Illustration and Visual Narrative - Task 04: Final Project
02/12/2025 - 23/12/2025 (Week 11 - Week 14)
PHANG QI YU / 0385732
Illustration and Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media / Taylors University
Task 4: Final Project
Table of Content
1. Lecture
2. Instructions
3. Process Work
4. Reflections
LECTURES
INSTRUCTIONS
For the final project, we are required to create a poetic, life-lesson animated video with captions, suitable for social media posts. The duration of the video must be between 15-20seconds. We are required to create at least 3 sequences of animated illustration based on a script given. We must include sound, audio narrative, and caption for our script. Include the author's name in the caption as well, but not in the narration.
1. Script
For the script portion, I chose the quote:
"I don't have to be perfect. All I have to do is show up and enjoy the messy, imperfect, and beautiful journey of my life." by Kerry Washington.
I find this piece deeply motivating because it reminds me that it's okay not to be perfect. It encourages me to embrace my imperfections, accept myself as I am, and fully enjoy the journey of my life, messy moments and all.
2. Inspiration
My inspiration is to create simple illustration sketches that allow the quote to speak for itself. Since the quote I chose is about enjoying the mess and accepting imperfections, I plan to sketch visuals that reflect that message, similar to the style and feel of the mood board shown below. I'm intentionally avoiding complicated elements. Instead, I want the accompanying video to use comfortable colors and clean, simple sketches that evoke emotion and leave viewers feeling calm, happy, and connected to the message. Above all, I hope these visuals can warm the viewers' hearts and make the message feel even more personal and uplifting!
3. Mood board/ References
.jpg)
Mr. Fitri has provided tutorial slides on how to use Adobe After Effects in Microsoft Teams, so I can go through them and learn the basics.
By the way, I also tried using the Puppet Position Pin Tool (Fig. 19), which lets you animate specific points on a layer while keeping the object’s natural deformation. It was my first time experimenting with it, and I found it so cool and unique! I used this tool in my 1st storyboard to make the leg look like it was walking forward. I’m not entirely sure if I did it correctly or if the animation turned out the way it’s supposed to, but to me it looks pretty good—at least it seems like it’s moving, HAHA! So, I’d say it’s a win. ^^
REFLECTIONS
My experience during this task was fun and exciting, as it allowed me to explore more creative possibilities. It was enjoyable to experiment with different tools in Adobe Illustrator and learn how to utilize them effectively. It was also my first time using Adobe After Effects to create an animation video. Animation videos sound fun yet professional; however, at the beginning, I was completely blank because I had no prior experience in animation. I was quite worried that I might not perform well in this task and was afraid that After Effects would be difficult to learn.
However, the animation process turned out to be much smoother and easier than I had expected, especially by following the slides provided by Mr. Fitri. His slides were very detailed and clearly explained all the tools. The tutorial slides helped me a lot throughout this task.
My observations throughout this task were that it was really interesting to animate a video based on our own preferred styles and to bring our sketches to life through animation. Through this task, I observed that design is truly a personal process, as everyone has their own ideas and inspirations. When I looked at my classmates’ styles and artworks, they were completely different from mine, yet both my work and theirs were equally meaningful and well done.
I also realized that feedback plays an important role in every task, not only in design work but also in many aspects of learning. When feedback and advice are given, we should listen and learn from them. Even if we do not follow every suggestion exactly, it is important to consider and understand the feedback. Mr. Fitri gave me a lot of valuable advice and constructive feedback throughout this task, which greatly helped me during the process of completing this final project.
Additionally, I observed that I am becoming more familiar with most of the tools in Adobe Illustrator, which has made me more efficient while working on tasks. Lastly, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Mr. Fitri for always guiding us through every task and explaining every detail so clearly. I would also like to thank myself for being responsible and completing every task on time—well done!
My findings throughout this task were that after I started digitizing my sketches in Adobe Illustrator, I added too much freeform gradient, which caused my artwork to crash and become impossible to reopen. This happened because using excessive freeform gradients consumes a lot of memory and can cause the computer to lag. While digitizing half of my work, I tried to zoom in, but Adobe Illustrator suddenly froze, and the screen turned white. I was terrified at first because I was afraid my artwork would disappear, and I had not saved my work yet.
At the beginning, I thought the lag was just a technical issue with Adobe Illustrator, so I continued digitizing and used freeform gradients again. However, my artwork kept crashing repeatedly. Even though I saved the file, I still could not open it. After several attempts, I realized that the problem was caused by adding too many freeform gradients, as they require more storage and processing power.
As a result, I switched to using normal gradient colors, and the artwork still turned out well and met my expectations. Fortunately, I was not working on this task at the last minute, so I still had about two weeks to continue working and figure out the problem. I am grateful that I was able to learn from my mistakes, understand the issue, and fix it promptly.
Comments
Post a Comment