Artist typeface transcription (Part 3) - Process & Production

Below are my final designs for my 3 typefaces, from drawing up ideas, to filtering them down to more neater and accurate graphic styles, to the final thing done on Adobe Illustrator on the computer. Once I finished making these typefaces, John (one of my tutors) told me to choose my best typeface out of all the 3 and I chose the 3rd typeface below. He then told me to write the sentence 'THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED OVER THE FAT LAZY MOOON' to determine whether the typeface actually looked well put together in a sentence rather than on its own as individual letters.

Photoshop Animation - Using the Photoshop timeline

In this process & Production session we learned how to create animation by using the timeline on Photoshop. We learned several ways to animate. One way was to use the paint tool to draw on a frame and then to make the drawing on the next frame just slightly different from before (this is shown below in my 'snake' animation). Another was by getting a video layer and then using the person in the video as a guide to draw over (however I did mine on one layer instead of a separate layer so that I could take away the guide layer afterwards).

Snake animation from Junaid Arshad on Vimeo.

Contextual Portfolio | Steve Cutts | Inspiration

Steve Cutts is an illustrator and animator who works in London. He has previously spent several years as an illustrator at London creative agency Glueisobar working on digital projects for a wide range of clients including Coca-Cola, Google, Reebok, Magners, Kellog's, Virgin, 3, Nokia, Sony, Bacardi and Toyota. In 2012 he left Glueisobar to venture into the world of freelance and since then I've been working with production houses and agencies such as Analog Folk, Lean Mean Fighting Machine, Stink Digital, The Gaia Foundation, Athlon and Bite Global to name a few. His work has also been featured on various television channels throughout the world, including the Adult Swim network and Channel 4. He mainly works with After Effects, Photoshop, Flash and Cinema 4D.

I have chosen Steve Cutts as inspiration towards my portfolio because his work is quite satirical, crude and full of humour. His visual style is illustrative and colourful which makes it appealing to me. One of his pieces of work called 'Man' is a short animation based on the evolution of man (through the eyes of Steve Cutts). This is where I first came across his work. I found it  quite inspirational and also helpful as a project I was doing at the time was also based on showing how man has evolved/changed over time up until now, the present day.

Animation showreel 2014 from Steve Cutts on Vimeo.

MAN from Steve Cutts on Vimeo.

Contextual Portfolio | Banksy | Inspiration

When looking for inspiration towards my contextual portfolio, the first artist I thought to include was Banksy. Ever since I first looked at Banksy work, my work has been inspired by his in terms of the subject matter he includes in it. I also love the style of his work visually. Elements of Banksy's work have run through into my pieces of work over the years such as the satirical subjects he uses, the black and white stencil style and the areas where he does these stencils. Some of Banksy's works are parodic because he uses the original an artist and makes it look like it has somehow been invaded/vandalised by Banksy. The subject matter of his work consists of satire on modernism and in some cases is based on topics happening in the UK as Banksy himself was born and raised in the UK.

After Effects 'Title' workshop

This workshop on After Effects was to help us on how to use key points more effectively and on how to create a title with animation. First I tried to find a word/words to use as a title and so I used the word 'MONEY'. However to give my title a bit more substance and meaning to it, I joined the word SOS to it but changed the S's to dollar signs to represent currency. I also did this with the E in MONEY by changing it to a pound sign. The title says $O$/MON£Y which is actually a shorter phrase for 'save our souls money'. I was trying to give out the message that money is large part of our life. After choosing the font and creating the title, we had to find a texture to use in conjunction with the title, and so I used a texture of dollar notes to relate to the title.

After Effects 'Title' workshop from Junaid Arshad on Vimeo.

Workshop Week - 3D to 2D Workflows - Cinema 4D

In this workshop I learned how to use Cinema 4D for the first time. I changed the look of shapes in Cinema 4D and learned how to create lighting in Cinema 4D. I also learned how to create keyframes in order to make an animation. I am happy that I took this workshop ad it was very helpful towards my animation knowledge and gave me an insight into the kinds of things Cinema 4D is capable of. With this software you can create many shapes, textures, designs, looks, movements etc. and for these reasons I may develop my knowledge further into Cinema 4D. This software is used to create many things such as idents or TV channels, or the text used at the start of the films (the start and end credits). Learning this software more thoroughly could potentially unlock many doors for me for when I leave University in search for a job.

Artist typeface transcription (Part 2) - Process & Production

After making my 1st draft designs for a typeface, I was told to choose 3 of the designs to go forward with. Seeing as I only drew up 3 1st draft designs in the first place and I only really liked 1 of these, I am choosing to draw up the whole alphabet for the one I liked more neatly on graph paper, and then draw the other 2 on computer while also transferring the 1st design on computer as well, giving me 3 altogether. Below is my 1st typeface design drawn up on graph paper.

Workshop Week - Motion Graphic Fairytale - Animation Sequence project

Using the basic components of storytelling, this workshop aimed to produce a contemporary fairy-tale using motion graphics and After Effects. In the workshop we all first saw some some motion graphic projects for reference which all included a storyline with a hero, villain, donor, princess etc. (role types on screen which make up the storyline). Below is one of the references we saw...

La Queue de la Souris from Reineke on Vimeo.

From these references there was one which the workshop was mainly based on and that is the 'Animation Sequence Project' by in60seconds (below)...


Animation Sequence Project - BEST OF - October 2012 from in60seconds on Vimeo.

In the workshop we were given a similar task to the 'Animation Sequence Project' which was to make a whole story by each student creating a 10 second long scene from the story and then putting them together at the end. Each student's scene had to finish and end with a square (250 x250 pixels) in the middle of the screen. Each student in the workshop was given a scene from the story which Sara (the tutor running the workshop) made. My part was called 'Struggle' which consisted of the hero and villain going into direct combat.

Motion Graphic Fairytale - Scene 16 - Struggle from Junaid Arshad on Vimeo.

Workshop Week - Motion Graphic Fairytale - Animation Sequence project RESEARCH

Before we started to actually make our section of the motion graphic fairytale, we had to research various artists and design styles to base our section of the whole fairytale sequence on. I myself looked at the flat 2D styles of motion graphics and looked at the different tones of the colour palettes used. In some of the artists works, the colour palette was bright to connote liveliness in the picture, however in other pieces of work, the colour tones were quite washed out to connote simplification or negativity. In the end I decided to limit my colour palette to 3 simple colours which were black, white and grey. This was to connote the binary opposition in the scene, as my section of the whole sequence was about the battle between the hero and villain. The colours white and black themselves are binary opposites and each connote good and bad. I also used these specific colours because they made the scene easy to look at and were simple due to the separation of white and black, with grey being the neutral colour here in the background. Below are screenshots of the pieces of work I researched.

Workshop Week - Logo Design

In the first day for our 2nd workshop week at Uni I learned the process of designing logos for a client.  First, I had the option to choose out of 3 clients/briefs which were; a juice/coffee shop aimed at young children aged between 7-14; a silent hotel where everything ran like a normal hotel except for nobody talking and everything being absolutely silent (to create a getaway feel from the busy city sounds); a virtual pub where people could put on some type of goggles or an interface where they were immersed in a socialised pub right in the comfort of their own home. I chose the juice/coffee shop brief. I first generated several names and then chose 4 names out of these to progress forward with. Once I did a few logo designs for these 4 names, I chose one to progress forward with and got halfway to create several logo design drafts for it.