Ryan Simpson

The Brief

I worked on this project with Callum Glen, who also studies Graphic Design at Arts University Bournemouth. In this project we were tasked to produce a short motion sequence between 30 seconds and 90 seconds duration.

We were asked to find a piece of text(written or speech) as a starting point and create a sequence that compliments, enhances or subverts the content. Making sure to consider how imagery would work with the text. We also had to think about the target audience and where it will be shown.

We were given 4 main topics to base our work from which included:

-Health and wellbeing
-Social issues
-Climate crisis
-The natural world

Initial Ideas

We thought a good place to start with this project is to choose one of the 4 topics. We decided to go with health and wellbeing, focusing more specifically on mens mental health. This meant our target audience is going to be male between the age of 15-40.

After making a decision between ourselves about the topic, we both started looking at different medias for a relevant piece of text. We watched multiple TedTalks and read lots of blogs taking notes on them all.

We decided our favourite text was a Ted Talk by Fraser Smith called “The Male Identity Crisis”. Which talks about the fact that we encourage men to talk about their struggles and show vulnerability, however, we still expect men to adhere to the masculine norms. Which includes being a provider, protector and strong.

From this we were able to curate a script and start to visualise the imagery for our motion design.

Script Notes

Storyboarding

Animatics

We started making animatics to start planning and to help pre-visualise our motion sequence.

As we made the first animatic we started to see what worked and what didn’t. We made 3 animatics going into more detail each time and coming towards a more finalised idea.

This was our final animatic. At the end we show the campaign “CALM”. We decided to add a call to action at the end for people to find out more about the campaign or get help if they are struggling with mental health issues. From this we realised that our motion sequence would be good as a TV advert or a social media post on Instagram.

Colour Scheme

We chose the colour scheme from the downloadable content CALM Provides on their website.

Development

We started to create our scenes inside Adobe Illustrator ready for animating within After Effects. We made lots of illustrations of characters and objects. We made sure to organise the layers correctly and label them to help us later on when animating.

Using Pre-comps in after effects is a great tool to keep motion designs organised. I pre composed each scene so that layers are easily found for animating.

Final Outcome

Critical Evaluation

From this project I have found a passion for Motion Design, I love that it combines animation and graphic design to tell a story. I have learned key motion skills inside of illustrator and After Effects such as how to organise files and name layers. Learning easing was also very fun to create realistic motion and movement. These skills will help with projects in the future.

I also found it useful learning the process for creating motion sequences from storyboarding, animatics and then developing your ideas. These tools are vital to come to your final outcome, as it allows you to start nit-picking and cracking down on what you want your final idea to look like.

I feel learning motion design is a necessity in the graphic design industry as every media form now incorporates motion in some way with the advancement of technology. Therefore, mastering After Effects will be a key skill in the future. For example, adding motion to my website portfolio will create a contemporary design.

Overall, I feel I have developed my abilities to use Adobe Illustrator and After Effects for creating motion sequences. This has inspired me to start learning some 3D motion design and incorporate motion into my future projects.

Bibliography

The Male Identity Crisis: Fraser Smith: TEDxGlasgow (2019) YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/_X6i3g27sCQ (Accessed: March 9, 2023).

Mental health crisis in men | Allan Kehler | TEDxDalhousieU (2022) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzD8-LeESDU (Accessed: March 9, 2023).

Nahmias, J. (no date) Mens' Mental Health, Jordan Nahmias: Mens' Mental Health | TED Talk. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/
jordan_nahmias_mens_mental_health (Accessed: March 9, 2023).

Key statistics about men and mental health (no date) Counselling Directory. Available at: https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/men-and-mental-health-stats.html#accept-cookies (Accessed: March 9, 2023).

Homepage (no date) Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). Available at: https://www.thecalmzone.net/ (Accessed: March 9, 2023).