RESEARCH

Mission: To create an informative animation which helps to promote going back out to music venues and clubs once the Coronavirus pandemic is over. To go alongside this will be a series of digital moving posters, similar in idea to the TFL ones for the London Undergound.

Left: Pinterest board of inspiration

I did some hefty research before starting this project because I knew I was going to need to learn about the likes of aspect ratio as well as look at actual adverts which have been aired in order to get a sense of what I wanted to do. These ideas ranged from a sequential style advert that had many parts, will I need to make my own music, and also where it was going to be broadcast (facebook, youtube, TV, insta etc).

PART I - ADVERT

STORYBOARDING - AD #1

Though these storyboards work, I'm in the process of shortening them to fit the 1 min max timescale. The final video based on these storyboards would work out at well over a minute, which is far too long for a TV skit. or a youtube ad.

STORYBOARDING AD #2

This storyboard I feel is more relevant to the idea of an emerging beat, which is the thing I was going for. I've added on the 'campaign' ("Revive The Venues") slides at the end, which in turn can act alone as its own advert for the likes of youtube, facebook, instagram etc. because of it's short and snappy nature.

​DEVELOPMENT

Works in progress - some test clips. After these clips were each individually done, I stitched them together in After Effects and Premier Pro to deal with the sound effects and timing.

LEARNING CURVES

Although INCREDIBLY annoying, this project flung a few curve balls at me in terms of getting to know the After Effects software a bit better. This message popped up several times while I started another section of the project and I sought help online to try and fix it. I did everything possible: cleared the cache, purged the memory, allowed maximum memory to After Effects so unnecessary items from Photoshop and Premier Pro weren't taking up any room. In the end I found a video which simply stated if the markers were too close together then this could be a possible reason for the pop-up. I moved the markers and the problem was solved! Sometimes After Effects brings up problems that aren't actually THAT difficult to solve.

Development of the project. For the sounds included in this project I used a mix of royalty free sound effects from the Youtube Audio Library and recordings of my own. This gave me a chance to get to know the audio effects and presets on Premier Pro and how to apply, for example, a Lowpass filter to dampen certain sounds. One instance in which I used this feature and where it came in quite handy was the scene where a bird is tapping a window. I recorded myself tapping a window with my finger tip, applied it to the clip but realised even with the decibels upped it still did not have enough oomph for the effect I needed. I applied the Lowpass filter and a bass booster to make it more prevalent in the final product. Although it annoyed me it was not a 100% accurate noise for a bird tapping a window to make, the changes made were necessary for it to work as a whole.

RESULTS

Here (above) are the videos I separately made to be joined into one big animation! Below are the times taken to produce each one, the file size, and the number of strokes made in each individual image (click to enlarge).

​FINAL ANIMATION

The final product. Overall I am very happy with the results and proud of myself for getting the whole thing together in a cohesive manner. I will say that the timing could have been a little better in some aspects of the video, but apart from this it is exactly as I intended it to be.

PART II - ANIMATED POSTERS

Thumbnails for each of the 4 posters. I took inspiration for these from old war propaganda that encouraged people to keep up their morale and do their bit. These have helped me to pay homage to/come up with snappy titles and phrases to grab attention. As well as this, I have of course stuck with the musical theme and have also taken pop-culture inspiration for some of the designs.

FINAL POSTERS

Final posters created in after effects using a mix of collage and hand drawn. For the 'Blue Monday' poster, I used the skills i'd learned from my Northern Soda labels and made a half-tone bitmap which i then separated into CMYK, using Cyan, Magenta and Black. For Siouxsie, i took inspiration from the Kitchener and Uncle Sam poster, using her iconic eye make up as the eyes that always stare no matter the angle you view them from. Again, using war slogans, I took "Loose lips sink ships" and reworded it to "Loose lips sip drinks" - word play is something I find quite fun. Lastly, I took "Dig for Victory" and "Keep Calm and Carry On" to create "Gig for Victory" and "Keep Calm and Party On". I have made the posters as relevant as possible in my aim to promote local venues and clubs on their reopening, and using after effects and premier pro to produce these has really created a muscle memory for these softwares.