Visual Communication
Project Summary
For my Senior Project I had different goals I wanted to achieve by using Motion Design for a brand video.
1. Create content for a brand I am interested in, as well as stick to the brand’s identity and style.
2. Use all that I have learned in my time here at college, as well as learn new techniques within motion design.
3. Highlight athletes of the 3 different board sports, increasing the visual appeal of the clips with different aspects of motion design.
Before even starting with the video, I began researching within different brands I enjoy. I wanted to get an idea of how motion design and certain visuals played a role in their videos. I came out with a wide variety of different styles and ways to enhance clips with motion.
</figureThere were many different aspects of motion design and design I liked from each brand. I took notes on what I liked or didn’t like between different ones.
After the research I chose to make a video for Vans. I then dived more into their style and how can I create something unique, while still being able to stick to their vibe.
With Vans, the brand usually likes to highlight 3 main sports. Surfing, Skateboarding, and Snowboarding. So, I started planning on how I can show 3 different athletes performing in those different sports. After finding clips that best highlighted these things I planned and storyboarded a 45 second video.
I used Adobe Creative Cloud to create assets as well as manipulate other assets to make the video.
One of the goals I had before starting was to learn something new. This is where I learned to use the Rough Animator app. Before this app I strictly used After effects to create vector-based movement. This application uses hand drawn, frame by frame animation. A lot of time was spent learning the basics of the app, and I ran into a lot of problems with different frame rates and transferring the hand drawn animations into Adobe Apps.
Nearly 1300 frames were hand drawn throughout the entire video and were used to enhance certain movements the athletes performed.
This screenshot of the application doesn’t even show half the frames drawn on to create this effect. A total of 11 hours were spent specifically on the scene shown above. Frame by Frame animations are a lot of work.
Some of the hand drawn effects in the video only last a second, but some of the second long animations might have took an hour to create.
I really feel like the hand drawn visuals helped make the video more interesting while still sticking to the brand’s style.
Although I am more comfortable with Adobe, I still had a lot to learn while creating other visuals in the video.
A screenshot of one of the compositions from After Effects.
I wanted this video to be as raw and fun as possible, and for that reason I did not want to use stock music. I was able to talk to a close friend who was more than happy to have his song used for the video, and I feel that it enhances the experience watching it.
One of my favorite experiences from making this video came almost halfway through creating it. I posted a short clip of an animation I did for one of the athletes on my social media, and he reached out to me and told me how much he loved what I did! He even reposted on his account with over half a million followers. Vans also liked the clip which was awesome.
I learned a lot through this project and am glad I had the opportunity to use the skills I have learned during college to the test. I met the goals I had set in the beginning and overcame trials and problems along the way.