Presentation and Evaluation

Early 2D Exports

This first export needed some colour correcting on the title text and extra frames added which I was able to do within Flipaclip before re-uploading.

This export was much later when I'd added the rest of my frames, however it was only 17 seconds long so I went back and cycled the animations for each scene and added more details.

Project Evaluation

Starting Out - Ideas and Inspiration

I was tasked with designing an animated infographic piece on my desired subject, as a big fan of Walt Disney and Theme Parks in general I zeroed in on this as an idea. I was already aware of a few interesting facts about the Florida parks (unfortunately I couldn't fit in visit for research purposes due to COVID) but I conducted some further research and compiled a list of facts I could visualize drawing out/animating. If I spent longer gathering more quantitative data and figures I could have definitely used my 3D models to show the scale (e.g. volume/scale of something represented by a model that fills up with colours etc..) but due to my limited abilities on some of the software I played it a bit safe and went of more generalized facts about attendance and interesting features in the parks. I'm really happy with how the piece flowed in the end but I've learnt a lot about the information gathering process and how this can affect the outcome/flow of a sequence.

I also looked at several examples of animated infographics which helped me to understand timing of information being shown on screen, layout and composition of visuals and theming. At least one of these examples included a 3D model of a planet which helped me to understand how this could be incorporated into my own work.

I purposefully didn't go looking for infographics on Disney World as I thought it may cloud my own ideas, instead I started to draw out a few rough story boards relating to the facts I'd found. At this point I was intending on creating each scene in Adobe Illustrator and animating in After Effects, however due to my background in traditional art and design I decided I could tell the story better with a mixture of digitally hand drawn (using basic digital drawing software on the iPad) and my own Illustrator vector images. I was able to save the illustrator assets I made to the cloud and download into my drawing software (Flipaclip-virtual flip book app) where I could easily edit parts like the flags on the castle which I re-drew in different positions in each frame to simulate a breeze and make the static image more lifelike.

Drafts to Final Edit and Observations - What I Have Learnt So Far

After finishing an initial draft of the 2D elements I played it back a few times to pick up any inconsistencies and add in smaller details, some of which I drew out in illustrator and some hand-drawn, at this point the full sequence was roughly 22 seconds long and needed to be extended/developed a little more. I was able to duplicate and edit frames in places to elongate but ended up making my own animation cycles (much like those featured in the 12 Principles of Animation), which helped me to retain some control over how long each clip played for. I drew in the extra frames with elements like clouds moving in a pattern across the background, coaster cars cycling and flags waving (being cautious not to make these moving elements too large of distracting from the text as that is the most important element making it an infographic and not just an animation). One issue I came across when adding in frames was keeping the scale correct, I had to emulate camera movements within the piece but this involved using the lasso tool to select areas before pasting them on the following frame and enlarging/shrinking them, as some of the elements were hand drawn this caused them to become more pixelated and distorted which meant I was then better off re-drawing the scene fresh. This did mean that I had to estimate positions of some 2D assets within the composition and how that would flow when adding text and 3D assets in After Effects. If I were to start again I would definitely create more detailed storyboards and attempt more vector graphics in illustrator so I could scale them up/down without encountering image distortion. As I added more details to my frames I decided to incorporate several 'Hidden Mickeys', these are also found throughout the various Walt Disney Resorts with visitors trying to spot as many as they can during their visit. I also added one to the wrap of my 3D model using Photoshop which can be seen briefly shooting through the underground AVAC tunnel.

Based on my initial project proposal, "My infographic video will inform viewers of interesting facts and statistics on Walt Disney World in Florida, including consumption of goods, history of pricing and staffing, scientific or 'behind the scenes' information and imaginatively presented statistics. I will gather these from various online sources and present in a short animated infographic piece." I think I've achieved the purpose of the brief but would have liked to have added in more facts/statistics, this wasn't possible in the end due to the 30 second cut off but I'd definitely make an extended version with more information, some amendments to neaten up my hand drawn elements and using more developed techniques for the 2D and 3D assets. I'd definitely include facts about the staff levels and price of ticket entry (As I'd already found the associated facts but couldn't fit this into the storyboard at the time). I would also make sure I plan more effectively as this time I was unsure about how long some tasks would take to complete, for instance I spent a lot of time trying to perfect my coca cola can model but this was mainly because finding the right tutorial or advice online to help with issues on the software. I understand I can only really learn this from experience and as my skills develop I can better estimate how long it takes to make each element. While I was extending each scene of the infographic to hit time markers (for the text placement) I realized that I could try and loop the moving elements like cloud patterns and lightening strikes on the Tower of Terror; I was able to essentially make animation cycles of each scene that played on loop, I had to still manually judge the timings of these as it wasn't easily adjustable in After Effects. I would definitely try this technique again when making my next animation. Next time I'd really like to focus on neatening up the hand drawn elements and making sure I allow time for this before composition in the larger piece, I ended up sending myself over 4 'final' copies of the animation, each time spotting something I wanted to improve/amend which had to be done on my iPad as opposed to in AE.

3D Model Development

I have created two 3D assets for my infographic animation project, I started my asset development in 3DSMax and was able to create a practice coca cola can. This model was ultimately put aside as I wasn't happy with my result (Down to lack of practice on the software and picking up the controls) Although I had created my prototype model in Autodesk’s 3DSMax, I wanted to try and use Blender (open source animation/modelling program) to re-create the same can. Due to how I naturally learn/understand software and controls I did find blender a little easier to use. The hotkeys can be changed from Blender specific to ‘industry standard’ in order for 3DSMax users to easily switch between however I learnt using the Blender ones to start with.
As this software is free and readily available online there seemed to be more tutorials available for beginners. I used the channel Blender Guru to help me understand the basic controls of each workspace and how they communicate to each other, this was very useful when attempting UV mapping/wrapping and animation later on.

The UV Wrap stage was the most frustrating as I hadn’t wrapped a 3D model before and I needed 3 separate areas of my coke can to be covered with textures (top, base and middle).
I created seams for my model and unwrapped it several times using different modes (basic unwrap, smart UV Unwrap, Cylinder unwrap etc. until I had a good flat can to work with. I then found a flat packaging image to wrap around it, after playing around with the placement I decided to elevate the design slightly by putting it in Photoshop and adding a ‘hidden mickey’ on the label and brightening the red background to make it a little more cartoonish to blend better with the 2d background I’d drawn.

With a some troubleshooting help from other students in my class on texturing/materials I was able to get to the stage of finalizing my coke can design. I was able to change the film background of my model to transparent (PNG format) so when rendered I could place the sequence straight into After Effects against my 2D frames. I was able to learn about nodes and how they can be combined to change the output texture of an object, then using this to make the can look more metallic and lifelike. I hadn’t lit an object manually before either so looked at a few tutorials on ways to add light to a scene. I did struggle a little as the scene is 2D and cartoon so the only lighting that seemed to work was very bright (sun lamp and directional point lights).

The moon asset was easier to create as I wanted it too look quite stylized, I started with a scaled up icosphere (modified to have 4 subdivisions). I then highlighted certain faces in patterns to look like craters and extruded them along their normal and then scaled in, extruded down back into the sphere. I lit and rendered this model with a grey surface colour before coming back to it later to improve. I rendered and set my original moon in the 2D scene but wasn’t happy with the lack of detail/texture so I was able to download a moon image (from NASA website) which I added and then converted to a bump map based on the colour of the texture, meaning my moon model now had further levels of detail (these being real world textures too I hoped it would add some legitimacy to it).

Lighting Tests and Rendering

For the following lighting tests I wanted to see how dramatic I could make the moon lighting to show off the craters and bump map, I found that I got the best result from two Sun Lamps pointed at angles either side of the model, although this isn't scientifically correct I preferred the effect achieved to just one light source. I also read up on 3 point lighting technique but found this harder in practice with my limited knowledge on Blender. I rendered images to show what each light setting put out. I have also included more lighting tests of my coca cola can where I altered the direction and strength of each light to capture the different areas of the can, I liked the last light set-up the best as it also highlighted the base of the can and can be easily identified. The white font also shows up better on this render than the previous one.

I used Cycles render on these pngs as this is the most detailed render I could achieve, I was able to use my GPU to render so didn't take quite as long as I thought it might (including animation render). If I were to re-purpose these model for a video game format I'd more likely use Eevee to render as it's much faster and still retains a lot of detail needed in a modern video game without lagging in game/causing it to load more slowly. I could also shade the models smooth and continue to use subdivision modifiers instead of permanently altering the number of polys in the model. If the LOD (level of detail) needed to be altered I can easily enough amend the Photoshop UV texture for the can or use a higher quality image for the bump map texture on the moon model. The model itself would need to be exported in fbx format for use within games compositing engines like Unreal and further editing within Autodesk or similar programs.

Final Touches, Music and Text in After Effects

After importing the MP4 of my 2D animation (rendered from pngs in Flpaclip software) and adding the rendered animation sequence of my Blender models (pngs), I wanted to add some kinetic typography which I was able to do directly in After Effects. Most of this is text only changes in opacity and position but the 'The End' screen text is created using trim paths. First I created an outline from the text shape, then added trim paths to fill in the text over a couple of seconds. I initally wanted to have each letter fill individually but this would have been to long for my sequence and I wasn't able to achieve it well based on my capabilities at the time. - If i were to attempt this again I'd definitely try to achieve this look so it looks like handwriting at the end, i could have done this by drawing each stroke in my Flipaclip software but I wanted to try and stretch myself by using Adobe After Effects instead (which i am glad I did). I'm happy with the outcome of this and don't think it takes away from the main piece. I hand drew the entire title sequence (except the 'World' under the Walt Disney text.) I was able to download music from Magic Kingdom's entrance soundtrack (I DO NOT OWN RIGHTS TO THIS) and extract the Tower of Terror elevator ding noise from another clip to time with the end transition when the Tower of Terror leaves the screen. I would definitely spend longer looking at more sound samples if I had another chance to make this piece however what I ended up including worked well and synced with the movements/transitions on screen.

Class Feedback

In Conclusion

Overall I agree with the comments from my peers and am glad my infographic was recognizable as being related to Disney World through colour schemes, drawn elements and researched facts. I have taken on board the constructive comments which also align to my own critiques of the finished piece. I would definitely look to sharpen the overall quality of my drawn frames, improve flow of image sequence to look more seamless and add in more traditional Disney style animated characters/objects throughout.

I hope to improve my 3D modelling abilities, lighting and rendering knowledge and Adobe program skills over the course of the year, this project has greatly improved my confidence on digital software so far and I enjoyed getting feedback and problem solving throughout.

I believe that my infographic takes standard information and presents it in a bright, fun and interesting way, hopefully meaning that the information is retained more easily and is enjoyable to view more than once. I have tried to implement the Disney 'Levels of Detail' throughout so viewers notice different small details each time (this includes the hidden Mickeys etc..). There were times when I was able to recognize that if I'd done something differently early on with my 3d model (like extrusions/smoothing/poly settings) then it wouldn't have hindered me so much later on in the project, this also goes for my 2D animation as all my graphics were on one layer when I could have tried to separate these out for ease of assembly. I could also have tried to construct more 3D elements to add in throughout the film, this may have helped them all to blend better with my 2D animation, I also wanted to look more at filters and settings within After Effects that could help me make my finished model pngs fit into the 2D animation more seamlessly (however improvements to my lighting techniques in Blender would also help this). I would like to develop my skills in Blender further and be able to create convincing 3D models with well-applied textures and lighting, I struggled most with the uv wrap (although I understood the procedure itself of flattening out the planes and adding the material) I had slight mismatches and gaps in the final model's image wrap. The lid also needed improvements as the tutorial I watched to create the can used slightly different source images for their lid and therefore the outcome wasn't exactly what I wanted. there wasn't a second part to this tutorial either for wrapping/texturing so I had to try and figure this out on my own/by asking my peers for tips. I'm really happy with using the animation window in Blender and although I hadn't used this before picked it up quickly and was even able to import a reference image in parts to help me align my 3d model. The keyframing was similar to that of After Effects and the active cameras controls weren't too complex so I was happy with how I was able to animate my objects and export the render confidently.

(Due to the volume of work I ended up uploading to Wix, the pages may need zooming out)

Progress Screenshots

When adding a light to the scene I would change the lighting settings to adjust radius of light, angle and brightness (in watts) to affect how the model was exposed to the light. I aim in future to implement studio style 3 point lighting for my models with a flat plane below to account for shadow placement. My favourite moon render is the bottom image as I feel it highlights the most detail on the model, similarly the bottom can image is also my favourite of those I tested.

Feedback from Teams Call for Evaluation (Including audio feedback):

Hand Drawn elements work well but could be bigger to show more detail
Consistent with Disney theme- castle and other elements recognizable
Flow could be improved - more cartoon and neatened up
good first go at 3D assets
Bright colours/palate choices and pastels
Text shows up as contrasts to background, easily readable
Use of animation cycles to extend sequence works well
Obvious difference between 3D and 2D elements could be changed/flattened into scene to be more consistent.
Rollercoaster scene works well even though it's hand drawn.

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/417e68e5-0b88-4d62-a757-9f783debeb93

(Full feedback stream link)