OUGD 202 SELF EVALUATION

BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN		LEVEL	05
Module Code	OUGD202
Module Title	DESIGN PRODUCTION - DIGITAL

END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION

NAME	SAM EDWARDS

What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them? Through out ougd202 there is no doubt that I have develop a wider range of skills in using after affect a programme I knew nothing of before the start of this module, from basic key frames to using the cameras and there dimensional forms of the programme, something that was completely foreign to be before the start of the module. I think at the start of the module with the silent movie brief, I grasped relatively well the fundamentals of after effects using key frames to create basic movements. However when you compare this to the ident for the top ten brief, you can see definante improvement as the module has developed. However like learning any new programme there is still a great deal to develop in terms of my application, and undoubtedly after effects as a programme is something I will continue to use. How successful have I been? I always found away to do what I want to do on after effects, even if it is not the quickest or most effective way of doing it. So in that sense successful, however there is always room for improvement. Since Starting this course on every end of module evaluation I have written I could improve my time management and I think for the first time, it has been improved on this module, I imagine this is down to the complexity of after effects, and giving myself more time to design and as a result develop ideas etc. however of course there is room for improvement still.
What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process? I have developed a more structured design production method with more time allocated for the design process itself, this is something that I will defiantly take forward into the next module. Story boarding has also unquestionably helped in the design process, it has allowed me to get my ideas down on paper, and give myself an idea of what the next stage was with moving on, as well as getting timings and alternative ideas down on paper, this is something that I have learnt this module that I will continue to use. Another approach i have began to pick up in this module is always trying find alternative ways of doing the same process, to find the best outcome, weather this be on he software using or at the development stage. I have also become increasingly more aware of the composition of things to increase legibility, and this is something I can take into any aspect of graphic design.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I think the legibility of my work is strengths, using different techniques such as opacity and colour to attract the reader to the most relevant fact. This is something that I will continue to develop in all aspects of future work. I also believe the colour schemes used in the films have been relevant to my chosen subject, and this has highlighted to me that colur is very important, in portraying a message. Something that in the last module a wrote as one of my weaknesses so this is an improvement. Simplicity is also a strength in my work I think, as in this kind of digital design, you do not want to over complicate a composition, as it is always about readability, so looking at simplistic design is something that I will continue to look at.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
The main weaknesses in my work I believe lie in the defining a target audience for the main 60 second clip, although I think it is appropriate now, it took me along time to define the target audience.. Which effected my design production somewhat. The blogging of the entirety of the project, was not consistent enough as a result I was left trying to catch up towards the end, where I could have been spending time elsewhere for example design context, which I think in this module needs some work. I feel I could of also done some more story boards, as I found that once I had an idea I would spend hours trying t make it work, and if I had other story boards with different ideas on them I perhaps would of moved on quick as I would of done an alternative idea. So more development of alternative idea is something that I will work on in the future.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
Time Management- I will blog on a more consistent basis, which I will allow me to spend more time on design production to hopefully improve my final outcome. Plan I will look at developing idea on paper first before jumping into the design stage, this will speed up my design process as well as improving final outcome and grade through development. I will also continue to develop the research stage through out the process, as soon as the design process began in this module I neglected the research, which also effects your design decision in a positive manner in terms of making informed decisions on colour etc for example. Design context of this module is something that could also be improved, taking influence from other designers is very important and allows you to come up with bigger and better ideas, and this is something that I will do more of next time as I can only improve my final resolutions. The last thing I would improve is the clarity of my story boards as if this for a client, the legibility of the design process may have been a little hazy, this kind of goes hand in hand with improving my hand rendering skills. This will help me in the future
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance				x
Punctuality				x
Motivation				x
Commitment				x
Quantity of work produced			x
Quality of work produced				x
Contribution to the group					x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

Packaging for DVD Hand In

Here is the net i have decided to use for the DVD packaging, i wanted to keep the packaging to simple, not to over complicate things.

It is a very simple net, and will simply fold into a a cd chase with the focal point being the front cover, however it will also allow two other visible areas to design on,  the choice of stock is also important as to getting the best out of the packaging a gsm that is to high will result in an inability to fold it. 

Package Design. 

I want the design to be simple, using simple geometric shapes similar to the ones i have used with the title sequence just to keep some visual constancy through out. i dont want the cd packaging to be be to type heavy either.  the designs for the packaging are shown below. 

My favourite of the three above is the last one DPRK stands for the democratic peoples republic of korea. I think this give a nice outcome having this set in the middle of an illustration i used for one of my info graphics, strong, interesting image, that would make people interested with what lies inside.

I am going to use this as the front cover.
the rest of the cd case is shown below.

above are the nets for print, i am going to print them double sided so it works as a cd case, the inside of the case will simple have the full title and the revers of the image on the front cover where as the back will just have my name and course code on it.

the photos of the complete case.

here are the photos, it is a simple package that if time was on my side would have more considered in terms of stock and the print process. however i am happy with the outcome.

Story Boards For Idents

Open publication - Free publishing - More board

The Story boards from the idents. 

***TItle Sequence Fifth 10 seconds***

5th ten seconds from Samantha Edwards on Vimeo.


Here you can see the penultimate ten second sequence before the end.. that was missed out from my initial uploads.. i used kinetic type, to portray perhaps the most hard hitting message to the wester world, which is playing on the human rights that westerners take for granted. that of having general human rights and freedom of speech.
The type used here was simple and was not over complicated which doesn't over complicate the message it is trying to portray. The cog like effect i have used here i think works well.. and allows clarity. It also allowed me to catch up with time lost.. as obviously using graphics takes up more time than just type, which is what was on the initial story boards. the use of opacity draws the eye to the important parts of the message at the right time which is why i think this section is successful.I have used red to really highlight the important areas of type, which undoubtedly works better than if the colours were inverted, using blue to highlight the important areas. this defiantly changes the tone of voice. the change in opacity to give the image of highlighting also works well in this case. makes people pay more attention.
The pacing of this movement  i think could be slightly improved before the final render. to be more in time with the music, however i do think it gives people enough time to read it. The transition between this and the next piece of graphics the bar graph.. is also helped by it just being a type based section as as soon as the type is off the screen the next graphic starts, which again allows me to catch up with time. The legibility is strong in this set of ten and timings good in terms of legibility and music.

Here you can see the story boards for this section of ten, again there is several that over lap in time, however in the section time is defiantly made up which is explained above. through out the process my story boards have been relatively simplistic, however i have found them very easy to follow.. especially with the help of annotation on them.. below is the key frames from this set of ten seconds.

Open publication - Free publishing - More keyframes

These are the key frames from the 5th sequence of ten comp.. the timing of this composition was very easy in terms of time and legibility using a second per fact, this allowed me to highlight well the information i was trying to hit home. i think it works well.. the transitions were also good on this section of the film. This is shown in the key frames with a smooth transition. It also allowed me to use the temp of the music well in the second half of the info graphics involved here. which increase with the music.
The second set of info graphics(bar graphs) will be the final one of the title sequences, not just due to the time constraints but also because the purpose of a title sequence is not give everything away.. after all it is the top ten fact on north korea according to a north korean. 

Ident 4

Ident 5 from sam edwards on Vimeo.

This ident i am focusing perhaps on the most shocking facts about north korea its military. With the largest military in the world in comparison to it population. Again i have used exactly the same techniques used as the previous ident as i think the composition and timings were working well in the previous one.
The choice of music however is something i have change using north korean marching song, to fit in with the military theme. The timings of this ident has allowed me to fit a third piece of information before the channel information at the end, this is just stating that north korea follows a stalinist dictatorship. which is shocking in itself as a result i have just highlighted in in red, the composition timings.  using the same technique as the previous to highlight.
despite the extra information in this ident, the legibility is not effect and this ident.
i am not entirely sure on the audio as a result this maybe altered before the final render.

here are the story boards for this ident, again like the previous ident i have kept the time allocated well. the colour scheme used through out, i think is strong, it fit in well with the film four and in context with north korea. the key frames below highlight this point.

Open publication - Free publishing - More four

Here are the key frames from this ident, like the previous it allows you to see the transition between frames and also highlight the strengths and weakness in the composition itself. i think it is the colours which have really allowed the legibility to be a strength, I think a the ident work well as set, it is obvious that they are all part of the same sow due to colour scheme and general typographic style the interesting facts have allowed me to really be very basic with in the design process, it was just a question of choosing a correct layout to portray the facts. well. i think these idents have been successful in communicating to my target audience and will cause intreats, i think the audio has helped me in creating an interesting final composition.

Ident 3

ident 3 from sam edwards on Vimeo.

Here you can see the third ident, for this ident i want to use the same ideology of simple and shocking. I have used a type writer effect which i have used in the main body of the title sequence this in my opinion gives the typography better flow, and readability. I content has defiantly began to focus more on on specific human rights instead of human rights issues as a whole, for example the execution fact if you make an international phone call.
I have also decided to use solid colour to highlight the text or the shocking part of the text to keep audience engagement, i think this is more successful than the other ident so far in terms of visuals. The block of red makes the on looker think danger etc.
really with these idents the facts speak for them selfs it requires very little designing.. and i am simply helping the facts speak for themselves.
The music again is playing on the censorship idea.
The transitions are simple but are effective.
I think the layout of the bbc four and title section is the strongest in this also. In terms of the composition layout i think it works well, with the focal point always being the red square. The track goes well the communication vibes again, especially this one as it is based around phone calls. the dead tone was appropriate.

Story Board

Here are the story boards for this composition, again they were incredibly easy to follow which sped up the design process considerably. I made very little alterations to the real thing, bar i sped up the transitions slightly, as this allowed me to spend more time with the film four logo as the focal point at the end. I think the date shortened down at the end is very important it allows the on looker to take in the whole piece of information in.

Key Frames.

Open publication - Free publishing - More ident3

Here are the key frames for the 3rd ident, it allows you to see the progression through the sequence. and for the first time you can see how the offset key frame work with with the opacity, it is this process that makes this ident more legible and better timed than the other, i think.
You can also see how the block red draws the eye of the on looker. This is also helped by the strong composition layout which puts the highlighted text in the focal point of the frame.
The title of the sequence is is advertising is also a better size and you can see this on the still frames.
for the next ident, i am going to look at changing the track choice a little, to a more north korea based idea, perhaps focusing on its military, which is north koreas biggest 'asset'.

Ident 2

ident 2 from sam edwards on Vimeo.

Here we can see the second ident, i have continued to use the simplistic type based info graphics. However i have taken this section from the title sequence or at least the premise for it i have changed the colour scheme for the more relevant north korean colours. To the relevant colours of film four, black and white. i do also thinks this adds a certain degree of sophistication and formality to a serve subject. or at least ads to a serve subject.   The timing i think works well in this video, with the opacity of the word increasing as it enters the main part of the frame draws the eye of the on looker.
The timing also works well. with the cog like effect of the type, leaving around a second for each bit to be read which works well. in terms of content i have kept it very similar to the previous, however i have added, the subject of the programme to the cog, as well as the time and date, and i think this is something that could be addressed the format i have put the date in. perhaps it should be more short hand.
Another slight issues that could be addressed with this is the size title underneath the film four logo. this could be highlight or increased in point size slightly.
I think the previous ident was more successful. the track i have chosen is again playing on the idea of censorship like the title sequence as well, at the start. the timing works well with this also.
again simplisitic and effective, however in terms of movement not so effective, i think for the next ident i am going to look at having the type typed out and develop it from there. Perhaps use a bolder colour, however i want them to all work as a set.

Story Boards.

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Like the last the story boards have allowed me to keep good time with what i allocated.. the simplistic nature of the animation also allows this to happen. i like the way the opacity works with this ident and that of the similar section in the full title sequence. the transitions are also strong between each letter with the stop start nature of the cog. i am not sure if this is a more effective way of arranging the type. 

The Key frames. 

Open publication - Free publishing - More ident2


here are the key frames from this is ident, it allows you to see the movement of the cog and how this works, i am not sure if its as effective as the previous ident. you can also she how the opacity works in highlighting and drawing attention to the relevant areas of text. i think the sophistication in colour scheme also seen here and how this works in promoting the severity of the issues addressed with in the ident.
A question i am beginning to ask myself is weather or not the tone of voice used in the ident is the same of that in the title sequence? however this is more about get the audience to watch the show so it perhaps need to shock to get attention. i the next ident i am going to progress the idea of shock, by picking up on different issues. 

Ident 1

Ident 1 from sam edwards on Vimeo.

This is the first of my Idents, the purpose of these ten seconds is to inform the audience of the programme and also entice them into watching the programme. It is this i had in mind when designing my indents. The target audience of this is the typical BBC four watcher, who admittedly, is over the age of 25-45 taking from the normal demographic. However the negative connotations that come with north korea, i am hoping to attract to a wider audience. And it is this i had in mind when designing the idents.. i wanted to almost shocker the watcher into being intrigued by playing on things that they take for granted, and that are social expectable in the west.
I have focused on looking at human rights specifically what i used in the title sequence that of no freedom of religion and no freedom of speech.
The style in which i wanted to achieve this was simple black background.. which is in context of film four. I have used White next, with a red highlight on the no. this makes the audience engaged. with the use of colour. i have used a simple mask to create the movement with the brackets, i have used the brackets as it gives a sense of formality to the piece.. somewhat like a serifed typeface would. however i kept the type face in conjunction with that of the title sequence. to keep the constancy.
 I  think the simplicity of the animation adds to the effectiveness of the serious of the topic. i think this is a successful ident,purely because of its uncomplicated simple movement. using simple animation to highlight a serious fact. The track i have chosen to use is based around the censorship that north korea has on its media, which interlinks with the no freedom vibe going through the ident.
The logo i have used is identical to the bbc four one which adds a certain sense of formality to the piece. perhaps in the next ident i could advertise the channel and the programme more, as perhaps it is to small in this piece.
story boards.

Due to the short nature of the ten seconds, i has been very easy to keep on track with the story board process, in terms of time. and i have followed the plan i have set for myself through out this process. And i think it has resulted in a positive outcome, using the colour scheme and time stated.

The Key frames.

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These are they frames from the first ident, it allows you to see the movement in sequence effectively. i also thinks it lets you see the how the colour effect the legibility, with the red, darwing your eye. i think i left the end of the title sequence enough time to be read also. along with the timing of each sentance. i will continue to develop this simple, but what i think is effective means of encouraging people to watch the programme. shocking and simple.

Story Boards For Title Sequence

Open publication - Free publishing - More storyboards

Here are the story boards used for the title sequence. i have put them into an issue document so you can see them togeather.

Complete Title Sequence

Final 60second Title Sequence from sam edwards on Vimeo.

I am going to briefly evaluate the title sequence. i must start by defining very broadly weather i believe the video has been successful as a title sequence.
The purpose of a title sequence is to lead on the the start of a production, giving people information or a idea of what that the production is a bout, this is something that the clip works in giving people a snap shot of the kind of facts that will be in the main film.
The next question that really needs to be asked is weather i think the clip has been appropriate to a target audience. A target audience that has changed since the start of the project. I think this really came about when i realised the facts that i was dealing with didn't need such a large a mount of satirical humour to make them interesting. As a result the target audience changed from the slightly tongue in cheek bbc3 to bbc4 the more highbrow channel. Although the satyrical humour is not lost in the clip, especially with the title, 'according to a north korean' there is a more serious nature to the facts being portrayed, so to some up do i think it has been a success in being appropriate for the target audience  but only because of change of direction taken early on.
From a design perspective there are certain things that i think have been more effective than others. As the composition developed i have highlighted these in previous posts. But as a general over view i think strength lies in the use of relevant colour, the transitions between the graphics themselves ,i think combined together, these help to create a relevant piece of work based at portraying shocking information with out diluting its message.
Other strengths may also include the choice of audio which at the start and end are based around the censorship the korean government have on the media, and the ironic wester track to accompany the info graphics, however i do believe the timing with the audio could have been better in places.
The type face used was another slightly ironic piece of design, using helvetica the global typeface, something that north korea defiantly are not.
If i look at the information graphics themselves, and analyse them as there own composition, do i think the work? yes i think they work in there simplistic form, of giving you the information, using relevant style colour etc. Are they the most inspiring info graphics? no, i think if the project i could develop further this is what i would change, and look at ways to perhaps get more complicated graphics in there, and maybe use more illustrations.
Certain things that i would also like to look at given more time, is creating so more perspective on the final outcome, more 3d angles etc, to create a more interesting outcome.
To sum up, i am pleased with the final outcome of the title sequence, and i think it is representative of the style of what i wanted to achieve and the style i want to portray of north korea.

Title Sequence Final Ten Seconds

final ten seconds from Samantha Edwards on Vimeo.

This was the simplest of all the ten second sequences, as really all that needed to be done was the type on the already animated bar graph along along with the very simple ending.
i have decided against the change in temp of the words, as this would of complicate the composition.
The colour scheme stays constant through out this composition i think enables a strong ending.
The Track change on the ending is representative of the plug being pulled, much like the internet dial tone at the start of the project, this represents the north korean telling the story saying to much. with a simple ending that more accurately perhaps gives the name of the programe. the leading on the last sentence may need altering slightly, to make it more readable.

here you can see the story boards that incorporate the final ten second sequence of the title sequence. This timing has final caught up from with the story boards, and left me just enough time to finish under the 60 second maximum. the key frames are shown below.

Open publication - Free publishing - More finalsequence

this is the conclusion to the the final sequence, by looking at the key frames you can see that i left 4 seconds at the end for the outro.. which is representative of the start playing on the idea of communication.. this is done so in this case by choice of sounds to match the simplistic outro which reinforces the title of the piece. the final piece of info graphics worked well is the beat of the music. And the timing in the penultimate section allowed for the timings to work well here also. i will now create the final composition and evaluate below.