Expired Film Experiments

Towards mid October last year, I finished the last roll of camera film I had (sad times). It was also around (or shortly after) the same time a popular chain of 'pound only' shop discontinued selling it and for a crazy-mad, bargain price of £1 at that! So disappointing, but I knew the day was coming- every time I used to go in for some film, I always used to hope that it was there, though always used to prepare myself for the worst! I now have to source my film in a more costly way... 😢

Rant aside, I came across a roll of expired (1999) film in my boyfriend's room and I was most excited!

I had no expectations or hopes of how they'd come out: I always think if you prepare yourself for the worst possible outcome, then anything else is a bonus. Maybe I should change my outlook on life, but that's for a whole other blog post!

Anyway, the results didn't come out that great, but the outcomes were not all to be thrown away. Some had editing potential, whilst some looked passable as is. I took the opportunity to have a play on Photoshop with a few and by adding and manipulating certain elements, I created some quite interesting results. I look forward to doing more...

A couple of the unedited ones:

Current Project [Update]

Hello and Happy Friday!

I've been fairly quiet on the blogging front recently, but I've been seriously busy: bowling, watching football (groundhopping), walking, taking photographs, film watching and of course, my MA <-- definitely been taking up most of my time!

So, to keep you all updated, I'm currently working on some animations on my chosen topic (helping eliminate the stigma towards males with eating disorders, through graphic design) for my degree.

I don't want to go into too much detail about my project in this post, but the intention of the animations is to look into various creative moving image responses as an answer to my design question (above). I'm hoping to create three films in three styles, each exploring a different way of achieving the same same outcome.

In regard to the graphic novel incase you were wondering: this idea has kind of been binned for now, because after a period of reflection I deemed the medium wasn't right for what I wanted to achieve for this project and I think I can make a much more effective outcome through animation/ film. I found developing it and designing it great fun, so I would definitely like to produce one in the future, but for now, it will unfortunately have to take a back seat.

Here are some super rough screen grabs of some preliminary animation tests in style:

Recent Digital Photography

Because a popular chain pound shop seems to have stopped selling camera film and I've been too stingy to source it from elsewhere, I've been using my DSLR quite a bit. I still prefer shooting on film, but as I've used this one more and more, I've warmed to it a little.

Here are the pick of the best:

DP1: Motion Graphic Test.3

I've not posted on this blog for a while and my original project idea has changed (again)! I've been doing most of my work in my sketchbooks, as it's a more logical way to work for me and I haven't felt the need to write about my project in this blog recently. If I did, I would basically be repeating what I've written in those for the sake of digitalising my thoughts.

Despite this, I will do another post with a rough outline of my project idea, rationale and preliminary sketches/ experiments, so I can let the WWW know what I'm working on and not just hermit-ting under the guise of independent bowling alleys and 35mm photography.

Anyway, back to the blog post in hand:

As the title suggests, I have done more motion graphic experimentation. This was when I was still under the impression that I might do something heavily involving animation (and I still might- I have new ideas for that now- all too be revealed. How very exciting!), but this was when I was experimenting with clean line, 'corporate' style mograph:

There's various styles in this video- most of them from tutorials I was following, so not very creative on my part, but there are some sections where I kind of went AWOL from the tutorials and began putting 'me' into it. I think I wrote about this in a previous blog where I wanted to start doing these on my own, though I don't think I've learned enough techniques to be able to do so.

My favourite technique in this one is the neon section. I think I managed to emulate the effect well, having chosen fitting typefaces and getting a realistic flicker effect. I've never attempted this style before, but would happily develop it and use it again.

Another section of the video I feel worked well was the first 'fall' transition near the start. I felt the shapes folded well and the motion was smooth. It could have done with a sound effect. In fact, the whole thing could have done.

One section I felt didn't work as well as I had hoped was where the sun-burst comes out (after that transition), followed by the circle expansion. I felt they lacked imagination and didn't especially flow. I find the best motion graphics (or animations on the whole) are the ones that feel fluid, with well thought out transitions and narrative. I felt these were shoe-horned in and appeared 'clunky' in contrast to the rest of the video. They would have worked well perhaps in another segment, but not where I positioned them within the clip. This experimentation is for this purpose: so I know what works, what doesn't and what I can build/ develop on for future animations/ graphics.

I also tried some 3D effects at the end. Again, something I've not ventured into before, so I thought it would be good to try. I think they worked better than what I thought they might, especially the text one, but on the whole they were fairly weak. Like a lot of this clip, they lacked imagination. I think now that I've learned the techniques, I could probably experiment with the variables in them, so they can be more creative. I also think that without having a 'use' it makes experimentation hard as it's not for anything specific. Without an aim or target audience, then of course it is more difficult to test styles, because what is the test for? There's so many elements to motion graphics, such as colour, size, shape etc, so without a target they could all be as relevant or not relevant as each other.

I think that this is one of the main things I've learned recently, that without meaning, expression is hard and becomes pastiche, pointless and emotionless. With a piece of design doing these things, little or no interest/ emotion from the audience will be evoked, therefore making the piece less effective. In graphic design it's especially important, because you are communicating a message. If the audience isn't interested, the message will be lost, therefore the piece having a useless effect. This is no good for advertising!

Recent 35mm Photography

...exactly what it says on the tin! Here are some taken between August 2017 and now. All unedited:

Cards

I love it when it's time to make a card for somebody for whatever reason, because I like to use it as a mini typography project!

The cards always end up taking longer than expected because I spend so much time on them, but I find the results often very effective. Some work out better than others, but each one is a development process and leads to the idea for the next one.

Here are two recent ones which I really thought turned out well:

I really like this idea and I'm going to develop it further. I especially prefer the Happy Birthday one: I like the looseness and fluidity of the shape. I also tried using colour and again, that works. I often prefer black and white drawing and getting shading with pen thickness and/ or stippling, but in this instance the colour really pops.

GIF Work In Progress

This is something I've been wanting to make for quite a while now since developing a low poly illustration style.

I thought I'd start with a fairly simple head turn movement and then if it works, maybe develop the animation style further.

These pictures take ages to draw anyway, so having to do multiple ones in the same animation is a quite laborious process!

I decided to put this work in progress GIF together, to see whether it would work and if I should continue with the animation and also to give myself a incomplete-complete piece(!) for getting so far with the animation.

Watch this space for the finished item! Might be a while...

Double Exposure Experiment

Scrolling through Instagram, as I tend to do a fair bit these days [if you look past the selfies and pictures of coffee/ food there's actually lots of really great stuff on there], I came across some double exposure photography.

I thought these pictures had a really great effect, especially when done well. It was something I felt I must try!

Click here to see the tutorial I followed.

I thought it was going to be easier than it was, but it was fairly difficult to make an end result I was proud of, especially learning and using new techniques in the process.

I didn't follow it step by step and I used my own photographs for both the portrait and the overlay. I'm fairly pleased with the end result, though I'd like to try it again to refine my technique, along with experiment more with the subject, because I think it has amazing scope for lots more development/ designs.

Here's the result:

Even More Recent Photography

At the moment photography (of all kinds) is my prime creative outlet. I'm mainly using my Olympus Trip 35mm camera, so here is the pick of the best:

See my Instagram for more recent pictures here.

AFtEr EffEctS

In the middle of a creative (and general) slump, I found the motivation to get back onto Adobe After Effects and follow one of the AMAZING tutorials from the man that is Andrew Kramer on Video Copilot(.net). I followed one to make some realistic looking rain on a window. See here.

Being back on After Effects and doing some creating again was a nice feeling. It was fairly nostalgic of when I used to do it all the time whilst being a student/ in my spare time around 3/4 years ago. It was also a challenge, as AE can be tricky at times, especially when you're out of practise.

I think that I had an ok shot at the task in hand, but obviously with more practise, I would achieve something greater. What I felt was my greatest achievement was in taking on the task was choosing to do something and actually carrying it out from start to finish, resulting in a completed project. For me, rather that making something "great", the actual decision making and the doing of the challenge was maybe more of an achievement than the result of the project itself.

I sometimes find completing things hard when the result is unknown (I never know how my AE projects will turn out) and especially when I'm not feeling all that positive. I had a real sense of accomplishment when I had finished it and I feel slightly inspired to follow a few more After Effects tutorials to get me back into creating.

Here's a screen grab from what I made: