Levi Linton

Even though I had no experience with  Adobe After Effects going into the project; I was very excited to use the skills learned from the tutorials. I don’t read many novels in my spare time, but my favorite childhood book series was James Patterson’s ‘Daniel X.’ The series is essentially about a boy with extraordinary abilities who protects the earth from insect-like aliens. I have always been a fan of science fiction narratives, and I think that Daniel X is one of the coolest heroes. Daniel X has the power to create anything with his imagination, so technically he can do anything. In the novel his powers are telepathy (levitate objects and erase memories), create corporeal images of his dead family members (which help him along his journey), super strength, and super speed. So one could say he’s pretty awesome.

During the brainstorming process for the assignment, I knew that I wanted to incorporate Daniel X’s dominance over his foes, due to his many powerful abilities. My idea was to have many dead aliens scattered across the composition, which created a blood trail. The camera would then move with the blood trail and the audience would see every alien one after the other. Once each alien was revealed, Daniel X would be introduced. Daniel X had to look superior to the aliens, so I made him look very powerful by placing an aura around his hands and lightning streaks behind him. To add more emphasis on Daniel X, I had lightning streaks appearing in and out of the composition as the title was revealed as well.

I drew inspiration from the title sequence from the movie “Deadpool” (2016) throughout this assignment. The director for this title sequence decided to pan through a moment in time where Deadpool was beating up thugs on the highway. This is very similar to my idea because in this scene the camera would pan over many thugs and they were either dead or injured in a variety of different ways. This is a great movie with action packed scenes and humorous characters. I would definitely recommend the movie to anyone over the age of 13.

To go more in depth with the piece, I’ll talk about the text, which was a major component to the unified look of the motion graphic. I chose to use a type font called ‘Fighting Spirit,’ which I downloaded for free online. The text was meant for comic books and every letter had a ‘lightning’ look to it. I chose this font for two reasons. One, the overall look of the composition was very comic-like, with most objects being illustrated in Adobe Photoshop. Two, Daniel X has super speed, and that power is commonly associated with a lightning bolt. I picked the perfect font because of its obvious relevance to the narrative. I chose a white fill and a electric blue stroke to compliment the blue lightning in the background.

I didn’t want to bombard the imagery with text, but I did fit in a few lines to briefly describe what was happening. I found it extremely difficult to identify places to have the text appear in the composition with the constant movement happening throughout. But, I made it work. There are three different phrases that appear in the motion graphic. The first phrase is, “our Earth is in danger.” This fades in and out right at the beginning of the piece when there is a pause in motion between the first and second alien. The second phrase is, “We need a hero.” This phrase also fades in and out when there is a slight pause in motion before Daniel X is introduced. The final phrase is, “Daniel X,” which is the title of the piece. I emphasized the text by making it larger than the others while keeping it centered within the frame. The title stayed in that position until the end of the piece, rather than fading out.

When brainstorming options for audio, I knew it had to be suspenseful and epic. Fortunately, I am a music producer who creates beats for Hip-Hop and R&B artists, so I decided to create my own audio. This way I can get the exact sound I’m looking for that suits the narrative. The audio is essentially a long lead up until Daniel X is revealed. I used vocals from a choir and performed an ascending scale. Once Daniel X is revealed, the beat drops and then it fades out at the end. I think it worked really well with the visuals and really brought the motion graphic together.

This was an interesting assignment for me. This was my first individual motion picture creation, and I’m very happy with it. I am also very thankful for the tutorials given in the labs because I learned many skills that helped me complete this project. If I were to improve on this composition for next time, I would add a few more sound effects on top of the music as well as use higher quality photos to make it even better. I hope you like the trailer for ‘Daniel X.’

Digital Media has almost come to an end, but it has been one of my favorite classes since the beginning of my university studies. I had come from a school which provided a computer graphics course, but I found that I learned way more in Digital Media than I did in high school. The tutorials we did in our labs was very helpful and I learned a lot from them. For example, I had no knowledge of how to operate Adobe After Effects going into the course, but I was eager to learn. The four weeks of After Effects tutorials were extremely helpful. They were well put together because they covered all the tools one needs to create a composition in the program. I am currently in the process of making my motion graphic assignment, and I cannot imagine how it would be if I didn’t complete the tutorials. I knew a lot about both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop going into the program, but I did learn some new tips and tricks. For example, I didn’t know how to use layer masks and that became very helpful with all artwork I’ve made this semester.

Digital Media has also made me think more about my potential career paths after university. My dream career is to produce music for many famous Hip-Hop and R&B artists and own my own record label. But, I am pretty confident with graphic design now and I could see myself designing advertisements and album artwork on the side. I have a very diverse skill set which allows me to work comfortably in many fields.

Digital Media has also opened my eyes to all forms of media content. For example, I never really analyzed title sequences before this course, and now I find them very interesting now. Some of my favorite title sequences include Deadpool (2016), The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011), Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011), Se7en (1995), and Daredevil (TV series, 2015-). I have also become very interested in sound design for title sequences. The music is very important in that it sets the mood for the visuals.

Looking back at my first blog post, I can see how much I’ve improved as a graphic designer as well as an analyst of art. I am very glad that this course is part of the RTA school and I will definitely take courses like this one in the future.

I have made mild progress so far. I have gone out once to look for a place to film. I am looking for a park with nice grass and some trees. Ideally, I would like minimal people because they would have to be fearful for their lives. The scene involves fighting which presents a dangerous situation for pedestrians. I have looked at a few locations but I am still undecided on where to shoot.

In the beginning I was going to illustrate all of the evil insects in the scene and import them in After Effects. But now I am developing some alternate ideas. I’m thinking of having a person play dead, similar to what is presented in my storyboard. All of their skin will be covered so that the only part of their body showing is their head. Then I will draw different insect heads for each fallen victim to Daniel X. I am still undecided on whether the insects should have the same clothing or different. This scene makes the audience assume that the insects are a group fighting against Daniel X, so it would make sense if they were all wearing a ‘uniform.’ I will either draw the clothing and bring it into After Effects, or I will go threw my wardrobe and pick out some bad ass clothing to use.

For this project I have continued to take influence from the title sequence of the movie “Deadpool” (2016). The idea of a still moment in time being viewed at all angles from the perspective of the camera was very interesting to me. This technique leaves the audience in suspense waiting for new imagery to enter the frame and for the main character to appear, which is Deadpool. In terms of clothing, Deadpool stands out from the other characters and the other characters (thugs) have similar clothing because they are all working together as a group. I am thinking of doing the same thing. Daniel X is gonna have a very unique look and the other characters will look very bland and common.

Professor Pringle’s talk was very interesting, in that I’ve never heard about the process for a gaming app. Avatar Secrets felt like a very unique game and fun. I was even tempted to download the game afterwards. She pointed out that the most challenging process of making the game was trying to visualize a hybrid reality that wasn’t already represented in a game before. I think Professor Pringle was very smart to approach the development process in this way because this resulted in a very creative and original production.

The tips she listed near the end of the lecture will be very helpful when I start creating my own production. The tips were, story is everything, embrace the design affordances of new technology, make the technology invisible, balance story & agency, consider your transmedia approach, deep vs. wide, and play (wiggle room). I think the most important of those tips is considering your transmedia approach. It is essential that you keep in mind other ways in which your production can reach people through the media (alternate platforms to the original). The best way to get your product noticed is to expose it to every media platform and reach as many people as possible.

I think it would be really interesting if the App Store allowed for interactivity (both google and Apple). My idea would be to have an app pitch section of the store where anyone could pitch an idea for an app. I am aware that many people are able to make apps regularly, but what about the people that don’t have the skill set to do so. This interactive experience would benefit any App Store in that it allows for creative thought and teamwork within the app developing community.

Logos are a key part of building a brand. I thought I would talk about some of my favorite logo designs and analysis them through an artistic lens. The first logo that I thought of was Beats By Apple. Even though I am not a big fan of the headphones themselves I do appreciate the logo design. My favorite part of this piece is how they made the shapes have multiple meanings. For example, the ‘b’ in the middle of the circle can be recognized as the side of the headphones or the beginning of the word ‘beats.’ The color red is also the original color for most of their products and advertising campaigns. This is a successful logo because even though it may look very simple; it has more meaning than you think.

Doritos is not only one of my favorite chip bags when I’m in the mood for junk food. The brand also has a very interesting logo. The logo is very animated and complex. I really like how it looks cartoon like. As you probably know already; The triangle shape in the center of the piece symbolizes a single Doritos chip. No matter what type of flavor you buy from this brand, the chips are always in a triangular shape. So, it is essential that they incorporate the chip in the logo. There are many “CRAP” principles incorporated in this logo. There is heavy contrast between the colors in the design. The white and orange contrast with the black background. There is repetition in the jagged lines that surround the triangle as well as the motion blur. Even though the triangle is fairly asymmetrical the text is right in line with the center. The logo isn’t too busy and all the right components are in all the right place which create a sense of unity (great proximity). I really like Doritos’ logo design and it is my favorite logo across all chip brands.

This final logo design is of my own making and I thought I would do some self-critiquing of my work. I am a music producer who creates instrumentals for hip-hop and R&B music. Every artist in the industry has to make a brand for themselves (a recognizable component). Not only do I have a voice tag on all my work, I also have a logo which I tend to place on all my album artwork. I started the piece by sketching out the studio setup and then I brought the drawing into Adobe Illustrator. I thought it would be cool If I had myself in the logo. So, I took a picture of myself sitting on a stool, cut out the background and brought that into the piece as well. I made the illustration look comic like because I thought it would look cool to contrast the real photo of myself with the unreal drawing of the desk (I also tend to use comic style in a lot of my work). When making this I kept the “CRAP” principles in mind. I already mentioned contrast, but there is also a lot of repetition. I tried to keep both halves of the desk the same as well as myself. I kept by body perfectly straight and upright. All these details kept the piece almost perfectly symmetrical. All parts of the piece are equally spread apart creating unity throughout the piece.

So those are some of my favorite logo designs in the industry and those designs influenced me to create my own. There are many other logos that I’m forgetting, but these stood out to me, and for good reason.