base a concept on.

The idea behind this brief is to use social media to deliver Orchard Pig as the only Craft Cider. (Becoming digitally notorious P.I.G.)

The fact that Orchard Pig is the only “craft beer” like cider on the market gives it a USP that needs to be amplified in order to make this fact known and admired by perspective drinkers.

My challenge would be to inspire and engage customers with the Orchard Pig brand, behaviours and what it stands for, digitally.

The idea would have to work across multiple channels, however i can focus on social media outputs that are used at the moment by Orchard Pig, or introduce new social media outputs running alongside what is alreading being used if i wish.

Principles -

• “Stay rooted”
• Simplicity
• Fun
• All about cider

Values -

• Bold (be different)
• Cider (All about cider)
• Rooted in summerset (proud of where they are from)
• Mischievous (catalyst for fun)
• Simple (brand and product)
• Inclusive (for anyone and everyone)

Studio Project 2 - RSA Live brief 12 "More than a pill"

Brief

I would be taking part in a competition based on a series of videos and animations that allows the exploration of new ideas and content from the RSA “think and do tank” that combines practical experimentation with rigorous research to find new solutions to social challenges.

Out of the two audio files that were provided, i prefered the first one “more than a pill”. This was down to the voice having a softer feel than the “ageism” audio file, and the transcript in my opinion worked better with my ideas. The audio file has been taken from RSA Action Research Centre’s “Health and social movement” program of work with NHS England.

In order to do well with this brief, I will need to meet the entry requirements. Entries will be judged according to the innovative ways the audio file is interpreted, as well as technical skill which will be taken into consideration. Its is the originality and creativity of the concept however, that will be taken into account the most.

The live brief is exciting, as my work will have the chance to be viewed by thousands of intelligent, engaged and passionate RSA followers worldwide alongside the RSA Animates, RSA shorts and RSA Insights.

Process and Production - Physical type posters

In this process and production workshop with Nick, the task was to use typefaces that were provided to us (Courier New, Times new roman and Gill sans) and cut them out to create posters. This was a lot like aides previous workshop, however this would be taking a more physical method of creating the final piece . 

"Lets go dip it low then you bring it up slow"

This was one of the sentences provided. I wanted to try to merge together some of the words with lines moving down the page in the typeface Gill Sans. I attempted this as an experiment and if being honest, was not entirely happy with the final outcome. In my opinion this particular piece looks crowded near the bottom and the negative space has not been used very well. 

After the first poster did not turn out as well as I had hoped, I moved onto a second poster using the typeface Courier New and have better luck. I chose to use the sentence "I'm missing more than just your body". As the concept was about missing something, I wanted to create a representation of this through the placement of the type on the page. I thought the best way to conceptually incorporate this into the piece would be to miss out some letters from the words with it still being readable, therefore I wrote the sentence without using any of the vowels. I am happier with this poster design than the previous, and like the idea of now vowels.

Overall this workshop was okay. I am a bit disappointed with the first final piece, however am happier with the second I have created. It was interesting to create these typographic posters physically after creating some digitally in a previous workshop.

Business Lecture - Economics

We begun the lecture speaking the simple theory of sales and demand. We talked about the fluctuation of the demand line which can be described as elastic or inelastic. When it comes to supply, the higher the price the less people want to supply it and the cheaper the price the more people want to. This is opposite of the demand line in normal circumstances.

HOWEVER

- Distortion of markets occur
- Taxes/ levies
- Interest rates
- Nature of product
- nature of markets
- Global / International markets

All if these things can effect / distort demand.


Government use taxes / suty to raise money to spend on what is needed;

- Police
- NHS
- Armed forces
- School System etc.


Tax up (Insert diagram from powerpoint)

Interest rates are also important to the management of an economy. The interest rate is the cost of borrowing money. Government also have to borrow money therefore have interest rates.

Interest rate increase - Cost of money up. - return on investment - better savings return.

Corporate - cost of running rises - Productivity increases?

Personal - increase in cost of borrowing reduce expenditure - pay increase demand? Reduced demand - reduction in inflation.

US Issues Economics (Diagram) 

Money - a medium for smoothing trade in all things. A measurement method of value.

Money has several different definitions -
1. Cash you have
2. The cash you have + the cash you can get (e.g. from savings)
3. The cash you have + the cash you can get + loan credit
4. Loan credit (short term) Long term

Some basics -

Cost - what you have to give, to get something you want now normally described in a monetary value.

Price - What an item is actually sold for

If you'e buying, cost = price

Profit - The positive difference between cost and price

Loss -  the negative difference cost and price

Income -  Money coming in, may be cash or credit.

Expenditure - Often refered ro as spending, money going out.

Debt - How much money is owed TO you.
                                       or
           How much money you owe. Often regarded as negative element.

Credit - How much money beyond that which you have. you may use.



Variable costs - A cost that varies with output.

Fixed Costs - a cost that does not vary with output.

Example - The more t-shirts you have to buy - varies directly with production.
Business rates are fairly static - You pay them irrespective of sales.

A: Costs of running the business.
General costs the can not directly appointed to the client. E.g. heating, lighting, building repairs, management costs etc.

B: Costs of undertaking particular projects.
Specific costs that can be allocated directly to a client.
E.g. Product cost, design cost, etc.

Taxation issues -

Income tax bands:
£10,600 - £31,785               20%
£31,786 - £150,00               40%
£150,000 +                          45%


                               

           

Process and Production - Geometric Shape Animation

The first thing that i experimented with was shape morphing. I had never done this before on after effects, so i was excited to learn some new skills. I did this by changing the shapes into bezier paths, which enabled me to take keyframes from different shapes and add them after another shapes path in the timeline. This resulted in the shape morphing from one shape into another.

I decided to have my initials in the middle of one of the frames as this allowed me to have a nice centre point for the boxes to explode out of. 

I then looked into covering type with a shape in order to create the effect that the line made the text appear. I liked this effect and think it fits well with the animation. I used an "alpha TrkMat" on the shape in order to create this mask like effect on the rectangle that covers the type. 

Geometric Animation from Jack Pomfret on Vimeo.

This is the final piece I created using the different experimental methods. I added a soundtrack from freemusicarchive.org. 

Overall i am happy with the way this piece turned out. I learnt some new techniques in adobe after effects and am keen to get a more in depth knowledge of this powerful program and improve my motion skills more.