Sara ShowReel

Within this process and production lesson with Sara, it was our final lesson. We were given the task of creating our very own showreel which would present all our work that we have created over the past year that I had created using the programme Adobe After Effects. I found that this task was very interesting as it would feature all my final pieces from second year which I am really proud of. The programme that I used for this process and production lesson was Adobe After Effects. Over the past year I have felt that my After Effects skills has definitely improved over the past year. As I have learnt new skills and techniques with after effects. Before I started to create this showreel, I had to think about how I wanted to present my designs within the showreel. I had to make sure that the set up for the showreel was correct at 1920 x 1080. I also had to make sure that the animation was 30 seconds long, however it had to feature clips of my animations that I had created.

The part that I am least happy with was the transitioning between each of the animations because I feel that these could have been slightly better, and more visible because I feel that sometimes you can't see when the design is changing from animation to animation. The only part that you can tell this with is when you see the text explaining what animation is going to be playing next. To improve on this in my spare time I will look at this more closely to work out better transitioning that would be more suitable for the animation and showreel that I am creating.

My favourite part about this animation was the beginning part of the showreel when the text introduces my name and the topic of what is being displayed in this animation. Another part that I like about the design is the layout and the structure that I followed for this design because I think that this allows me to present my work in a professional and presentable way that the target audience or viewers will find easy to see.

Once I had finished my animation/showreel I had to make sure that I chose a relevant song that would fit and work well with the design that I had created for my final piece. The music that I used for this design was from the website called Ben Sound, the song was known as Cute. The font style that I chose to use for this design was Bebas Neue, I chose to use this font style because it was bold and stood out well it was also very easy to read and see. I decided to stick with the colours Yellow and White because I felt that these colours worked well together, as they were very contrasting.

Showreel from Rebecca Thorp on Vimeo.

Jay Cinema 4D - Lesson 3

Within this process and production lesson with Jay, the task that we were given for this lesson was to use the programme known as Cinema 4D. Within this lesson we were told that we were going to be creating our own Beer bottle, Bottle Top, Beer Cans and packaging design. I found that this task would be very interesting and very different to the other process and production lessons that we had with Jay. I thought that this task would be more difficult than the last lessons because I think that the designs we would be creating would be slightly complicated. We firstly started off by opening up the files that we were given to use for the materials for the designs that we would be creating in cinema 4D. 

The first thing that we created within this programme was the Beer bottle. I found that this design that I had created for the design was very creative, before adding the design onto the beer bottle I had to open up the design in adobe illustrator to change the settings of the design to an Illustrator 8 file. This is so that the design would work correctly on the material that I was going to create onto the programme. After we had created the bottle in the programme, I was then able to place the design of the label onto the design using the material option which I had to place on the Lathe tool. We also had to make different materials to add to the bottle to create a glass look on the bottle and another material for the liquid which is inside the bottle. We then created the bottle top to match the design and the label that we had created for this beer bottle. I felt that this design was alright, but to improve on this design I am going to create my own label that I would create in the programme Adobe Illustrator. 

The next design that I created for this process and production lesson was to create some soda cans, I found that when creating these soda cans these designs were very simple but effective. To add the design to the soda cans I had to use the Illustrator 8 file and add it as a material to create the design to the cans. We were given the template for the cans design, as we only had to place these onto the designs that I had created in Cinema 4D. The part that I like about this design was that the packaging of the design made it stand out and look like a actual product to sell. To improve on this design I am going to create my own design in which I will place onto the cans using the material tool. When creating this design I feel that it would be best to create a design that would also fit and work with the beer bottle that I had created and i'm going to develop further.  

For the final part in this process and production lesson we looked at creating a piece of packaging that was shaped like a cereal box. Again I created the box using the cube object that can be found in the top menu on the screen. I found that this design was a lot simpler than the other designs that I had created within this process and production lesson, as it was a box rather than something slightly more complicated like beer bottles and beer cans. Overall I am impressed with how this design turned out, as I again were able to place the design in which we were given to be placed on the box design. To do this I had to create a new material and add a texture to the design. To improve this I am going to create a new design piece that will work with the other two design that I will create for the soda cans and beer bottle. 

Overall I really enjoyed this process and production lesson because I was able to learn a lot of new skills within the programme Cinema 4D, that I will be able to use in the future and future projects. 

Here are the designs that I created in my own time, I like these designs because I think that they connect well with each other as they are all part of the same style and branding that I created, so it was like a collection of things, that a company was selling. I am really happy with how they have turned out because I think that they stand out, look professional and work well. 

Process and Production Nick - Lesson 5 Stencil Prints

This is my fifth process and production lesson that I had with Nick this year, I like these sessions because they're very productive and allow me to do something that I wouldn't usually do and create for my final pieces for my projects. I think that these sessions allow me to expand on my knowledge and skills that allow me to be a creative designer. Within this process and production lesson with Nick we again like the previous lesson worked with stencils, however this week we were working with three different font styles to use within this lesson. These font styles were known as Courier Bold, Baskerville Bold and Cooper Std. I liked that all these fonts were very unique but also had very different styles to one another, I think that these font styles are nice font styles and easy to use and work with for this process and production lesson. For the task that we were given in the lesson was to not use the whole of the letter, but elements of different characters or letters. For example the bottom of the R or the middle of the letter B. This was to create a new and creative characteristic that we could work with.

The first font style that I decided to work with within this lesson was Courier Bold. The elements that I decided to use from this font style was a part of the Number 5 and Letters P, J and U. Before I started to create my pattern, I firstly had to draw out the shapes and elements onto a A3 piece of paper that I had been given. To do this I used a pencil because I feel that if I had drawn the designs out with a fine liner I would have messed up the shape that I wanted to create for the design, I had to draw some of the shapes out very faintly to make sure that I got the basic shape of the design and elements. After I had drawn out the elements onto the sheet of the A3 paper I then had to use a craft knife to cut out the outlines of the elements that I had drawn. I found that this task was quite easy to do because I have noticed that over the past few process and productions lessons that I have had with Nick I have a steady hand which cuts around the outline of the elements very easily and carefully. Once I had cut the elements out of the A3 paper I then was able to start create a pattern on a new piece of paper. However before I started to create the pattern I decided very carefully about what I wanted to do with the design to make it look professional and bold, so that it would stand out and be easy to see by people. Although I still wanted the design to be very clean and look neat.

I then started to place the stencils into the spaces that I wanted to, after doing this I started to use the black paint in order to create a pattern using the stencils that I had created whilst using a font style. Once I had created this design I found that it looked very professional and neat, I think that the colour of the allowed the layout and the stencils to stand out and look bold. I thought about pushing this design even further by looking at creating a little animation to show the shapes changing from the original shape to something different and then returning to there final shape. 

I then moved on to work with the typeface known as Baskerville Bold, I liked this font style because again I found it clean and interesting. I again took the same following steps that I had taken with the last font style, as I firstly started out by picking out elements of the typeface. I decided to be a little more interesting a choose different letters from this typeface. I found that this font style was quite easy to grasp when drawing out the elements. Before creating the pattern on the paper, I firstly had to draw out the elements that I had chosen to use on a another sheet of paper in which I could use for my stencils. After I had done this I again cut out the elements using a craft knife, I found this quite easy as I have started to get used to using a craft knife. I then started to look again at the arrangement of the elements on the sheet like the last design, as I again wanted the design to be professionally laid out and look clean and sharp. However, I also wanted it to look bold and standout so that it would interest people to have a look at the design. I like this design because I like how the paint I used gave it a washed effect that made it look vintage and different to the previous design. 

The next typeface that I used within this process and production lesson was the typeface known as Cooper Std. I found that this font style was a lot more bolder and stood out a lot more than the other typefaces that we were using within this lesson. I found that this typeface was slightly harder to draw out the elements than the last two because I think the elements were a lot bolder as the style is very different to the other font styles. Once I had chosen the elements that I wanted to work with for this design, I started out by drawing out the elements using a pencil on a blank piece of paper to use as a stencil for my design. After I had drawn out each element onto the sheet of paper I was then able to start and cut around the shapes to create the stencil using a craft knife. Before starting to paint the stencil, I decided to use a different roller brush which was a slightly more fluffy and would give my design a different effect to the outcome. However after I had finished print the design using this brush I had noticed that it had made my design a lot messier than the previous two. Although I was happy with this because I felt that it was nice to create something different, bold but messier. 

For the final part in this process and production lesson, we were told that we should creating something new or a letter using the three different typefaces to create a design. I decided that I wanted to create my initials using the three different font style, to create each letter. I started off by the looking at each of the same letter for all the different typefaces, because I wanted to think about how I could create this design and see how it would work. I firstly started out by drawing an element of each to create the design, using a pencil on a blank sheet of paper. After I had worked out each element to make up the letter, I was then able to put this together to create my final piece for the letter R. I was then able to cut this out using a craft knife to use as a stencil for the letter, at first I decided to print the letter at a portrait angle to see how the design would look. I thought that the design came out really well which I was happy about. 

I then decided to do the same for the other two initials of my name which were the letters J and T. I again repeated the process and chose elements of each to create each letter. Before printing on the paper I had to think about arrangement of the letter, to see where I wanted to place the letter. I also had to think about how hard I did the print so that the letters would be visible and easy to see when printed on the paper. I felt that overall this design didn't look too great as I wasn't happy about how the design looked for this print. 

I decided to go a little further with this design and look at creating a landscaped design using the three letters that I had just created for this design. I felt that this design worked a lot better than the portrait design because I thought that this design was a lot clearer and sharper than the other. I felt that the design was a lot bolder than the other design. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this process and production lesson. This is because I again learnt new skills that I could use in the future for my future project.