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Qistina Nuralya Maria Binti Azly / 0354180
Information Design / Bachelors of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
EXERCISES
Table of contents (Jumplinks)
1. MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET (MIB)
Week 1 - Week 2 - Week 3 - Week 4 - Week 5
3.1 Quantify Data & Visualize Data
3.3 Character Animation (Vector)
4.1 Quantify Data & Visualize Data
4.3 Character Animation (Vector)
1. MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET (MIB)
This is the Module Information Booklet for this module:
2. LECTURES & ACTIVITIES
Week 1
We started off the module with a briefing on the upcoming assignments that we'd have to do. I was a bit off-put hearing that we had two group projects for the module this semester because I'd just gotten off of a bad group project experience that I'd miraculously gotten an A for; but I'll just hope for the best and that my teammates are good this time around (╥ ᴗ ╥) Other than that, I'm a bit excited for the Recipe Poster assignment since it looks fun to design a recipe using my own drawings/vectors.
As for the class, we started off with a quick lecture about the general idea of Information Design. In a sense, Information Design is the practice of organizing, structuring, and presenting data and content so people can understand it quickly and use it effectively. Most often people equate Information Design to the similarly named Infographics to which they are not wrong; however, it can also be applied to Graphic Design, Motion Graphics, Animations etc.
Then after the lecture, we did a class activity where we got into groups to create a quick presentation of a topic given by Mr. Martin; this was called a Flip Class where we try teach Mr. Martin instead with what we've learnt (hence, "Flip"). This weeks topic was: Infographic Types. The class didn't have too many students because of the module's first week, so Mr. Martin grouped us up on a random basis. Below is our presentation we did (I did the Timeline slide):
File 2.1 Week 1 - Flip Class: Infographic Types (PDF)
Afterward, we did a quick warm-up in After Effects since some of us haven't used it in a long while. The exercise was to practise our use of Ease-in and Ease-outs because they were be crucial during our future assignments.
Then finally we were given a simple task to find a bad infographic and try to make them more appealing. The infographic I chose was themed around the Monopoly board game which I found to be quite fun.
The reason I chose this design was because:
- the design itself doesn't really give the viewer a clear point to start reading so eyes could easily get lost
- colour choices, whilst faithful to inspiration, doesn't really fit too well together (extremely saturated red being most noticeable)
- the empty spaces also feel out of place
- the orientation of text/markers looks a bit weird since the text stays the same orientation for all around the board but the markers stay at the border of the inside square.
Week 2
Mr. Martin conducted another Flip Class. This week's Flip Class was about L.A.T.C.H. which will be an important thing since we'll be working on an exercise around it. L.A.T.C.H. stands for Location, Alphabet, Time, Category, Hierarchy. It's used in most infographics to efficiently display information in a digestible way.
This time around, I'd been grouped by the colours Mr. Martin coordinated in the Student Info Worksheet so my teammates are different from last week. Below is our presentation (I did the Hierarchy section):
File 2.2 Week 2 - Flip Class: L.A.T.C.H (PDF)
Afterwards, we were given a task to do where we had to add motion to a graphic that Mr. Martin had provided. The graphic was of an office setting where there were three people, all in different poses. I started on the task early so I separated the parts of the graphics via Illustrator into:
- Lady
- Body
- Arm
- Guy Mid
- Body
- Arm
- Left Guy
- Body
- Arm
- Hand
- Desk
- Laptop
- Background
Then I started adding simple motion to the characters, utilising the ease in and out keyframes. I also added in motion blur to make it animated more smoothly. I decided to give some motion to Guy Mid too as he pops up from the floor.
Next I focused on the smaller movements of the characters. I used a wiggle expression for some of the movements of the characters to give it a smoother rotation feel.
Then we got assigned our Vectors of the Character Animation exercise. I got Vector D which was the Man with Ball and Dog.
Week 3
This week, we learned about Gestalt Principles. I'd learn of them already in Design Principles but it'd be good to get a refresher. The Gestalt Principles are rules of how humans perceive things by explaining how the brain groups similar elements, recognizes patterns, and simplifies complex layouts into whole objects. The main principles include proximity, similarity, closure, continuity and figure-ground. The Flip Class this week was about Miller's Law and where we could apply it in design. Below is our final presentation (I did the UI/UX part):
File 2.3 Week 3 - Flip Class: Miller's Law (PDF)
Then we were given a demo by Mr. Martin on how to actually edit the motion graphic from last week. But since I'd already done it, I only made a few simple changes to the motion graphic and then exported it.
Week 4
This week's Flip Class was about Manuel Lima's 9 Directives Manifesto which
consists of:
- Form follows function
- Interactivity is key
- Cite Your Sources
- The Power of Narrative
- Do not Glorify Aesthetics
- Look for Relevancy
- Embrace Time
- Aspire for Knowledge
- Avoid gratuitous visualisations
The Manifesto is basically to describe combining the core philosophy of design with arranging information. Below is our presentation (I did the "Do not Glorify Aesthetics" and "Look for Relevancy" sections):
File 2.4 Week 4 - Flip Class: Manuel Lima (PDF)
After the Flip Class, we got a short demo for our Exercise 4 where we learnt ways to animate charts in After Effects. We also got assigned for our Chart Animation exercise; I got assigned to the Line Graph.
I asked for feedback about my progress of the exercises (Quantify Data, L.A.T.C.H)
Feedback:
- Exercise 1 is good already.
- The map looks very nice
- Instead of description, maybe put a list of the locations in its place to adhere to the Alphabet of L.A.T.C.H.
- Then can remove the descriptions from under the categories to give a bit more negative space.
Week 5
This week mainly focused on Project 1. But I also got feedback for my Exercise 4.
Feedback:
- Add the title of the line graph chart at the top so viewers can have the context also.
3. PROGRESSION
3.1 Quantify Data and Quantify & Visualize Data
When Mr. Martin asked me what I wanted to do for my Exercise 1, I thought of maybe using some Lego pieces that I had at home but when I went to search for them, they weren't there or were already apart of a Lego set I'd built. So, I was then choosing between either rocks in my front yard or my collection of Pokémon cards. I decided to go for the cards because I have more of an interest in them anyway.
My collection of Pokémon cards have about 3 different languages: English, Japanese and Korean. To keep them a bit more united, I went with only Korean cards as I had more of them and I also just wanted to give focus to the art and type colours.
I started by organising the cards by colours and amount of cards. Then, I wrote down each Pokémon's name and the quantity and arranged them in descending order. I also assigned the marker colours for all of them when I'd write the categories later.
I initially thought of using white paper as the background, but felt the colours didn't pop out as I wanted to so I used a black background instead. The first try at placing the cards were a simple bar-chart-like format based on the amount of cards there were in each category.
I realised, though, that the format was a bit too simple so I decided to have a bit more fun with the layout and made it so any cards that had a duplicate number over 2 were going to "hide/cover" the duplicates and have the art of the main card be most visible. Then I wrote the title and categories with acrylic markers.
The idea behind the numbers under the cards is that they correspond to the amount of cards that Pokémon has. E.G.: In Dark, there are 4 Maschiff and 1 Spiritomb.
Feedback:
- Exercise 1 is good already.
3.2 L.A.T.C.H.
For the L.A.T.C.H. map, I initially wanted to do it about Pokémon, specifically from Pokémon Sun and Moon. The game was my childhood so it would have been really fun to revisit some memories.
But I realised that it would also be really fun if I chose the world of Legend of Zelda instead because it held more of a fantasy aesthetic that I really liked and thought would be really fun to design for.
Then, I collected the enemies/ creatures I wanted to include into the map location. I decided to go for:
- Bokoblins
- Yiga Clan
- Guardians
- Koroks
After sorting, I started to create the map in Canva. I included an initial description of Hyrule to give a bit of lore to the map. Each mob category also will have a short description of their species.
I also added icons next to the categories to give more information about their type of species; mainly separated by level of threat like Elite or Normal difficulty and Passive Creatures. The stars also were used for the difficulty rating as stated before but now there is a key symbol for it now to give the viewer a clearer idea what the stars mean.
However, I did start to think that the descriptive text started to fill too much of the map's negative space and I hadn't properly added the Alphabet aspect of the L.A.T.C.H. rules; so, I removed the text under the categories and instead added the names of the mobs in alphabetical order,
Then I received feedback on the design.
Feedback:
- The map looks very nice
- Instead of description, maybe put a list of the locations in its place to adhere to the Alphabet of L.A.T.C.H.
- Then can remove the descriptions from under the categories to give a bit more negative space.
Finally, I edited the design based on the feedback I got and it definitely looks better!
3.3 Character Animation (Vector)
I was assigned to Vector D which was of the Guy and Dog playing with a ball. I started off with arranging the layers into their separate parts. This took quite a bit of time because the plan I had needed a lot of movement with the hand and different parts of the dog.
After finally finishing with the separations, the animation part begins. I brought in the graphics into After Effects and decided to focus on the facial animation of the Guy first because I wanted to experiment animating facial expressions using vectors and keyframe movement. The parts I moved for the expression changes were only the eyes, eyebrows and mouth. The expression ended up being a laughing one.
Next, I animated the pop-ins of the graphics but I kept the dog out of frame so that he would slide in as soon as the Guy squeezed the ball. With this pop-in though, I also wanted to add some subtle movement. Notably in Fig 3.3.5, I added a sort of Follow Through to the Frames where they swing back and forth for a second.
Then I started to edit the arms of the arms of the Guy using a mix of manual rotation and also wiggle expressions.
The dog was next so I went to animate subtle movements like the tongue ears and paws. Afterwards, I used the Puppet Tool to play around with the excited movement of the dog as it comes into frame.
The main problem I had with this was the shadows as I couldn't properly animate them in sync with the motion of the Dog and Guy.
3.4 Chart Animation
Compared to the previous exercises, this was relatively quite easy to do as we'd gotten a short demo of how to animate charts in After Effects. Since I was recreating the Line Graph provided, I used the Trim Path animation technique to get a smooth line animation. I offset the animation across the lines to not appear too rigid.
Next I animated in the labels using some animation presets and also editing the timing of them.
Feedback:
- Add the title of the line graph chart at the top so viewers can have the context also.
4. FINAL
4.1 Quantify Data and & Visualize Data
File 4.1.1 Exercise 1 - Quantify Data and Quantify & Visualize Data (PDF)
Google Drive View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H3T5_YARHKsRedJquEcjjDBw953UiimT/view?usp=sharing
4.2 L.A.T.C.H.
File 4.2.1 Exercise 2 - L.A.T.C.H: The Legend of Zelda (PDF)
Google Drive View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18lPk221ixAtO4Y2vFcn5uqDDB6jtwzQ7/view?usp=sharing
4.3 Vector/Character Animation
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/4H5NysCRx9Y
4.4 Chart Animation
YouTube link: https://youtube.com/shorts/e1-4wd853bw?feature=share
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If you'd like to see the entire Exercises in one folder, view this Google Drive Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10B-j8eweoEo2kaNbVJGG9-k1CSSZ3iOh?usp=sharing
5. REFLECTION
These 4 exercises definitely got me into the groove of everything and was a nice warm-up to the module. I especially liked creating the L.A.T.C.H map and animating the Vector animation of the Dog and Guy. I also managed to learn some new tools in After Effects like the Puppet Tool! Experimenting with it was fun so I'll definitely be using it in some of my future projects. There were definitely some problems in that it felts a bit repetitive to arrange the layers into separate things; however, I'm aware that extra bit of effort is what made it easier for me to work on the exercises in After Effects.
Overall, I definitely have a better understanding of how viewers perceive designs and how to utilise that knowledge when creating effective designs whether it be Graphic Design or Animation. In the future though, I 'll maybe try to make more advanced designs that follow what I've learnt here since right now the designs themselves are quite simple.
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