Preliminary schematic -

Possibility that it will change...however I think the basic elements will stay the same.

Formative Feedback

Illustrations for animation

I have work done previous that needs uploading (i.e. rough storyboards, sketches of layout on screen etc.), however I don't have them as a digital files yet (really need to get the hand of taking photos/scanning things as I am doing them).

So, my intention for the 'look' of the animation, is to make it look like someone (the viewer) is reading a magazien with breakfast...and the camera then zooms into areas of the magazine spead, and moves around to show small/short animations to represent each of the top 10 stories.

The following elements are all seperate layers on photoshop so can be moved/changed etc.


* The toast is purple because its supposed to be blackcurrant jam...

Below is a 'mock up' of what the composition will look like, however the things I will be changing:
- The type at the top of the magazine page.
- The table cloth needs to be smaller (the squares on it)- It looks like a giants table cloth...or a tiny magazine.
- The magazine will actually be hand drawn, so it will look like it actually fits with the other illustrations unlike now. I did a vectorised version before 1) It was easier for me to work out image frame sizes etc. and 2) It illustrates my intentions for the crit.

Design decisions:
I am doing hand drawn illustrations of the 'celebrity stories' instead of using photographs because:
- I want to incorporate hand crafting with the digital software.
- I can't depend on the image resolutions of the appropriate images that I would want to use and I can't exactly take my own photographs of them (lol)

Below is basically the same thing as above, however it has images to represent where each story will go. I will be doing short image sequences to go in each of these, so that they will also fit with the look of the other illustrations.

This mock up will also help with my storyboarding, as I can clearly illustrate with screen shorts where the 'camera' will move to.

Editorial Rationale -

Brief -
Create appropriate imagery to accompany 4 different articles in The Guardian magazine.

Who needs to know? -
Middle class, good to high income, well educated, over 20.

What do they need to know? -
The content of the article - doesn't necessarily need to address every single point made in the article, just reinforce the content - don't go completely off key.

Why do they need to know? -
To illustrate a point / points made in the article or entise them to read the article in the first place (but not distract them from the article)

What will they respond to? -
Tone thats appropriate to the article and the general tone of the magazine.

What research is required? -
Primary: Look at recent Guardian newspapers and magazine supplement.
Secondary: Existing imagery that have been used in The Guardian - specifically the weekend magazine.

Audience Profiles -

I felt that looking at magazines as well as TV channels would be particularly appropriate for my subject matter, as certain types of magazines sell by printing 'celeb stories', so the information on the audience for these could frame the appropriate audience for the proposed TV show.



From the same site I found information on 'the hits' music channel as they occasionally play 'countdowns' of things, not specifically celebrity stories by of popular music etc.

After seeing the audience profiles for celebrity orientated magazines, I went on to see what channels would be likely to show such a programme;

The above secondary research presented a selection of channels: Channel 4, E4, ITV2 etc.



As I personally watch BBCthree I know that they do show programmes similar to the one I would be creating a title sequence for i.e. Most annoying people 2009, Greatest songs of the noughties, therefore I also looked into them.
I think that I am going to

Top 10...



By uploading it onto Issuu, it isn't playing the video...however, this is the presentation I will be using.

Also, It was initially only 9/10 slides but when exporting it as a PDF, it made all the slides with 'animations' on into seperate slides so now its about 14.

Someone said to me today "Celebrity stories? That doesn't seem like your kind of thing?". Just to confirm, yes I am one of those people that checks celebrity gossip blogs because I really am that 'cool'. lol.

The final Top 10 -

Having decided on my final Top 10, I looked more at each story just to gather vague information to help with the development of my title sequence:

Michael Jackson Comeback / death

Tiger Woods affairs


Chris Brown and Rihanna domestic

Jordan and Peter break up


Kanye West storms the VMA's


SuBo sensation


Brittany Murphy dies
(Link to TMZ page)
Lady Gaga: A man?

RATM christmas No.1


Christian Bale F-Word rant

Top 10...What?

I have decided to do 'Top 10 Celebrity Stories of 2009' - The main reason I chose this;
- I need to chose something thats going to keep me interested for more a few a weeks...and being strangely obsessed with the whole 'celebrity world' I thought...surely this will hold my attention.

At first, I simply made a list of all the celebrity stories I could think of that had happened in 2009...and for a more solid list with proof of the stories and the fact that they were quite 'big stories' I looked in various end of year magazines and the internet:

(Telegraph)
(Associated Content)

('Good to know')
There were a lot of sites with their own compiled lists etc. (officially probably as valid as my own list) but I found some of them weren't that appropriate to the UK such as 'David Letterman scandal' (I know of him...I don't know that much to be interested in him).

So - I will take information from these but I want my final top 10 to be something that a UK audience would be interested in and know of the celebrities that story surrounds.

Final 4 Animations -





Personally, I do like this last one, but I'm not sure how well it communicates 'Confused' now that it has been condensed to 5 seconds. I feel I could have made it more successful if I'd had longer...

5 seconds too long...

The idea that I had hear, was way too long to squeeze into 5 seconds without it going too fast and not making sense, so just for an experiment I extended it to 10 seconds...and then when it comes to the 5 second version, I intend to cut out the beginning with all the bouncy balls.


I exported just the 'bouncy balls' at first, just so I had it to keep.

Storyboards

After Effects experiments.

First attempt at doing the 'moving along a path'. Its pretty bad! But I'm glad I know how to do it.


This one is my first attempt at doing the stop motion / sequence thing that Mike showed us, it didn't really work very well once I put it with the letterforms but once again, I'm glad I actually tried to do it because I'm more likely to remember!


After Effects workshop 1

This is what I did in the first after effects workshop with Mike, at the time I was like "Wow! Look what you can do!" Now...its more like "Wow, this is awful" haha.