Hello and thank you for being part of J465 this semester. Together, we will undertake a series of projects and assignments that are meant to build your abilities as designers and increase your expertise in the core Adobe programs that are the tools of the trade. You will be designing logos, illustrations, layouts and animations that will showcase your creative vision and your unique personal style.
You will use this site throughout the semester to post your work, as well as descriptions of your creative process and analyses of the finished products. As authors, you may post additional thoughts and reactions any time you see fit. As part of the class, you will also be designing and maintaining your own J465 website, showcasing your project and exercise work. To read the full syllabus for J465, please visit our syllabus site at www.stevelayton.net/j465/s24.
Good luck — and once again, thanks for being here.
For my Conceptual Project, I found that this prompt stood out to me the most. As someone who is chronically annoyed with smart devices and their connectivity issues, I thought that this would be fun to try to come up with a creative idea to express Nick Bilton’s story.
When I started to think about the visuals behind the main spread, I knew I wanted to take the approach of a distorted home. In my mind, this connected perfectly by representing different areas of the home being replaced by smart devices, leaving the home essentially “torn apart.” After my feedback, I realized that I could have taken a similar yet more effective approach to presenting this idea. Possibly by expressing more frustration through stronger distortion, rather than the replacement of smart devices, making it seem as if these devices are convenient or suitable replacements.
I thought that I effectively found a strong smart device icon pack to display throughout the spread to form cohesiveness. I also think that my header and sub-header font are strong and on theme with the technology story, although I think that I struggled with the body copy text and trying to find something that followed suit. I enjoyed bringing in the sidebar and adding the shadow effect on the devices to make them stand out more while also jumping them off the bar itself.
Overall, I was proud of the work that I created but I can see that the overall conceptual idea could have been stronger and more apparent to reflect the overall frustration that the story presented.
For my final animation project, I decided to leave my logo in its initial form so that I could utilize the original features. When I began working on the first logo project and I incorporated the chain, I knew that I wanted this to somehow play into the animation whether it be swinging with the pocket watch or bouncing in some form. Once I separated all of my layers and was able to see how everything fit on the screen, I realized that I wanted to take the subtle bouncing approach. I found this project to be very fun, yet tedious. I think due to me having a complete vision, it allowed me to really bring out my idea for the project.
With my company being “Timeless Treasures,” I wanted to play on the timeless aspect by utilizing the rotation tools on both the hours and the clock hands. I already created a sense of timelessness which I didn’t discuss in my previous reflection which was jumbling the numbers on the clock. I really enjoyed this part and found that by using the sound of pages flipping fast it created the perfect effect of the clock timelessly whooshing by.
I had some difficulty because I primarily utilized the positioning tool and had to map out different placements that looked the best and most natural for the “falling” and “bouncing” effects. I also went in and edited my original Illustrator document at one point for my logo, not realizing it had changed some things on my clock layers- so this had changed my animation and had me confused. Once I realized the issue, I was able to fix these minor flaws and get everything back on track. I wanted the logo name to come in smooth and simple since I had some more elaborate animation going on with the clock.
Overall, I think it turned out pretty good and I am happy with the result! I applaud those who do animation full time because I cannot imagine how long it takes to do lengthier projects.
This magazine spread is for a story about the failure of phones and houses. It is about how when people are trying to use technology to control their houses and how complicated it is to use.
For the spread I wanted to design a house sitting on a phone to show that the authors house could be controlled by his house. I also added the wifi symbol, a house camera, and a light bulb. For the font I wanted to use a font that showed the theme of technology. I also wanted to use blue colors because they are technological colors.
I wanted to add a quote from the article to add more to the spread because there was not a lot of writing. I added the houses on the side of the second spread as an illustration and I used colors from the house on the first page. For the side bar, I wanted the background to be the house color.
Overall, I am proud of the work that I accomplished I think that the spread came out well and that it looks pretty cohesive. Though I did struggle with the fact that there was not very much text to utilize for this article.
For this project, I adapted the font based one the feedback I received from Project 1. After that, I tried to figure out how I wanted the logo to move. My logo, which is based on the Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe, features a heart and a striking blue eye, both of which appear in the story. I knew I wanted the heart to beat in the iconic “thump thump” way that the story describes, and then i came up with the idea to have the floorboards fall away to reveal the logo. Wooden floorboards play a large part in the story as it is where the narrator hides the body of the person he murdered, and he imagines that he can hear the heartbeat of the body even underneath the floorboards. The last bit of animation was to make the eye blink, which gives an off-putting vibe that matches the story it is based on. In the story, the man the narrator kills has a striking blue eye. The music I chose is copyright free, tense music to exude the feeling of tension that the narrator feels throughout the story.
For my animation I wanted it to hit the theme of regal and royalty with the crown and the colors. For my designing process I wanted to have the crown be drawn out and then fade into the gold color. I was not sure what I wanted to do for the “Q” but I ultimately decided that I wanted to have it come in from the bottom and then size down with the entire logo. And then have the name of the company fade into place.
Overall, I am very proud of my work. I like the little sparkly sound that I chose for the animation and the fact that it fades out. I like the way my crown is traced out and I am glad that I found the YouTube video I found. I think that the colors are very regal and royal themed.
I had a lot of highs and lows for our animation project. This was my first time using After Effects and it came with some challenges.
To start off, I made some changes to my logo from when I first made it. I completely redid the illustration of the logo to give it some dimension and clean it up. I am a lot happier with how my logo turned out. I feel like these cherries look a lot more realistic than before and the overall design looks like it got a much-needed refresh.
When starting to think of how I was going to animate my logo, I knew I wanted to play into the aspect of my logo being a plant. Since I got rid of the branch, I had to start from the middle of the two leaves to make it look like it was growing. I did the same for the stems to follow how they usually grow. For the cherries themselves, I didn’t really know what to do since there wasn’t really a way for it to show them growing realistically, so I just made them appear right after the stems grew.
I knew I didn’t want to stop there especially because I still had some time left over. What I ended up doing is animating the cherries to show them swinging. I did a short swing back and forth and made sure that the cherries realistically rotated as if they were swinging.
For the text I looked around at all of the presets on Adobe Bridge and found a preset that made the text look like it was growing so I thought it was perfect for what I wanted. I also found a preset that added a color stroke and I included that to give it a nice ending to the animation. I chose the song I used because I liked how simple yet upbeat it was and I felt like it went with the overall I made for my organization.
Overall I had a lot of fun making this animation. Even with all of the challenges I had, it was a great learning experience. Plus, I can now put on resume I have experience using After Effects.
Above is the animation that I completed for Project 4 based on my publishing company logo called “Ink Publishing”.
For this project, I was working with my logo for “Ink Publishing” that I completed for Project 1, which was reminiscent of an ink splatter. Going off of that, I knew that I had a lot of room to play with the concept of ink, whether it be spilling, splashing, dropping, or any of the many other ways that liquid ink behaves. In the beginning of my animation, I started off by adding three small ink droplets across the screen, assorted randomly. Then, timed to the pick up of the beat in my background music, there is a big ink spill in the center of the screen. After the outline of the ink spill fades, only my logo is left. Then, my logo grows out from the corners and the word “Publishing” appears underneath it.
To achieve all of these effects, I used the “opacity” feature frequently and changed its percentages from 100% to 0% to fade things out, or vice versa. I did this with the initial ink droplets and the full ink splatter. I also used the puppet tool to create the “breathing” look of my logo at the end where it enlarges at each corner, as well as the Mask tool on the word “Publishing” to make appear to drop in vertically. I also realized while I was working that the music I chose had a couple different useful beats that I could synch my motions to, so I did that for the main beat drop and the spilling of the ink, as well as the droplets falling and the movement in the logo at the end. For the actual sounds of the ink, I used two different sound effects that I found on royalty free music sites. The first one was a small droplet sound for the initial three falling ink droplets, and then the other sound was a splashing sound that coincides with the beat drop of the music when the big puddle of ink splatters.
Overall, I thought this project was pretty fun and a clever way to return to some of our previous work from the class and continue to build upon/refine it. Learning to work in Adobe After Effects also made me realize how difficult it is to create complex visuals and animations, so now whenever I see them in other videos or graphics I will be able to appreciate them more.
The goal of my logo animation project was to create a simplistic feel that aligned with the mood and vibe of my logo. Initially, I made minor tweaks to my original logo design, and then imported all the assets into After Effects to start my animation Process.
Given that the main emphasis of my logo is the text “Canvas & Co.,” I wanted to give it the most visual effects. To achieve this, I separated the letters individually and animated them with a consistent style of keyframes. The idea was to maintain a smooth and balanced animation while highlighting the central aspect of the logo.
I made “Studios” more subtle to complement my previous animation choice. I made it enter from the side rapidly with a slight opacity transition, creating a swift visual appeal. I felt that this approach helps draw focus to the main element while also providing a smooth transition into the secondary, less significant element.
For the sub-logo, I wanted a slower reveal to add dramatics into my animation. I achieved this by placing a block over the logo and transitioning it horizontally away, while simultaneously adjusting the opacity to create a seamless transition. I am pleased with this choice because I believe it created a gradual build-up of the overall logo reveal.
For extra touches to my animation, I introduced a slight gradient layer at the beginning of the animation. This gradient slowly transitions into the background, providing a visual cue at the start of the animation. In addition, I added a slight “pop” of the logo with a bling sound effect at the end of my animation. I felt like this small addition helped emphasize the final stage of the animation, adding a conclusion to the logo’s motion.
Reflecting on this project, I am happy with my results. Considering I had never used After Effects before this course, I now feel more comfortable with the software and its capabilities. The project has given me a solid foundation in animation techniques, and I look forward to further enhancing these skills.
I had a lot of fun with this project. I wanted to make the visual play on my logo’s different parts. I went through all the logo parts, ensuring they had their moment with the animation. The hardest part for me during this project was the sound. I did not know what would be best to use as the background sound. I also wanted to make the individual parts of the logo stand out with sound. It took me multiple different sounds for all parts to find something that looked and sounded cohesive. I am happy with the final result. I used the turning of a page to represent that it was a publishing company because that can get lost due to the casino aspect of my design. I used a landing sound for the crown and a coin flip for the flip of the word ace. I wanted the publishing to stand out, given it can be hidden if you look at the logo, so I used a swoosh sound and increased the size of my animation. Overall, I am proud of the animation I created for my logo and feel confident in using After Effects.
For my final project, I decided to redesign my logo a little bit. I wanted to make it look like a child has drawn it and make it look more childish. I did that by putting an affect on it through After Effect that gave it a hand drawn look. The biggest challenge I had was figuring out how to work After Effects, I had no previous knowledge and was very scared to approach it. After I figured out how to use it, my animation came together. I was really proud of my animation. I chose happy and childlike music to help show that my company is a fun one for kids. I started with a gray-colored font and had it turn white so it looked like storm clouds turning into normal clouds. I thought this gave it that happy feeling. First, I made the rainbow slide in and then I had the name come in letter by letter because I thought it looked fun, then the letters change colors. Overall, I was really proud of my animation, I thought it came together really well.
