Summary:
This introductory module establishes the foundation for delivering a compelling message through animated storytelling. First, we began our journey by diving into the book “Animated Storytelling” by Liz Blazer, exploring the role and significance of the pre-production step. We researched and analyzed various short animated GIFs regarding their content, graphics, and motion patterns. Lastly, we created short animations, including GIFs and Cinemagraphs, using software tools such as Adobe Animate, Photoshop, and After Effects.
On a personal note, this opening module signifies a shift in my work from creating written content and static graphics to the exciting realm of motion graphics.
Readings and writings:
Introduction:
In her book “Animated Storytelling,” Liz Blazer outlines ten straightforward steps for creating compelling narratives, starting with pre-production and concluding with the project’s launch. Her book offers essential tools for crafting captivating animated stories in animation and motion graphics. After reading the introduction, I felt very engaged and eager to explore this topic further. Specifically, I appreciated the structured methodology, which is ideal for novice animators like myself.
Chapter One (Pre-production):
In the opening chapter, Liz Blazer discusses how essential pre-production is for successful planning and achieving captivating outcomes. Before starting a project, you must answer three crucial questions: What is it? What does it look like? And what is it made of?
The author suggests three simple steps to answer these questions:
- Concept Development (What is it):
This step marks the beginning of your main idea. It’s important to define your work’s tone, plot, and theme in order to effectively convey the significant concept that emerges from your reflections on the topic.
- Previsualization (What does it look like):
This process ranges from basic sketches to fully rendered characters and backgrounds. This stage helps to solidify design direction while establishing animation techniques and methods. It provides the opportunity to experiment with visual directions, materials, and animation.
- Asset Building (What is made of):
At this stage, assets consist of all the elements necessary to start animating. Assets may include logos, character designs, replacement pieces, props, backgrounds, live-action files, fonts, color, scripts, sound effects, and more. Essentially, it’s all the “stuff” you’ll need to create the magic.
Research to inform:
Here, we aim to analyze and provide a comprehensive review of existing published GIF images. My approach to this analysis includes three primary domains.
- The content: What is the message in the GIF? Is it clear and easy to understand? Is it delivered effectively? Is it unique and original?
- The visual: Is the picture attractive? Do the colors, the contrast, the details in the background, the style – all create a beautiful and compelling
- The motion: Is the movement real and contains an added value to the GIF?
Most importantly, I analyze the interaction among these three components, exploring the relationship between the content of the GIF, its visual appeal, and the motion of the visuals. I don’t believe a perfect GIF needs to excel in all three areas as long as they interact effectively.
I love how this GIF conveys the happiness, fun, and friendship among the young girls. Specifically, using a selfie to capture those emotions is both clever and realistic. The illustration is beautiful, featuring soft and warm colors. The realistic tone is enhanced by the camera capturing this joyful moment. The motion of the girls raising their hands for the selfie interacts well with the other elements. I find this GIF simple yet incredibly authentic.
This GIF demonstrates that you don’t always need colors to convey a meaningful message. The motion is clear and impressive, and I don’t see added value in the associated text interpretation. Overall, this GIF delivers a powerful emotional message about the beauty of supporting a friend in need. The content, visuals, and motion interact well with each other, enhancing this powerful message. This is one of my favorite GIFs.
What appeals to me most here is the detailed background filled with familiar kitchen items. I also appreciate the ambiguous message—why is he tired? Where are the kids from the drawing on the refrigerator? Additionally, the colors in the illustration are vibrant, despite the scene’s melancholy. This contrast interacts effectively with the ambiguous message. The motion is straightforward, but the looping effect in the animation brings it to life.
This GIF effectively conveys its message in an engaging and enjoyable way. The background is quite simple, just white, but the colorful elements in the illustration add to the sense of fun. The motion plays a crucial role in this GIF, creating a feeling of surprise with explosive elements surrounding the message. Overall, I use this GIF frequently as it conveys a clear and fun birthday greeting.
I love how the message here is beautifully conveyed with perfect simplicity. The use of a black-and-white tone is consistent with the colorless, lonely world displayed in this GIF. The eye-tearing motion enhances the depressive and sad vibe, interacting well with the visuals. Although the motion and the illustration are simple, I find that both effectively capture feelings of vulnerability and profound emotion.
Create:
Creating motion GIF images was a fun and engaging experience for me. I found the process of using various software and techniques quite fascinating, and I am eager to learn more about this field.
This is a drawing I created in Adobe Illustrator for my last blog: “Welcome to the Digital Media Orchestra” featuring three guys playing different instruments. I decided to animate the violinist. For this, I used Adobe Animate and employed the technique known as “onion-skinning,” which was challenging to grasp initially in the software. In the future, I hope to bring all the cartoons to life and even add some sound to make them more engaging to watch.
I like everything related to pop culture. I took this picture of the “Squid Game” doll in New York City. Then, using Photoshop, I changed the color of her eyes and animated her in the same software with colors related to the TV show (Red light, green light).
This is a cinematograph I created from a video I took three years ago while visiting New York City. I absolutely love subways and was happy to use this for this animation style. I used Adobe After Effects to create this animation. I am not sure if the message here—that you need to jump on opportunities in life—conveys well without an associated textual title. What do you think?
The final animated GIF in this series was created using Adobe Fresco. Utilizing the techniques “Frame by frame” and “Onion skinning”. I don’t have extensive knowledge of this software, but I hope to expand my knowledge in the future.
