Information Design: Project 2 - Motion Graphics

GCD60504 Information Design 11.1.22 - 27.2.22 (Week 2 - Week 8)

Wendy Seto / 0348805
GCD60504 Information Design / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Project 2: Motion Graphics

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INSTRUCTIONS

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Project 2: Motion Graphics

1.1 Animated Instructable Poster (Individual)

This assignment is continuous from our Project 1.

Project 1: Instructable Poster

To ease my animating process, I begin by designing each frame in Adobe Illustrator.

fig 1.1.1 making the animation frames in Adobe Illustrator 26/2/22

fig 1.1.2 animation frames.pdf 26/2/22

To make it feel less overwhelming to me, I divided the animating process into 3 parts.
1. Introduction & Preparation
2. First half of the making process
3. Second half of the making process, Serving & Closing

fig 1.1.3 part 1 animating progress in AfterEffects 27/2/22

fig 1.1.4 part 2 animating progress in AfterEffects 27/2/22

For the sounds, I download all the essentials from YouTube. I wanted to use my all time favourite game, Harvest Moon Ost as the background music for this project as I think it suits the content. The online mp3 converter tool that I usually use somehow got problem so I downloaded them all in mp4 format except for the fairy dust sound effect since I already have it in my computer.

fig 1.1.5 music and sound effects 27/2/22

I then compile all the animations and finalize them in Final Cut Pro.

fig 1.1.6 finalizing in Final Cut Pro 27/2/22

My final animation is actually 2 minutes long, however the requirement is 60 seconds in maximum so I have to fast forward some of the frames in order to cut the duration down. The best that I can get is at 1 minute and 7 seconds, I hope it is still acceptable. 

fig 1.1.7 final animated instructable poster.mp4 1/3/22

1.2 Kinetic Typography (Group)

For our group assignment, we have to make a lyric video for a song that we have picked. My group decided to go with this song by Lauv and Troye Sivan, we think the title perfectly reflect how are we feeling towards all these assignments hahahah.

fig 1.2.1 selected song (i'm so tired... by Lauv & Troye Sivan)

We begin by breaking down the lyrics and dividing our parts. I am in charge for the second half of verse 2.

fig 1.2.2 lyrics breakdown 11/1/22

Below is my part of the kinetic typography exercise.

fig 1.2.3 my part (the second half of verse 2).mp4 20/1/22

And here is the compiled version from all members.

fig 1.2.4 final kinetic typography.mp4 23/1/22

1.3 Chart (Individual)

Another individual exercise is to make a chart animation in AfterEffects. There are 4 different charts and I was assigned to make the donut one.

fig 1.3.1 donut chart exercise 29/1/22

fig 1.3.2 final donut chart submission.mp4 30/1/22

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REFLECTION

After these many AfterEffects exercises, I realized how much I did not enjoy the process of animating. Well, maybe it is because I am still not that familiar with all the tools yet. There were so many things that I intend to do but just cannot figure out how to do it exactly, which then result in a very limited animation. I just cannot imagine how long does it take to make a full 2 hours smooth animation, might just as well turn crazy. This love and hate relationship I have with AfterEffects, I am trying my best to stick up. Adios for now pal, looking forward to not see you again in the next semester (which probably will not happen).

Information Design: Project 1 - Instructable Poster

GCD60504 Information Design 25.1.22 - 27.2.22 (Week 4 - Week 8)

Wendy Seto / 0348805
GCD60504 Information Design / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Project 1: Instructable Poster

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INSTRUCTIONS

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Project 1: Instructable Poster

We were assigned to design an infographic poster of a recipe from Pasta Grannies. I have never heard of this channel before but after I watched one of the video I think the channel is very wholesome! We got to see a lot of grannies happily sharing their recipes, kinda remind me of our childhood shows like Teletubbies and such.

fig 1.1 Pasta Grannies youtube channel 

It took me awhile to pick one recipe that I want to work on, I changed the granny names in google sheet for like ten times in total. Finally, I decided to give my heart to this recipe from 4 years ago. It was a sweet treat recipe, illustrating it would be a lot more exciting comparing to pastas right? Pastas are okay, but desserts are adorable.

fig 1.2 meringues treat recipe by Amelia on Pasta Grannies

fig 1.3 steps breakdown 10/2/22

After playing the video multiple times, I think it is still lack of some important information. Luckily, they have listed out the ingredients in the description box.

fig 1.4 additional information in the description box

Since there is still some missing information about the oven and preparation, I searched for a similar recipe online to complete it. This recipe I found has the exact same ingredients and the steps are pretty much identical.

fig 1.5 a similar recipe by Angela Nilsen on BBC goodfood

Visual Research

I did a lot of visual research for this project because I think it is not an easy one. In fact, a plan is really important to be able to execute the overall design thinking. 

Frankly, I cannot find many infographic posters that I like, so it makes it even harder for me to be inspired.

fig 2.1 infographic poster visual references

I have always loved vintage comic or magazine illustrations and these are what I can think of when I hear the word food and illustration together.

fig 2.2 vintage food magazine illustrations that I like

Food doodles like these are also my cup of tea, I feel like I can stare at them for hours and will still admire it as much as I did in the first time.

fig 2.3 japanese style food doodles

Other than my own research, Miss Anis also showed us some of the work from our seniors.

fig 2.4 seniors instructable posters

Idea Visualization

I sketched the meringue treat in many different art style and it took me so long to figure out which one works best.

fig 3.1 different art style sketches I done in procreate 10/2/22

Initially, I want to create something more realistic, until I realize that it is going to take me a lot of time to illustrate all the details due to the number of assets I will need to make. Since I do not have a lot of time left, I decided to go with the 4th art style and re-illustrate it and all the other assets in Adobe Illustrator. I created all the assets based on the video with some improvisation because it is going to be an infographic poster that covers a specific recipe from certain source and I think I should not let the original identity slipped.

fig 3.2 the transparent blue bowl and white hand mixer

fig 3.3 the purple spatula

fig 3.4 the black tray

fig 3.5 the big oven

fig 3.6 finalized assets 22/2/22

I would say the hardest part is arranging the composition and choosing the right colours for the overall design. I had so many tries and none of them feel right to me.

fig 3.7 experimenting on different compositions 26/2/22

I watched the original video again to find some inspiration for the colour palette. After I learnt that meringues are from Italy, I got this idea of using the country's flag colour. As much as I like how light and pastels go with the illustrations, I think this time I have to create something else. In fact, a good designer do not always go with the same colour palette that they like, they explore and find the one that works best. Also, colour plays a big role in showcasing the subject identity, it is important to keep the infographic with the same vibe as the original video.

fig 3.8 flag of Italy

I decided to continue working with my last composition shown in fig 3.7.

fig 3.9 progress 26/2/22

Hence, I still feel like it is a little too plain. To spice things up, I want to stick with a vintage and retro concept so I did more visual research on it.

fig 3.10 concept references

fig 3.11 final instructable poster.jpg 26/2/22

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REFLECTION

I am very much satisfied with how I executed this project. I tend to fail on delivering my ideas most of the time, but this time it was beyond my own expectations. After a lot of indecisive thoughts, here and there, it finally brought me somewhere. The FLIP exercises do play a big role in the design process which I am grateful that we got the chance to learn about them hand in hand. Based on my final outcome, I can see a lot of improvements on my work that now I started to dislike all my submission from the previous semesters hahahah. 

I know I started working on the project later than we are supposed to, but it was because I was too caught up with my other module’s assignment. I am the leader of my Intercultural Design group and my teammates are very passive and unreliable where I ended up doing 80% of the work. I have to prioritize it over my individual assignments because I am carrying the responsibility of 6 people’s grades. Due to the lack of sleep and being in front of the computer screen 24/7 I fell sick 2 days before the submission date for 4 projects. I still want to push myself to be able to finish everything in time but that day I felt like I cannot stand it anymore. I really want to thank Miss Anis for allowing me to submit everything by the end of the week, she never knew how much it means to me. I hope my final submission worth the extra 2 days she gave me! Once again, thank you so much Miss Anis, I hope you like my work as much as I do hehehe <3

Information Design: Final Project - Sex Education 101

GCD60504 Information Design 4.1.22 - 24.2.22 (Week 1 - Week 8)

Wendy Seto / 0348805
GCD60504 Information Design / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Final Project: Sex Education 101

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INSTRUCTIONS

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Final Project: Sex Education 101

We were assigned to do this final project in a group. There are 2 chapters, "Your Body" and "Family Planning". We did some disccusions on which one to work on, I actually thought the "Family Planning" one would be more interesting but the majority prefers the other so we decided to go with "Your Body" instead.

fig 1.1 content.pdf

We started by dividing our parts to create a storyboard, I am in charge for the menstruation topic which are highlighted in yellow.

fig 1.2 script breakdown.pdf

This is my first attempt on the storyboard for frame 6 to 9.

fig 1.3 storyboard #1 6/1/22

And I did another one that is more detailed.

fig 1.4 storyboard #2 28/1/22

My teammate Yi Yun finalized all the storyboards.

fig 1.5 finalized storyboard.pdf 3/2/22

We also created a moodboard for the art style, typefaces, colour palette, animation style and transitions that we want to apply.

fig 1.6 moodboard.pdf 9/1/22

There are 7 people in our group so we segmented our tasks into two. Four people including me will be in charge for the illustrations and the rest will work on the animations. First thing first, Mr. Martin would like to see our animatics draft based on the finalized storyboard.

fig 1.7 animatics draft by the animation team 8/2/22

To maintain the consistency in illustrating the assets, we divided the parts based on the type of  illustrations. Although it has the most work, I decided to take over all the characters. I followed the character design in the finalized storyboard, with some improvisation in some areas like hands and blushes along with colours based on the moodboard.

fig 1.7 little girl 5/2/22


fig 1.8 little boy 8/2/22


fig 1.9 pregnant woman 11/2/22

fig 1.10 adult girl (main character) 15/2/22

fig 1.11 additional characters 16/2/22


fig 1.12 all characters 16/2/22

Below is our final submission for this project.

fig 1.13 "your body" final project.mp4 24/2/22

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REFLECTION

Working in a team full of people from the same major has never been an easy thing for me. It was in fact difficult to work together when we all like different kind of aesthetics. I am not satisfied with how the final animation turns out but appreciate it so much that I do not have to do the animating part. So, there is of course plus and minus when it comes to a group project. Although I was the one who was in charge for illustrating the characters, I did not actually like the art style. However, I have to follow the finalized storyboard to maintain all the illustrations consistency. And whether I like it or not, I have to. I did not exactly comfortable with the colour palette we are using either, I feel like they are boring, very far from the word attractive. Also, as much as I try to keep the character illustrations consistent, I feel like the others ruined it at some part. Some illustrations have unnecessary drop shadows and suddenly the objects have eyes. No matter how good they look in a single illustration, they are going to destroy the overall. I tried to communicate this issue with my group but no action was done. Another thing that I find disturbing is the subtitles, they look very forced and unstable. But again, the things I see as an issue might not be an issue for others because when it comes to this kind of work, there is no right or wrong. Uh oh, this reflective writing has become a “me-roasting-my-own-group-work-writing” in no time. It is important to critisize own own work though, it triggers us to offer better results in the future. If I can redo this project, I would fix it by speaking up on the things I concern about. This might help us to produce a better outcome.

Information Design: FLIP

GCD60504 Information Design 6.1.22 - 3.2.22 (Week 1 - Week 5)
Wendy Seto / 0348805
GCD60504 Information Design / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
FLIP Classroom

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INSTRUCTIONS

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PRACTICAL

1.1 FLIP 1 (Group)

The first FLIP exercise is assigned to every group in the class. The 9 types of infographics that we found are:

1. Statistical
2. Informational
3. Timeline
4. Process
5. Geographic
6. Comparison
7. Hierarchical
8. List
9. Resume

What I learnt from this exercise is that a "list" infographic does not have to follow some sort of order. I often get confused like what if the list is showing steps? After discussing it with my groupmates, I now understood that infographic which shows steps are considered as a "process" infographic instead of a list.

fig 1.1.1 FLIP 1 presentation slides.pdf 9/1/22


fig 1.1.2 FLIP 1 recorded presentation.mp4 9/1/22

1.2 FLIP 1 (Individual)

For our individual task in FLIP 1, we were assigned to pick a free online infographic tool to re-design one poorly constructed infographic poster. I decided to use Canva for this exercise since I think it is the most compact one. 

I found some really bad infographics and these are some of them:

fig 1.2.1 poorly constructed infographic #1 [Rate: 1/10]

fig 1.2.2 poorly constructed infographic #2 [Rate: -1/10]

fig 1.2.3 poorly constructed infographic #3 [Rate: 3/10]

I decided to work with the last one because I like the content, however I am still so disturbed with how the first two infographics were constructed.

fig 1.2.4 re-designing progress in Canva 14/1/22

As you can see I was struggling with the composition because I just realized that there are 7 things not 6 which was why I ended up changing the canvas aspect ratio. 

fig 1.2.5 me being indecisive 14/1/22

fig 1.2.6 final re-designed infographic poster 14/1/22

I really like the final outcome, especially the colours. Using an online tool like Canva helped to do the graphic illustrations because they are all there already that we do not have to design it with pen tool from scratch so it is definitely easier. However, because I am using the iPad’s Canva, it was quite hard to arrange and adjust the elements. I was unable to move to everything all at once like if I am using a desktop (drag+shift is literally the best duo). Honestly, I do not really like using this kind of tool because I feel like they are made for people who are not designers. But overall, I think Canva is one of the best online tool out there. It has so many nice templates and graphical elements that are fun to play around with. 

fig 1.2.7 before-after comparison 14/1/22

1.3 FLIP 4 (Group)

Lastly, our group (Group 8) is in charge on presenting the FLIP topic number 4 which is Manuel Lima's 9 Directives Manifesto. This topic is more comprehensive compared to the first one so we have to make a document to dump our information in. Other than just explaining about the 9 directives, we have to show an example for each as well. Also, it would be nice if we can find an infographic that followed the directives and an infographic that did not. 

1.3.1 FLIP 4 docs.pdf 28/1/22

1.3.2 FLIP 4 presentation slides.pdf 28/1/22

1.3.3 FLIP 4 recorded presentation.mp4 3/2/22

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REFLECTION

Through these FLIP exercises, I learnt a lot about the types of infographics that exist and what makes them successful. The FLIP 4 topic has changed the way I judge an infographic poster. There is one directive that blew my mind, which is the "Do not glorify aesthetics". I think this is a very important phrase that any designer should hear. I mean if I have never heard of it I might not be able to complete my assignments in this module like how I did them. We should always remember why we are creating an infographic in the first place which is to help the viewers understanding the content easier. What is the point if the design is beautiful but the messages are too difficult to be read anyway?

Information Design: Exercises

GCD60504 Information Design 4.1.22 - 21.1.22 (Week 1 - Week 3)
Wendy Seto / 0348805
GCD60504 Information Design / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Exercises

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INSTRUCTIONS

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PRACTICAL

Exercise 1: Quantify Data

After a quick tour through our module information booklet and assessment briefing, Miss Anis assigned us to do the first exercise which is Quantify Data. In the physical class, she has prepared legos and buttons. But because I am not there, I have to find something else in my house.

I actually have a lot of options when it comes to these kind of things because I am a sucker for useless-but-cute things. When Miss Anis said that she have a collection of pens and markers, even the dead ones. She still keep them because they are simply “pens” and I can totally relate to her. I finally chose these beads for this exercise just because they are small and colourful so that I can manage to do my work in an A4 sized paper as instructed.

fig 1.1 my beads collection 4/1/22

The first step that we have to do is sectioning the objects we are using, but there is not much that I can do since my beads are pretty much sectioned already.

fig 1.2 beadsssss 4/1/22

I did not make any sketch of my layout, instead I just go with the flow. I organized the beads to make it look like braceletes and not gonna lie it was really therapeutic. It might look simple to you but the entire process took me approximately 4 hours because the round beads like to run away, I would definitely cry if I accidentally nudged them. 

fig 1.3 process 6/1/22

fig 1.4 quantify data attempt 6/1/22

fig 1.5 quantify data attempt 6/1/22

Miss Anis said it is so cute, she advised me to make the title more prominent and add “beads collections” as the subtitle. I was so nervous to write on the paper because i might 99% ruined it but I am doing it anyway. 

fig 1.6 final quantify data 6/1/22

Exercise 2: L.A.T.C.H Infographic

The L.A.T.C.H principles are a way to organize a group of information into a visual poster. This exercise sounds a lot of fun and I was actually really excited to start working on it. At first, I wanted to do Pokemon as it is one of the suggested compiled data listed by Miss Anis, but I think there are already too many people doing it. At the same time, some other Nintendo games crossed my mind so I decided to do some visual research and exploration on it.

Idea Exploration

Growing up, Nintendo is my most precious possession. I used to play so many games from Harvest Moon, Pokemon, Mario Kart, Mario Party, Tamagotchi, Cooking Mama and many more. I loved the fact that it does not need an internet connection to be able to play it and we can do multiplayer with our siblings or neighbors. Even until today, I still have my Nintendo and play it sometimes. I am pretty sure that no other video game can ever replace the classic Nintendo in my heart. It holds my childhood and it has became a part of me since day 1. Furthermore, I have chosen these 3 Nintendo games that I think would look cool as an infographic poster.

Idea #1 Harvest Moon Grand Bazaar

Harvest Moon Grand Bazaar is my favourite Harvest Moon game out there. Since I am already familiar with all the characters in Zephyr Town, I think it will not be hard for me to organize the information based on their house locations.

fig 2.1 idea #1


fig 2.2 existing harvest moon infographics

Idea #2 Hello Kitty Big City Dreams

Hello Kitty Big City Dreams is also my favourite Hello Kitty game on Nintendo. I am imagining a cute and feminine infographic poster from the Sanrio characters, organized based on their working locations.

fig 2.3 idea #2

fig 2.4 existing sanrio infographics

Idea #3 Tamagotchi P's

We have Tamagotchi games on Nintendo as well but for this Tamagotchi I wanted to use characters from Tamagotchi P's. Since I own it, I am pretty familiar with the characters. The figure below shows the characters for Tamagotchi Friends. The only difference is that in Tamagotchi P's there are no Bakuhoshitchi and Painaputchi which is why I am crossing them out. For this data, I am thinking of organizing them based on their stages of development as well as their gender. However, I will not be including the adult characters since there are too many of them.

fig 2.5 idea #3

fig 2.6 existing tamagotchi infographics

Idea Visualization

I decided to continue working with my third idea which is the Tamagotchi P's characters. And because it is originated from Japan, I wanted to make something "Japanese". I have always love everything about Japan even though I have never been there. Japan has literally the "kawaii-est" stuffs and I am totally obsessed with it. I am a big fan of Japanese mangas and the covers have never dissapoint me. I found this Sailor Moon comic cover on Pinterest that I really like the colours so I decided to use it as my colour palette.

fig 2.7 colour palette

I started up with creating the Tamagotchi shape.

fig 2.8 the tamagotchi shape 20/1/22

I asked Miss Anis about using graphics from other sources and she said we are allowed. But turns out I cannot seem to find any of the characters' images in high resolutions so I have to recreate them in illustrator. These took me like 8 hours in total.

Data & Images source

fig 2.9 recreating pinkbotchi 20/1/22

fig 2.10 recreating the rest of the characters 21/1/22

The only graphic that I did not illustrate by myself is this Tamagotchi icon/text/title in Japanese. I only did some masking on the background so I can use it as png in my poster design.

fig 2.11 graphic taken from other source 

fig 2.12 progress 21/1/22

fig 2.13 final L.A.T.C.H infographic.jpg 21/1/22

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REFLECTION

I had a lot of fun doing these exercises. The quantify data exercise triggered our brain to think in a more creative way when it comes to categorizing things. It is definitely more interesting than tables and charts. The same goes with the L.A.T.C.H exercise which taught me how to organize information based on its principles. In addition, I am satisfied with my work for both exercises, especially the poster. I really like how the final outcome turned out, it has that retro vibe that I intended in achieving. The colour palette makes me feel like I am somewhere in a game center. And the most important thing is that I enjoyed the entire process since the subject  I used are the things I like since I was a kid. Beads and Tamagotchi are both parts of my childhood, so anything about them always give me a warm nostalgic feeling.